Never had a break, hardly had a sprain, and in fact, only two times during my youth do I remember having a sports injury that actually kept me from competing in a game or meet.

When I was in sixth grade, I got hit on the inside of my right ankle by a pitch during Little League, but stayed in and caught the rest of the game. The next morning, my ankle was the size of a grapefruit and almost as colorful. But there were no broken bones, and within a week, I was walking with a slight limp.

In high school, I participated in the group stretches we’d have before track practices and meets, but like a lot of kids, I was usually just going through the motions.

I regretted that during a meet during indoor season my senior year, when, while running the last leg of a relay, I pulled my right hamstring and hobbled to the finish.

Since then, I always find the time to stretch, no matter what I’m doing. It’s the first and last thing I do at the gym, or when I go for a run.

I even stretch sometimes when I wake up in the morning. And I’m not talking the arms-in-the-air, yawning stretch. I mean a good stretch of my legs and back.

So I was shocked this week to read the following headline on The New York Times website – “Reasons not to stretch.”

The story sited two recent studies – one published in The Journal of Strength and Conditioning, the other from Croatia based on data published in The Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports – that support the growing belief that stretching before exercising is not needed and can be counterproductive.

For the Croatian study, researchers from the University of Zagreb, went through earlier studies of anyone who volunteered to do any physical activity and did a static stretch beforehand. What they found was that static stretching reduces a person’s strength by almost six percent in the muscles that were stretched.

The researchers suggested instead to begin with a dynamic warmup, and move the muscles that are going to be used in a workout, rather than stretching them.

In the other study, those researchers found that after static stretching, volunteers who then did standard squats with barbells lifted a little more than eight percent less weight than when they didn’t stretch. They also felt unbalanced and less stable while lifting after having stretched.

It’s all interesting information, but does it mean I’m not going to stretch before my next workout or run? Not a chance.

In my own studies of myself, I feel like I have a harder time exercising when I don’t stretch, but that’s just me. And you should do what you feel is best for your workout.

Joe Marchilena writes a weekly fitness column for Hampshire Hills. To find out more information about the “90 Day Commit to Get Fit” program, call 603-673-7123 or e-mail hhinfo@hampshirehills.com.

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