Reducing risk of injury due to exercise
BMJ 2002; 325 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.325.7362.451 (Published 31 August 2002) Cite this as: BMJ 2002;325:451
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D. Shields and L. Piechowski should have stretched their hands a few
times before rushing on their keyboards.MacAuley and Best's paper does not
bury the warm-up habit, but only stretching. I'm curious about what
scientific study of warm-up would indicate.
Competing interests: No competing interests
I enjoyed and welcomed your editorial (and the accompanying article).
I do hope the evidence continues to support your conclusion since that
would offer a way to streamline the exercise routine, where generally I
keep finding more things I'm supposed to add! I presume the situation
would be different regarding muscles & tendons that have previously
been injured, or even just severely neglected. Future research might
differentiate among populations based on fitness, age, firmity, etc. And
then too, there are other benefits to stretching on a regular basis (in
contrast to "warming up" before exercise)....
Competing interests: No competing interests
I have followed this story as it has emerged, it first came to my
attention via the Independent some years ago where tests were done by The
University of Sydney and Charles Sturt University on the Australian army.
Its really astonishing to notice how annoyed people if they are
relayed this information.
In my amateur football career I noticed that "warming up" was
considered a universal good, but it never did anything at all for me, so I
never did it. The only injuries I sustained were due to contact.
I recall the West ham United manager Harry Redknapp observing that
the players who had no truck with warming up seemed to be the same players
who very rarely reported strain injuries.
Competing interests: No competing interests
Excellent stimulating paper . As a now aging athelete who has
migrated through Martial Arts (Karate Black Belt ) Bodybuilding ,
Triatholons and Half Marathon running with only one pulled calf muscle
ever to have slowed me up , I was really pleased to read of the dubious
value of the 'warm up ' I abandoned what seemed a ritual based on nothing
at all, at a very early stage .I always found it more efficient to get
going but 'plug your common sense in' during the initial period of effort.
Thanks for this work, look foreward to reading more .
Competing interests: No competing interests
What is evidence?
Sir,
Maybe clinical research evidence is showing what the article states.
Nevertheless, in the mainstream of a move towards more evidence-based
medicine, things could be seen otherwise.
Mine as well as others' day-to-day experience (and evidence) is that
stretching does work -e.g. in golf. Authors can insert in their articles a
lot of beautiful graphics. Life is nevertheless more evident than graphics
and laboratories. Despite lab evidence, coffee helps me a lot in sleeping
well, for instance.
But we ought in the future, perhaps, believe what we read - not what
we experience ourselves.
Best regards
Re: Music to my ears
I thought we were speaking the same language. There is a confusion : Warm-up vs. stretching! (Very) different things, though. Please, be more accurate in responding, even if it is a matter of "rapid" responses.
Again, stretching pays. (Perhaps some authority could give to all of us a good definition of both
terms...)
But we ought in the future, perhaps, believe what we read - not what
we experience ourselves.
Competing interests: No competing interests