I know a women who insists on these crazy Yoga stretches. She stays injured a great deal of the time. The more you stretch, the looser those muscles/ligaments/tendons get and the less well your joints are kept together and the more prone one becomes to injury. I rarely, very rarely, get injured, yet I've stressed myself to the extreme on a regular basis for nearly 40 years. Stretching is a fad.
Al
Here is an excerpt of an article from:
http://www.naturaltherapypages.com.a...cle/stretching
"Which brings us back to our original question of what happens to the body when we do all this stretching over a long period of time, the answer is many things:
Firstly as the connective tissue at the joint is the weakest point along the line we end up stretching the ligament, the small fibrous tissues that plays an important role in the support of the joint against dislocation and excessive, incorrect movement. Over time this constant stretching of a ligament causes it to stretch and become loose and weakened, making the joint hyper mobile and changing the important relationship that ligament has with muscles that also support that joint.
As we know from the science books a stretched loose ligament stays that way and doesn’t return to its original length even after a long time has passed, especially if it is continually being stretched.
As a result the person doing the stretching feels looser and they are, in the joint, but that only makes them more susceptible to injury’s like dislocation or more serious joint or ligament damage. A hyper mobile joint might work well in ballet or for martial arts kicks but it is not a good thing for a person involved in sports such as basketball, soccer, football, netball, or any activity involving body contact or where they are changing direction quickly."
And:
http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/ar...5/Feature1.asp
"May 5, 2004
Now, research suggests that stretching may not do your body as much good as people thought. After reviewing more than 350 scientific studies, researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that stretching may not reduce the chance of injury.
"There's insufficient evidence to demonstrate that stretching is effective," says Stephen Thacker. He's director of the CDC's epidemiology program in Atlanta, Ga.
Athletic performance
If it's athletic performance you're after, don't expect stretching to help you run faster, jump higher, or throw a ball farther, either. Some studies show that stretching may actually slow you down, especially if you do it before you play your sport.
To top it off, it now looks as if stretching may actually make you even more likely to get hurt, says Stacy Ingraham.
Ingraham is an exercise physiologist at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. Her research focuses on injuries in women and girls, who tend to hurt their muscles and joints more often than men do.
"Certain athletes stretch all the time," Ingraham says. "They're the ones who usually get hurt." "