My high school coach told me never to stretch before running

Back in 2009, my track coach said stretching before practice was a waste of time and would actually slow me down. I pulled my hamstring twice that season and still stuck to his advice because he seemed so sure. Did anyone else grow up believing something about fitness that turned out to be completely backward?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_olivia22d ago

Jump right into this one by saying a lot of those old school coaches were just repeating what they heard from the 70s. I mean yeah, static stretching before a sprint might not be great, but not stretching at all and then blaming the runner when they get hurt sounds like a cop out to me. Honestly, unless you were doing some serious high level stuff, pulling a hamstring twice is probably more on the coach than on you.

the_rowan22d ago

A buddy of mine from college had a cross country coach who swore by doing twenty toe touches right before a race. He ended up with a chronic hip issue that took two years to fix. Physical therapist finally told him those toe touches were basically yanking on a cold rubber band every single day. @the_olivia is right about coaches just repeating outdated stuff. My friend dropped that coach after one season and his hip finally started healing. Sometimes you have to trust your own body over someone who's been saying the same thing since the 1970s.