Stretching and 🚻gender differences

tretching is commonly used to improve performance (2,49,51,52) and reduce the risk of injury (5,18,47) before athletic events. It has been suggested that stretching will decrease the amount of strain through a range of motion (ROM), thereby reducing the risk of injury (12,44,53). A stiffer musculotendinous unit (MTU) is thought to better withstand large and rapid forces better than a compliant system, thus reducing the likelihood of injury (9,20,29,35). However, there is little evidence to support the relationship between increased flexibility and reduced incidence of injury (25,26,54,55). Yet, a recent study by Shehab et al. (48) found that stretching routines are still performed by high-school athletes as an injury prevention strategy. In addition, there is little research indicating that stretching improves performance. An acute bout of static stretching has been found to reduce muscle strength (14,22) and power (11), impair balance (3), and increase movement and reaction times (3). In addition, a study by Nelson and Kokkonen (37) asked subjects before testing whether stretching would have a beneficial or detrimental outcome, and all subjects believed that an acute bout of stretching would result in better performance. However, because of the limited evidence supporting stretching before competition, the President's Council for Physical Fitness and Sports released a statement concluding that stretching may not prevent injury and may also compromise performance (27). Despite the discrepancy between knowledge and practice, stretching is still a major component of preactivity warm-up routines, and therefore, additional research is necessary to determine the precise effects of stretching on injury prevention.