JOURNAL OF SPORTS SCIENCE & MEDICINE

Research article

SHORT DURATIONS OF STATIC STRETCHING WHEN COMBINED WITH DYNAMIC STRETCHING DO NOT IMPAIR REPEATED SPRINTS AND AGILITY

Del P. Wong1, Anis Chaouachi2, Patrick W.C. Lau3 and David G. Behm4

1Department of Health and Physical Education, The Hong Kong Institute of Education, Hong Kong, 2Tunisian Research Laboratory "Sport Performance Optimisation", National Center of Medicine and Science in Sports, Tunis, Tunisia, 3Department of Physical Education, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong, 4School of Human Kinetics and Recreation, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's Newfoundland, Canada, A1M 3L8.

Received   25 February 2010 Accepted   10 May 2011 Published   01 June 2011

© Journal of Sports Science and Medicine (2011) 10, 408 - 416

ABSTRACT

This study aimed to compare the effect of different static stretching durations followed by dynamic stretching on repeated sprint ability (RSA) and change of direction (COD). Twenty-five participants performed the RSA and COD tests in a randomized order. After a 5 min aerobic warm up, participants performed one of the three static stretching protocols of 30 s, 60 s or 90 s total duration (3 stretches x 10 s, 20 s or 30 s). Three dynamic stretching exercises of 30 s duration were then performed (90 s total). Sit-and-reach flexibility tests were conducted before the aerobic warm up, after the combined static and dynamic stretching, and post- RSA/COD test. The duration of static stretching had a positive effect on flexibility with 36.3% and 85.6% greater sit-and-reach scores with the 60 s and 90 s static stretching conditions respectively than with the 30 s condition (p < 0.001). However there were no significant differences in RSA and COD performance between the 3 stretching conditions. The lack of change in RSA and COD might be attributed to a counterbalancing of static and dynamic stretching effects. Furthermore, the short duration (< 90 s) static stretching may not have provided sufficient stimulus to elicit performance impairments. Key words: Flexibility, agility, running, stretch duration, stretch intensity.

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