Does stretching make you weaker? New meta-analysis 
A new meta-analysis of 14 studies found that the addition of stretching to weight training programs reduced strength development.
Technically, the effect was not statistically significant in the main analysis but became significant when including all literature regardless of quality. The negative effect of stretching also became significantly greater with time.
The reduced strength development was virtually entirely attributable to studies on pre-workout static stretching. Dynamic stretching or stretching in general at any other time point did not have a negative effect.
Static stretching during your warm-up can interfere with strength development by telling the muscle to relax when it should in fact be active. Static stretching can reduce motoneuron excitability in addition to muscle and tendon stiffness.
Thereby, static stretching has been found to reduce muscle force production, activation, power output and consequently strength and total work output during training.
You don’t have to be completely paranoid about static stretching pre-workout though if you need to do it to, for example, get your wrists under the bar for front squats or stretch your shoulders a bit to get a narrower grip for back squats.
As long as you keep the static stretching duration short and the intensity very low, it won’t hurt your performance or gains.
Then again, for most people I also see no point in stretching. Stretching basically just makes you better at stretching.
It doesn't improve your health, doesn't reduce injuries, doesn't enhance recovery and it doesn't teach you to squat to depth. Full ROM strength training is all the stretching most people need.
#MennoHenselmans #Bodybuilding #StrengthTraining #SportsScience
#MennoHenselmans #Bodybuilding #StrengthTraining #SportsScience
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