Good news for those who don’t enjoy “pushing a stretch.” Many people think that stretching at an intensity of “8” on a scale of 1–10 is an effective way to enhance flexibility. New research shows otherwise. For increasing active and passive ranges of motion, it seems that conventional stretching is no more effective than either strengthening agonist muscles or decreasing resistance of antagonist muscles through low- intensity stretching.
In a randomized, controlled trial, researchers compared a group of dancers who practiced typical level-8 stretching with a strengthening-protocol group and with a low-intensity level-3 stretching group. Stretches lasted about 1 minute each for both stretching groups. Data analysis showed that all three methods achieved similar improvements. The study appeared in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research (2013; 27 , 3053–59).