Stretching for runners: does it prevent injuries?

In the big trials, stretching did not clearly prevent injuries, and it changed next-day soreness only a little. In strength and sprint tests, a short stretch costs next to nothing. Holding each muscle for a minute or more just before makes you a little weaker for a while. Before a run, the answer is still open. Weeks of stretching do make you more flexible, mostly because you tolerate the stretch better, and in the two small trials that checked, running economy did not change.

No fewer injuries overall. In 1,538 recruits there were 158 injuries among the 735 who stretched and 175 among the 803 who did not: about 22 in 100 either way. A trial in 2,377 active adults found the same.
Soreness changes little. About a point on a 100-point scale in lab studies; in one large trial, fewer weeks with bothersome soreness, reported by people who knew they were stretching.
Before a hard effort, the stopwatch decides. Under a minute per muscle, strength and sprint tests dropped 1 to 2% on average; a minute or more, 4.6%. In studies that waited more than ten minutes, the loss was usually trivial.
Before a run, the picture is mixed. In two trials, a long stretching session cost trained men 3.4% of the distance in half an hour, or 13 seconds over an uphill mile. Two others saw no difference.
More flexible is not the same as more economical. The stiffest people were often the most economical, and weeks of stretching left economy where it was.

Prefer to watch? The whole explainer in 9:15, narrated. It has its own page too, with chapters and a full transcript. Subscribe on YouTube if you want to hear about the next one.

For decades a run started the same way: a calf held against a wall for thirty seconds, then off you go. The promise was that it keeps you from getting hurt and gets you moving more freely.

Since then, that promise has been tested on thousands of people. If you have wondered whether your stretching routine is doing anything, here is what the trials found: on injuries, on soreness, on the minutes just before a run, and on weeks of practice. We also look at what being more flexible actually means.

1 What counts as stretching?

Three kinds, and they do different things.

Static stretching means taking a muscle to the point where you feel the stretch, or mild discomfort, and holding it there.¹ Dynamic stretching moves a joint through its range in a controlled way, again and again, without holding: leg swings and walking lunges are examples. PNF, short for proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation, mixes static stretching with a tensing of the same muscle, followed by a little more stretch.

Two words get mixed up here. Range of motion is how far a joint can go, and much of it is set by bone and joint shape. Flexibility is the part of it you can train.² Stretching is one way to train it, and not the only one.

For general health, the American College of Sports Medicine describes static stretches held for 10 to 30 seconds, adding up to about 60 seconds per exercise, on at least two days a week.³ Keep that 60 in mind. In section 4 the same number comes back, as the point where stretching starts to cost you something.

2 Does stretching prevent injuries?

Not overall. The big trials, and every review that pooled them, found no clear difference.

The largest published trial of stretching only before exercise followed 1,538 male army recruits through 12 weeks of basic training.⁴ Both groups did the same warm-up; one group also held a 20-second stretch for each of six leg muscle groups. There were 158 injuries among the 735 who stretched and 175 among the 803 who did not, about 22 per 100 in each group by our arithmetic. The authors estimated that preventing one injury would take some 260 hours of stretching, with a very wide range around that number.

A second trial ran over the internet. It asked 2,377 active adults, about a third of them runners, to stretch seven muscle groups for at least 30 seconds each, before and after every hard session for 12 weeks.⁵ That took at least 14 minutes a session. The risk of any injury came out the same as in the group that did not stretch. Three reviews that pooled these and other trials agree (figure 2).^6,7,8

Five estimates of injuries with stretching against without, on a ratio scale from 0.5 to 1.5 with a line at 1 for no difference. Pope 2000, 1,538 army recruits, 0.95 (0.77 to 1.18). Jamtvedt 2010, 2,377 active adults, 0.97 (0.84 to 1.13). Thacker 2004, pooled, 0.93 (0.78 to 1.11). Lauersen 2014, three trials pooled, 0.96 (0.85 to 1.10). Cochrane 2011 on running injuries, six trials pooled, five of them in recruits, 0.85 (0.65 to 1.12). All five ranges cross 1. — **Figure 2.** **No fewer injuries.** Blue dots are single trials, amber diamonds pooled reviews; the bars are 95% confidence intervals. A ratio of 0.95 means 5% fewer injuries, but with a range from well below to well above 1. The reviews overlap: all three include one or both of the trials above them.

