Does stretching prevent injury?
Not overall: static stretching has no clear effect on injury rates, and long holds just before training briefly cost a little strength and power.
Holds under 60 seconds per muscle barely affect performance, especially when followed by a dynamic warm-up, and there may be a small benefit against muscle strains in sprinting sports. Strength training is what reliably lowers injury rates.
Warm up with light sets of the movement you are about to do. If you want more range of motion, stretch after training or on separate days; that does work, it just is not injury prevention.
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- Behm, D.G. & Chaouachi, A. (2011). A review of the acute effects of static and dynamic stretching on performance. Eur J Appl Physiol 111(11). Reviews both stretching types; static stretching before training reduced subsequent force output.
- Behm, D.G. et al. (2016). Acute effects of muscle stretching on physical performance, range of motion, and injury incidence in healthy active individuals: a systematic review. Appl Physiol Nutr Metab 41(1). Static stretching: −3.7% performance on average, −4.6% with 60 s or more per muscle, −1.1% with less; no clear effect on all-cause or overuse injuries.
- Herbert, R.D. et al. (2011). Stretching to prevent or reduce muscle soreness after exercise. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. Effects on soreness were negligible.
- Lauersen, J.B. et al. (2014). The effectiveness of exercise interventions to prevent sports injuries: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials. Br J Sports Med 48(11). Strength training cut sports injuries to less than a third; stretching showed no benefit.