UKC

I enjoy running. I don't enjoy stretching.

I tend to come top 3 in local fell races and aim to improve so that I am challenging for the high places in bigger races next year.

Can anyone convince me that it is worth my bother swinging my arms around and doing lunges, or do I just stand at the side in a bit of a grump and let eveyone else prance about at training sessions?

In reply to ablackett: The evidence is really weak that stretching improves performance.. I think it helps keep you injury free which indirectly helps performance... but there is some evidence that too much flexibility reduces stability and increases injury risk..

In reply to ablackett: Take up Yoga. It makes stretching more interesting and really helps with balance and core strength which benefits climbing and other sports too.

In reply to ablackett: Quite interesting: http://sweatscience.com/stretching-doesnt-prevent-or-reduce-muscle-soreness...

In reply to Justaname: See my OP, I don't enjoy stretching, yoga is in the same bracket for me, hence I don't want to do it, unless someone can convince me it is a great idea.

In reply to ablackett:

To be honest, you're better off spending time on other recovery practices. If stretching doesnt float your boat, then nothing anyone says is going to convince you to do it. (do you need more flexibility anyway? would that benefit you as a runner?)

The main way in which it might help is to increase stride length etc, however, if you are training lots, as I say, a decent amount of recovery stuff is going to reap you more benefits than stretching.

In reply to ablackett:

I agree with Iain in that stretching generally helps keep you injury free which indirectly helps performance. In my own experience, it becomes more important as you get older, as the muscles recover less quickly from exertion. My glutes and hamstrings seize up very quickly after hard effort these days unless I do a good daily (ideally) 45 minute stretching session to release the tension. If I can keep the muscles loose then hard effort seems easier and I can keep going for longer.

You mention that you are wanting to achieve high places in bigger races next year? I don't know whether you currently do any kind of warm up (10-15 mins of jogging for instance?) before a race start, but if you don't then it is worth building it into your race plan. If you start a race with muscles that are not cold then you should expect a better performance.

In reply to ablackett:

I've started doing this before each run and it's making a difference: http://strengthrunning.com/2011/07/the-standard-warm-up-video-demonstration...

You may be young though and very flexible, but I can tell you that as you get older then little routine flexibility and warm-up routines, even before easy runs, really help you stay injury free.

In reply to chopin-smith:

If the op is worried about "prancing around" at the start of a fell race then I don't think he'll go for those ! perhaps best left for a training run from home