The trials behind the answer. Our per-100 figure for the recruits uses the raw counts and ignores that whole platoons, not single recruits, were assigned to stretch.
Trial	Who	The stretching	How long	Injuries
Pope 2000	1,538 male army recruits	one 20-s hold for six leg muscles, before training	12 weeks	158 of 735 with, 175 of 803 without
Jamtvedt 2010	2,377 active adults, a third of them runners	30 s or more for seven muscles, before and after	12 weeks	no difference in all injuries
van Mechelen 1993	326 male recreational runners	warm-up, cool-down and 10-s stretches together	16 weeks	26 with the programme, 23 without
USATF, 2010	close to 3,000 runners	3 to 5 minutes just before running	3 months	16% either way (press releases only, 2010 and 2011)

There is one hint the other way. Counting only muscle, tendon and ligament injuries, the 2,377-person trial saw fewer in the stretching group, 0.66 against 0.88 per person per year, but that was a side question rather than its main one.⁵ A review counted 54% fewer acute muscle injuries with stretching, mostly in sports with sprinting, and wrote that this did not extend to endurance running.¹ A 2025 panel of 20 stretching researchers does not recommend stretching to prevent injuries in general.⁹ Its reason: in the same studies, fewer muscle injuries came with more bone and joint injuries. In the recruits, too, soft-tissue injuries went slightly down and bone injuries slightly up, neither clearly.⁴

Who was measured: mostly soldiers. In the Cochrane review on running injuries, five of the six stretching trials were in the military.⁸ The one trial in recreational runners combined stretching with a warm-up and cool-down, held each stretch for 10 seconds, and fewer than half of the runners stuck to it.^10,11 A trial of close to 3,000 runners by USA Track & Field, often quoted, has only appeared as two press releases, the second about a 2011 conference talk. They reported a 16% injury rate with and without a stretch before the run, counting the runners who finished and kept to their group. The same releases announced that runners who usually stretched and were told to stop got hurt more often. That is one subgroup in a study never published in a journal, and the two releases disagree on the details.^12,13

One recent trial of 325 novice runners used stretching as its comparison group.¹⁴ A hip and core programme had about a third fewer leg injuries over 24 weeks than the group that stretched. A second strengthening programme, for the ankle and foot, did no better than stretching and had more acute injuries.

3 Does it help with soreness?

A little. In lab studies by about a point on a scale of 100; in one large trial, by roughly one bothersome week in twelve.

A Cochrane review pooled trials that measured soreness after hard exercise, most of them in a lab.¹⁵ Stretching before cut soreness the next day by half a point on a 100-point scale; stretching after, by one point (figure 3). The review calls effects that small not clinically important, although with so few trials the true effect for stretching beforehand could lie anywhere from about eleven points less soreness to ten points more.

Left, a ruler from 0 to 100 for soreness, with two tiny bars at its start: stretching before, half a point less; stretching after, one point less. Right, two bars: bothersome soreness in an average week, 32.3% without stretching and 24.6% with stretching. — **Figure 3.** **Next-day soreness.** Left: soreness one day after hard exercise, pooled by Cochrane from three trials (before) and four (after). Right: the share of weeks with bothersome soreness, in a trial where people stretched both before and after.

The 2,377-person trial saw a difference you might notice. In an average week, 24.6% of the people who stretched had bothersome soreness, against 32.3% of those who did not.⁵ People reported this themselves and knew whether they were stretching, and the effect was larger in those who believed in stretching. Over twelve weeks, that comes to roughly one bothersome week fewer, by our arithmetic. They also stretched before and after, so the trial cannot say which of the two did it.

