Originally Posted by arcellus
as far as my "too much flexibilty can cause injury" claim, i don't remember the source. it was mostly pertaining to distance running, though. as in, extra flexibility means extra motion in the joints, which can lead to inflammation. not pulls or sprains, mostly the repetitive stress type of thing.
Extra motion in the joints shouldn't be a problem unless it is not in the direction that it is intended to move, or else far more motion than it is used to. Flexibility increases your ability to use the muscle you already have, whether by increasing your stride length (running) or using different muscle groups (cycling).
Originally Posted by arcellus
i've been training for a marathon and found early on that extra motion in my hips caused some serious pain. i quit doing really intense stretches and went back to more of a "loosening up" type of routine, and suddenly no more pain. i hear lots of runners talking about this, trying to lose a bit of lower body flexibility.
"Intense" stretching is bad. If it hurts, you are going to far. And, if you stretch too far, the muscle can have a reflexive tendency to lose flexibility, making the stretch counter to its intent. I've been running competitively for 9 years, and that's one of the things that every coach who's worth his salt has told us.
Increasing flexibility and litheness are two reasons that American distance runners have been slowly getting more competitive on an international scale. In the 80's and 90's, the focus was on just working yourself to death, since it worked in the 70's. Stretching helps.