Originally Posted by
Clyde1820
True enough, stretching a cold muscle doesn't offer nearly the benefits of a warmed-up muscle.
As for not helping, I did several years of serious performance middle-distance running, a few decades ago. We had a group of nearly ten runners who occasionally cramped up, on our runs. Most of us began a much more serious regimen of stretching during and after runs, becoming more flexible, ending up with better range of motion. During which time our performance improved and our incidence of injuries and cramps went down to near zero (among the group). Certainly isn't a scientific study, no. You've got me there. But the difference was such a welcome surprise to the group, given very little changed otherwise. Similar training, similar routes, similar nutrition. The only big thing altered was: the stretching.
Can't say whether it'd help other folks. It did with us. Simply said it was something to consider.
YMMV, as always.
There's enough threads arguing back and forth about stretching that I don't really want to go there again. I will say only that scientific attempts to find a connection between stretching and cramps have not shown there to be a connection, nor have they shown any effect on range of motion. There appears to be a slight increase in flexibility, which is not the same thing as range of motion, and is of questionable usefulness.
I have tried stretching in the past, and have found that if it does anything to me, it is not good. I am not a very flexible person (that's actually determined genetically), so it's just completely unnatural for me.
I take the position that if it feels good to you, keep doing it, but if it doesn't, that's your body telling you it's not a good idea. People vary so much in their natural flexibility that it wouldn't surprise me at all if it turned out it actually does help some people and harm or at least not help others.