The pros and cons of stretching

Editor's note: Adam Rees is Founder of GRIT GYM, a gym based on results, creating a culture and lifestyle of performance, strength, health and freedom. This is the first of a two-part series on stretching.

Does everyone need to stretch? Is more flexibility always better? Should I stretch before and after my workout? Doesn't static stretching make you weaker and more prone to injury?

Go to your local bookstore or do a quick web search and you'll see these topics covered in totality and yet the answers still are not clear.

Fifteen years ago, what you're about to read would have been met with absolute agreement. Eight years ago, you'd have to be careful which circles you spoke up about it. Today, it's like politics, just leave it alone unless you're with your friends, and even then ... who knows.

I could get labeled as a bit of a heretic by saying you should do static stretching. It's been shown in studies time and time again that static stretching decreases the entire purpose of strength/power/speed training and what makes us able to move — force production decreases after we perform static stretching. It is not everything we wanted it to be back in the day. However, static stretching has not been the devil the world has made it out to be.

There is a gross misunderstanding afoot here.

For instance, what constitutes static stretching? This isn't something that has been clearly defined. There are plenty of professional who would call any hold of 10 seconds or more to be considered 'static' and there are plenty who wouldn't consider the minutes held in yoga poses to be considered 'stretching.'

So where's the line?

It's really not all that complicated. The whole decrease of force production doesn't seem to happen in most people until after a 50-second hold. Not to mention the whole con (decrease in force production) and pro (tissue health and recovery) can be satisfied by holding stretches at the end of the workout and moving through stretches at the beginning.

Of course, just like about anything with the human body, stretching is quite a rabbit hole. For the sake of sanity, though, let us handle the PNF (proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation), breathing and flossing techniques.

But there are people who do not need to stretch. These are people who already are very flexible. These are people who already have a lot of laxity in their body and don't need more stretching. For instance, the female body is typically more flexible. Men typically need to stretch more. This is not ironclad, only typically.

Static stretching is definitely beneficial post workout. We will go through a series of stretches next week that will benefit the majority of the population.

• Contact Adam Rees at Adam@GritGym.com