http://bmj.com/cgi/content/abstract/325/7362/468
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 Collections under
which this article appears: Randomized
Controlled Trials: examples Physiotherapy
Other
sports and exercise medicine Musculoskeletal
syndromes (including chronic fatigue and Gulf war syndromes)
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Rob D Herbert
School of Physiotherapy, University of Sydney, PO Box 170, Lidcombe, New South Wales 1825, Australia
Correspondence to: R D Herbert
R.Herbert@fhs.usyd.edu.au
Objective: To determine the effects of stretching before
and after exercising on muscle soreness after exercise, risk of
injury, and athletic performance.
Method: Systematic review.
Data sources: Randomised or quasi-randomised studies identified
by searching Medline, Embase, CINAHL, SPORTDiscus, and PEDro,
and by recursive checking of bibliographies.
Main outcome measures: Muscle soreness, incidence of injury, athletic
performance.
Results: Five studies, all of moderate quality, reported
sufficient data on the effects of stretching on muscle soreness to be
included in the analysis. Outcomes seemed homogeneous. Stretching
produced small and statistically non-significant reductions in muscle
soreness. The pooled estimate of reduction in muscle soreness
24 hours after exercising was only 0.9 mm on a 100 mm scale (95%
confidence interval 
2.6 mm to
4.4 mm). Data from two studies on army recruits in military training
show that muscle stretching before exercising does not produce useful
reductions in injury risk (pooled hazard ratio 0.95, 0.78 to 1.16).
Conclusions: Stretching before or after exercising does not
confer protection from muscle soreness. Stretching before exercising
does not seem to confer a practically useful reduction in the risk of
injury, but the generality of this finding needs testing.
Insufficient research has been done with which to determine the
effects of stretching on sporting performance.
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What is already known on this topic The literature on effects of stretching before and after exercising on muscle soreness and risk of injury has not been systematically reviewed What this study adds |
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