Could the negative effects of static stretching in warm-up be balanced out by sport-specific exercise?

Static stretching (SS) is widely used in warm-up as it is generally believed to increase mobility and reduce the risk of injury; however, SS has been shown to induce transient negative effects on subsequent muscle performance. Interestingly, recent studies have shown that sport-specific exercise could restore SS-induced negative effects on certain sports, especially of explosive muscular performance. Whether sport-specific exercise could restore SS-induced negative effects on isokinetic muscle performance remains unclear.

The present study conducted two different warm-ups: 2-component warm-up and 3-component warm-up on 15 university students. Both protocols contained low intensity aerobic exercise and sport-specific exercise, whereas the 3-component warm-up also contained SS which has been previously proven to induce negative effects on subsequent muscle performance. After the warm-ups, the subjects performed an isokinetic test on a Biodex. In order to make the sport-specific exercise mimic the subsequent test, both included concentric isokinetic knee extension. During the tests, muscle performance of peak torque, mean power, and total work was recorded. Comparison of the measurements on each parameter between the two warm-ups was performed using paired t-test.

The comparisons did not reveal any significant difference in the measurement of any parameter between the two different warm-up protocols, and calculation of Cohen's d revealed small effect sizes on all of the three variables.

On the basis of the study results, we concluded that the negative effects of the SS on the variables were restored by the isokinetic contractions.