Whether stretching afterwards speeds the return of strength and range, we don't know yet: the ten small trials pooled so far could not tell.¹⁶

4 What does it do just before you run?

It depends on the stopwatch. If you hold a muscle for up to about a minute, your strength and sprint tests drop around 1 to 2%, often too little to measure. A minute or more, and they drop about 4.6%.

Two large reviews pulled together over a hundred small lab studies of strength, power and sprint tests.^17,1 Under 30 seconds per muscle, the average change was minus 1.1%, and 30 to 45 seconds gave minus 1.9%; neither was a clear effect. Sixty seconds or more per muscle cost 4.6% (figure 4).

Four rows with a stopwatch each. Under 30 seconds per muscle: minus 1.1%, not a clear change (Kay 2012). 30 to 45 seconds: minus 1.9%, not a clear change (Kay 2012). Under 60 seconds: minus 1.1% (Behm 2016). 60 seconds or more: minus 4.6% (Behm 2016). Measured a few minutes after stretching; after more than 10 minutes the loss was usually trivial. — **Figure 4.** **Hold time decides.** Pooled averages across many small lab studies of strength, power and sprint tests. The two reviews cut the seconds differently, so the rows overlap. The dials are ours: they fill at 60 seconds.

Those tests mostly came three to five minutes after the stretching. In studies that waited more than ten minutes, the losses were usually trivial. And when some dynamic exercise followed the stretching, no clear loss was seen.¹ The 2025 panel advises against holding a muscle for more than 60 seconds before maximal efforts, and says short static stretches inside a dynamic warm-up do not cause such losses.⁹

And before a run?

Here there is less to go on, and it points both ways (figure 5). In one trial, ten trained men stretched for 16 minutes and then ran 3.4% less far in a 30-minute run: 5.8 km against 6.0.¹⁸ They also burned more energy, 425 against 405 kcal. In another, ten college cross-country runners stretched for eight to ten minutes and ran an uphill mile 13 seconds slower, 7:04 against 6:51.¹⁹ The first lab repeated its test with twelve trained women and found no difference at all.²⁰ Eleven club runners who stretched for about 20 minutes ran 3 km seven seconds slower, a gap that could easily be chance; only their first 100 metres were clearly slower.²¹

Four panels. Wilson 2010, 10 trained men, distance in a 30-minute run: 6.0 km without and 5.8 km with stretching, 3.4% less. Lowery 2014, 10 college men, one mile uphill: 6:51 without and 7:04 with stretching, 13 seconds slower. Mojock 2011, 12 trained women in Wilson's lab: 5.53 and 5.52 km, no difference. Damasceno 2014, 11 club runners over 3 km on a track: 11:28 without and 11:35 with stretching, within chance. — **Figure 5.** **Four runs after long stretching.** Each runner did the test twice, with and without stretching first. The 7 and 13 seconds are ours, from the published times; the 3.4% is the authors' own. Wilson's 30-minute run followed 30 minutes of easier running.

A 2025 review pooled 15 such studies and found no clear effect of one stretching session on running economy, the oxygen you need at a given pace.²² So we don't know whether one session changes it: the studies were small, unblinded and did not agree. The four trials in figure 5 used 8 to 20 minutes of stretching, and none of them tested what most runners actually do: a short stretch inside a normal warm-up, before a long run.

And dynamic stretching?

Here the answer flipped with the comparison (figure 6). Seven well-trained runners lasted 18% longer at a fast fixed pace after dynamic stretching than after sitting still, about 2.4 minutes more.²³ When the same lab tested eight other runners, this time adding dynamic stretching to a normal warm-up, they lasted 16% less long than after the warm-up alone, about two minutes less.²⁴ A third trial compared 15 minutes of dynamic stretching with sitting still: fourteen trained men ran no further in 30 minutes, and used more energy.²⁵ All three were tiny. One review suggests the difference is time: the short routine of under four minutes helped against sitting still, the 15-minute one did not.²⁶ On top of a warm-up, dynamic stretching did the runners in that one trial no good.

