Why I Don’t Stretch my Calves.

When I tell my patients about this, I say it slightly differently. The conversation usually goes something like this:

Me: I am completing an experiment, I am not going to stretch my calves and then see how that pans out over time.

Patient: How is that experiment going?

Me: Quite good actually, it has been going so well that I have had to extend the experiment.

Patient: How long have you been doing this experiment?

Me: In total, 10 years.

Which is normally followed by a couple of seconds of silence. The look on the patient's face is normally an expression which I correlate to the brain processing information.

Stretching has a dogma associated with it. Like most dogmas it has a story associated with it. The story is a story of hope. Hope that stretching helps avoid tightness and injury. Hope that stretching can aid our performance.

I believe that the evidence is actually for the opposite.

Let me try to explain.

A study that summarised the current literature by Baxter et al (2017), showed that elite runners were less flexible than their non-elite counterparts.

In another study (Posthumus et al, 2011) researchers genetically tested a group of runners. The group that had a gene known as the “inflexibility gene” (COL5A1), had a more economical running movement on testing.

Gleim et al (1990), found a similar result. In this study a group of untrained runners with the lowest flexibility had the most economical running action.

I could go on with more studies to demonstrate these ideas. However, this information alone should start to us to challenge the idea that stretching helps running performance. In fact it may be having the exact opposite effect.

Does stretching reduce injury or injury risk?

The above Baxter paper which summarised the current research, showed acute stretching had no effects on injury incidence in an endurance running population.

Does stretching reduce DOMS (delayed onset of muscle soreness)?

Again, the Baxter study showed that the current research does not support this. It showed that the intensity of exercise vs the current level of relevant fitness is a far greater predictor of the level of soreness post exercise, not whether you stretch or not.

Like all pieces of research like this, you have to take a step back and take the recommendations with a pinch of salt.

The way I try to surmise this information is that your body needs a functional range of motion at each body segment.

In the running action if we zoom in to the ankle, that the actual movement that is required is actually quite small. When you view this on video you may actually be surprised with how little movement occurs. See below.

If you don't have that available ROM then we need to get it somehow. (Stretching might be part of that solution..)

Your subconscious, your protector

But if you do have that ROM, I believe the evidence supports the idea that you need to stiffen up that segment to help with the dynamic movement of landing (then bouncing up again). If you can't control that stiffness, i.e. to turn the muscle on and off at the appropriate time in the running movement, then the brain comes along and overrides to help protect the structures. It creates the increased tone (muscle contraction) in the muscle permanently. It wants to have stiffness in the most vulnerable time.

It also creates stiffness to make the movement more economical. Win, Win. Except for the constant tightness in your calves…. Hence, if you can't control, your body just stiffens up the calf muscle all the time.

Are you then stretching out a muscle to override that protective mechanism? You may actually be doing the opposite of what the subconscious brain is trying to do.

I personally do not stretch my calf muscles. If I get stiffness in the muscle, I actually turn around to myself and embrace that process.

I say “Well done, good on you calves.”

Next I ask myself, whether I can control that movement better, to change that constant tightness? Or, is everything getting near it’s functional capacity for that session, hence I need to start wrapping up that session?

Running is a skill that can be taught.

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