Is stretching really necessary?

Stretching is the stretching of the muscles and not the tendons. In other words, by stretching you make your muscles (back) longer and less stiff. This is helpful as your muscles tend to shorten with exercise, which can increase injury susceptibility.

Stretching can be performed either with exercise or as a separate activity. Stretching is preferably carried out after the sporting activity, as part of the cool-down. Rather, this shape serves to reduce the adverse aspects of sporting effort, not to improve agility.

Stretching during the warm-up is less recommended because stretching exercises immediately preceding exercise could negatively affect performance. Stretching is classically divided into static and dynamic stretching exercises.

In static stretching, a muscle is gradually stretched to its maximum length (without causing pain!) and held in this position for a short period of time. This exercise is performed without any other movement.

With dynamic stretching, on the other hand, the exercise is performed moving. Examples of dynamic stretching exercises are swinging movements of the arms and legs and rotating the joints. The type of stretching exercise (static versus dynamic), the length of stretching and the muscle groups that are addressed depend on, among other things, the sport discipline and the muscles used.

Whether or not to stretch does not depend on age, height, weight, current condition or any previous injuries. Contrary to what is sometimes claimed, correct stretching is not dangerous. Stretching is also not detrimental to your sports performance as long as you do not do it once. It should be done consistently after each exercise effort, and even better, daily as part of an agility program.