Stretching for Athletic Performance and Injury Prevention: worth it, or a waste of time?

Welcome to Episode 6 of the Perform Prevent Recover Podcast series and in this episode we take a look at the topic that probably has the most controversy surrounding it in the sports world - stretching! Stretching has been around for decades, and has always formed just an accepted component of the athlete's world, be it as part of a warm up, or warm down, or part of the training program to help increase flexibility. But so many questions are now being asked of stretching: Does it work? Can we actually increase flexibility with stretching? Do we even need more flexibility? Is there any potential harm in stretching? This podcast delves deep into the purpose and goals that so many people give when justifying why they stretch, including: 1. Stretching to increase flexibility 2. Stretching to warm up 3. Stretching for injury prevention 4. Stretching to prevent exercise soreness 5. Stretching to treat and manage injuries 6. Stretching for performance enhancement 7. Stretching for muscle tightness and trigger points 8. Stretching to feel good We will go through each and every one of these reasons, explain the research and evidence available to us, and give you all some food for thought regarding stretching in sport. By the end of it, any of you that do a lot of stretching, may just find you can free up a lot of time for other more important and more beneficial performance enhancers!