The Hidden Gem Of Static Stretching And How You May Be Missing Out

Introduction

While mobility is often discussed and addressed in the athletic community, it is rarely included in day-to-day training programs. Despite its importance in improving movement, preventing injury, and enhancing overall performance, many people either fail to make it a regular part of their training routine, or attempt to include it but have no idea how.

The problem with lack of focus on mobility

This lack of focus and understanding on mobility can be detrimental to overall performance in the long term. In my last blog post, "Navigating the Noise: How to Stay Informed and Avoid Hype in the Strength and Conditioning World," I talked about how trends in the sports performance field can be detrimental if not approached carefully; mobility and static stretching, I believe, is one of those cases.

The debate on static stretching

Static stretching has been through the trenches to say the least. A once undisputed warm-up/mobility protocol was quickly flipped on its back and left in the dust, and for rather justified reasons. Many studies came out highlighting a decrease in strength, power, and explosive performance following static stretching. A meta-analysis of 104 studies covering this topic can be found here. The results were independent of age, gender, and fitness level, but were related to the total duration of the stretching. Now, given these results, it would be silly to continue to incorporate static stretching into an athlete's training regimen considering the disruption to power output it causes, right? It seems this is what much of the athletic performance sector has adopted as truth. I think there's more to it.

The potential benefits of static stretching

While I'm not arguing the research of decreased output directly after static stretching, I am acknowledging that there is also research (one study found here) that justifies static stretching as an effective method of improving joint range of motion for a period of time directly after the stretch. I am also acknowledging the idea that loading a joint or tissue through a new-found range of motion is one of the best ways to create new mobility over a longer time horizon. Kinstretch and Functional Range Conditioning have made this very clear through PAILS and RAILS, which you can learn more about here. This is information that I believe is often either overlooked, or too confusing or risky to implement into an actual strength and conditioning setting from a return on time invested standpoint.

Incorporating static stretching for mobility into training

So, how do you go about utilizing these concepts on a day to day basis? First off, it's important to recognize what season you are in and what the goal of your current programming is. We double down on this early in the off-season when moving fast is not the athlete's main priority. In a work capacity or foundational phase, we work our main lifts between 50-65%, add an eccentric tempo, do them for 6+ reps, and gradually progress time under tension. By super-setting these with a static stretch that targets the range of motion limiter of that lift, we are able to adopt an alternative solution similar to the PAILS and RAILS ideology within our rest periods, without adding any time to the total duration of the athlete's session. We are also able to trust that this new range of motion is being immediately loaded appropriately at low percentages under tempo, our time spent stretching is not wasted, and we are not taking a hit from the decrease in strength and power, as that is not our goal in this season. Consistently done for 4-6 weeks, we are able to build a nice foundation to progress on throughout the year.

Conclusion

I think the hole in the sports performance field comes when people look at research that highlights the short-term effect of static stretching alone, and take it as a long-term result. The truth is, by taking a small hit to strength and power output in training sessions in the short-term in order to gain mobility that is going to later aid the athlete in getting into better positions to more appropriately exert force, we are able to raise their ceiling for greater power output in the long term. In conclusion, the key to incorporating mobility and static stretching into training programs is to understand the potential benefits and drawbacks, and to approach it with a strategic plan that aligns with the athlete's goals and the current phase of training.