Two panels. Against sitting still with no warm-up, dynamic stretching gave 18% more time to exhaustion, a green arrow up, 2.4 minutes longer. Added to a normal warm-up and compared with the same warm-up alone, dynamic stretching gave 16% less time to exhaustion, a red arrow down, 2.0 minutes shorter. — **Figure 6.** **Same lab, opposite answers.** Both trials had runners hold a fixed pace, fast for them, until they could not go on. Seven runners in the first, eight others in the second; percentages rounded from 18.2 and 15.8, minutes ours from the published seconds.

5 What do weeks of stretching change?

You get more flexible, clearly. Mostly because you put up with more stretch.

Seventy-seven studies of stretching for weeks found a clear gain in range of motion, larger with static stretching and PNF than with dynamic stretching.²⁷ The question is what changed. In a classic study, seven women stretched the hamstrings of one leg twice a day for 20 days, the other leg serving as a control.²⁸ Taken to the same angle as before, the muscle resisted just as much. What changed was how far they let it go before it became too uncomfortable.

Pooled studies of three to eight weeks point the same way (figure 7). They found no clear change in how stiff the muscle or the tendon was.²⁹ Most stretch tests stop where the person says stop, so a better score can simply mean a higher tolerance.³⁰ The 2025 panel does see the muscle itself get less stiff with far more stretching: four minutes or more per muscle, five days a week, for at least three weeks.⁹ At the doses most people use, the brake sits mostly in how much stretch you accept.

Three horizontal bars of effect size. How far the joint goes, range of motion: 1.00, from 77 studies. How stiff the muscle is: 0.19. How stiff the tendon is: 0.06, both from 26 studies, which the authors call trivial. — **Figure 7.** **What weeks of stretching change.** Effect sizes put different measures on one scale; the bars come from two different reviews. The stiffness results come with wide ranges and show no clear change, which is not the same as proof of none.

The gain does not vanish at once. After a single session, range of motion was still up at least 20 minutes later.³¹ After stopping a programme for two to six weeks, part of the gain was still there.³² Weeks of static stretching also brought a small gain in strength, larger in people who were inactive than in recreationally active people, and unclear in trained ones.³³

Stretching is not the only route. In 11 trials, strength training increased range of motion about as much as stretching, with no clear difference between the two; some of those trials were in older adults or patients rather than athletes.³⁴

6 Does a more flexible runner run more economically?

Not in the studies that looked. The stiffest people were often the most economical.

Economy is the oxygen you need at a given pace, and less is better. In 100 adults walking and jogging, the stiffest third used 9% less oxygen than the loosest third.³⁵ In 19 sub-elite runners, a stiffer ankle went with better economy, and in 34 international runners so did a worse sit-and-reach score (figure 8).^36,37

Four cards. Gleim 1990, 100 adults: the stiffest third used 9% less oxygen than the loosest third. Craib 1996, 19 sub-elite men: a stiffer ankle went with better economy, correlation 0.65, hip rotation 0.53. Jones 2002, 34 international runners: a worse sit-and-reach went with better economy, correlation 0.68. Nelson 2001, 32 students, half of them stretching for ten weeks: no change in oxygen cost. — **Figure 8.** **Stiff and economical.** The first three compare runners as they were, at one moment. Gleim tested adults walking and jogging; Craib and Jones tested trained men. In Nelson's trial, 16 of the 32 stretched 40 minutes, three times a week, for ten weeks.

Those studies compare people as they are, and that shows a link, not a cause. The authors' own guess, which they call speculative, is that a stiffer leg stores and returns more energy with each step, like a spring, and needs less muscle work to keep it steady. Craib's team adds a warning: clinicians assume that stiffness raises the risk of running injuries, so a stiff body is not simply better.³⁶ Two small trials changed flexibility on purpose, for three and for ten weeks, and neither saw economy change.³⁸ In the longer one, 16 active students stretched for 40 minutes, three times a week, while 16 others did not; the oxygen cost of their run stayed the same.³⁹

7 And on the bike?

Hardly studied. We found no trial of stretching and injuries in cyclists.

