Aims: 

Pre exercise static stretching is said to reduce post exercise muscle soreness. The purpose of this study was to test this hypothesis.

Methods: 

Twelve female and eight male students aged 30.7 ± 1.4 years (mean ± sd) from the National Training Centre, Dublin, took part in the investigation. Pre exercise, each subject had one of their legs randomly assigned to a stretched leg group (SL group; n = 20) which performed 4 × 20second static stretches, while their other leg acted as control in a non stretched leg group (NSL group; n = 20). Following a 15-minute warm up (treadmill and 5 sub maximal eccentric muscle contractions), subjects performed 5 sets of 15 maximal voluntary eccentric muscle contractions, with a one-minute rest between sets, on a seated leg curl machine. Rated soreness was evaluated pre exercise and 24, 48 and 72 hours post exercise on a visual analogue scale (VAS), which ranged from 0 (no pain) to 10 (worst pain ever).

Results: 

There was significant muscle soreness (p < 0.05) compared with the baseline for all groups (peak 48hours) however the reduction in soreness seen in the test group was not significant at the three time points: VAS at 24 hours SL group = 4.70 ± 1.17, NSL group = 4.95 ± 1.19 (reduction=5.05%), 48 hours SL group =5.85 ± 1.42, NSL group = 6.10 ± 1.33 (reduction=4.1%) and 72 hours SL group =3.35 ± 1.23, NSL group = 3.45 ± 1.39 (reduction=2.9%).

Conclusion: 

Pre exercise static stretching does not provide significant protection from post exercise muscle soreness if a warm up period is used.