The nearest thing is a survey of 1,274 amateur cyclists, in which stretching sessions did not help explain who had low back pain.⁴⁰ On performance there are two small lab studies. In ten endurance-trained men and women, 16 minutes of stretching raised oxygen use in the first five minutes of a 30-minute ride, and not after that.⁴¹ In nine active men cycling to exhaustion, the time fell by 26% after stretching.⁴²

8 So what does this leave you with?

Four answers.

Does stretching prevent injuries? Not overall, in trials of thousands of people, though most of them were soldiers. A possible small effect on muscle strains, mostly in sprint sports, came with more bone and joint injuries in the same studies.
Does it ease soreness? In lab studies by a point or so on a scale of 100. In one large trial, people who stretched before and after reported bothersome soreness in fewer weeks, about one in four against one in three, but they knew which group they were in.
Does it hurt performance? Holding a muscle for a minute or more just before a strength or sprint test costs a few percent for a few minutes. In strength and sprint tests, short stretches cost next to nothing. Before a run, two trials saw a loss after long stretching and two did not.
What do weeks of it do? More range of motion, mostly through tolerance. Running economy did not change in the two small trials that checked.

If you like how stretching feels, the trials give little reason to stop. If you do it to avoid injury, they give little reason to start.

How we did this (for the curious)

We first mapped how twelve sources (reviews, a position stand, a consensus statement and a definition paper) describe the topic, then read the trials and lab studies behind each figure. Every number on this page is in a source we hold. Where we did arithmetic ourselves (the per-100 figures for the recruits, the one bothersome week, the seconds over 3 km and the uphill mile, the minutes in figure 6), the caption or the text says so. Some sources we could read only as an abstract; they are marked in the list below, and nothing on this page rests on their methods sections. For two trials, a three-week stretching trial on economy and a dynamic-stretching trial, we hold only the abstract. Where a review and the study it describes disagree on a number, we used the original study.

Sources

42 sources: 40 research papers and reviews (T1) and 2 press releases (T3), used only for what was announced. We hold every one; we read 34 in full and 8 as an abstract, marked below.

T1 Behm DG, Blazevich AJ, Kay AD, McHugh M. Acute effects of muscle stretching on physical performance, range of motion, and injury incidence in healthy active individuals: a systematic review. Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism. 2016;41(1):1–11. doi:10.1139/apnm-2015-0235. What static, dynamic and PNF stretching are; −4.6% after 60 s or more per muscle and −1.1% after less; tests 3 to 5 min after stretching; no clear effect when dynamic activity followed; 54% fewer acute muscle injuries, in sports with sprinting, not in endurance running.
T1 Afonso J, Blazevich AJ, Behm DG, Tilp M, Warneke K. One of these things is not like the others: disentangling the concepts of range of motion versus flexibility, and flexibility training versus stretching. Sports Medicine. 2026;56(8):1869–1875. doi:10.1007/s40279-026-02425-4. That range of motion and flexibility are different things, and flexibility is the trainable part.
T1 Garber CE, Blissmer B, Deschenes MR, et al. American College of Sports Medicine position stand. Quantity and quality of exercise for developing and maintaining cardiorespiratory, musculoskeletal, and neuromotor fitness in apparently healthy adults. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. 2011;43(7):1334–1359. doi:10.1249/MSS.0b013e318213fefb. Static stretches held 10 to 30 s, a total of 60 s per exercise, on at least two days a week, for general health.
T1 Pope RP, Herbert RD, Kirwan JD, Graham BJ. A randomized trial of preexercise stretching for prevention of lower-limb injury. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. 2000;32(2):271–277. doi:10.1097/00005768-200002000-00004. 1,538 male army recruits over 12 weeks; one 20-s stretch per muscle group on top of the same warm-up; 158 injuries in 735 against 175 in 803; hazard ratio 0.95 (0.77–1.18); soft-tissue 0.83, bone 1.22, neither clear; 260 h of stretching per injury prevented.
T1 Jamtvedt G, Herbert RD, Flottorp S, et al. A pragmatic randomised trial of stretching before and after physical activity to prevent injury and soreness. British Journal of Sports Medicine. 2010;44(14):1002–1009. doi:10.1136/bjsm.2009.062232. 2,377 adults over 12 weeks, at least 30 s per muscle group before and after; all injuries hazard ratio 0.97 (0.84–1.13); muscle, ligament and tendon injuries 0.66 against 0.88 per person-year; bothersome soreness 24.6% against 32.3% of weeks, self-reported and unblinded, larger in people who believed in stretching.
T1 Thacker SB, Gilchrist J, Stroup DF, Kimsey CD Jr. The impact of stretching on sports injury risk: a systematic review of the literature. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. 2004;36(3):371–378. doi:10.1249/01.MSS.0000117134.83018.F7. Total injuries odds ratio 0.93 (0.78–1.11).
T1 Lauersen JB, Bertelsen DM, Andersen LB. The effectiveness of exercise interventions to prevent sports injuries: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials. British Journal of Sports Medicine. 2014;48(11):871–877. doi:10.1136/bjsports-2013-092538. Stretching, three trials: risk ratio 0.963 (0.846–1.095).
T1 Yeung SS, Yeung EW, Gillespie LD. Interventions for preventing lower limb soft-tissue running injuries. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 2011;(7):CD001256. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD001256.pub2. Stretching, six trials with 5,130 people, five of them military: risk ratio 0.85 (0.65–1.12).
T1 Warneke K, Thomas E, Blazevich AJ, et al. Practical recommendations on stretching exercise: a Delphi consensus statement of international research experts. Journal of Sport and Health Science. 2025;14:101067. doi:10.1016/j.jshs.2025.101067. A panel of 20 researchers; several of them wrote the reviews the panel weighed. Not stretching for injury prevention in general (fewer muscle injuries came with more bone and joint injuries); no more than 60 s per muscle before maximal efforts; 4 min or more per muscle, 5 days a week, 3 weeks or more to lower muscle stiffness.
T1 Abstract. van Mechelen W, Hlobil H, Kemper HC, Voorn WJ, de Jongh HR. Prevention of running injuries by warm-up, cool-down, and stretching exercises. American Journal of Sports Medicine. 1993;21(5):711–719. doi:10.1177/036354659302100513. 326 male recreational runners over 16 weeks; 26 injuries with the programme, 23 without.
T1 Goldman EF, Jones DE. Interventions for preventing hamstring injuries. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 2010;(1):CD006782. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD006782.pub2. That stretches in the 1993 runners' trial were held for 10 s, and that 46.6% of that group did them as prescribed.
T3 USA Track & Field. Press release on its stretching study, 20 August 2010, read in the copy on LetsRun.com (Wayback Machine). A randomised trial of close to 3,000 runners over three months; never published in a journal. Also announced that runners who usually stretched and were assigned not to had double the injury risk. Used only for what was announced.
T3 American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. Stretching before a run neither prevents nor causes injury. Press release on a talk at the 2011 Annual Meeting, read on ScienceDaily. 2,729 runners, a 3- to 5-minute stretch just before running; runners who usually stretched and were assigned not to were “far more likely” to be injured.
T1 Leppänen M, Viiala J, Kaikkonen P, et al. Hip and core exercise programme prevents running-related overuse injuries in adult novice recreational runners: a three-arm randomised controlled trial (Run RCT). British Journal of Sports Medicine. 2024;58(13):722–732. doi:10.1136/bjsports-2023-107926. Read as the accepted manuscript. 325 novice runners over 24 weeks; static stretching was the comparison group; hip and core programme hazard ratio 0.66 (0.45–0.97); the ankle and foot programme did not reduce injuries and had more acute ones (hazard ratio 3.60).
T1 Abstract. Herbert RD, de Noronha M, Kamper SJ. Stretching to prevent or reduce muscle soreness after exercise. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 2011;(7):CD004577. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD004577.pub3. Next-day soreness half a point lower on a 100-point scale with stretching before, one point lower with stretching after.
T1 Afonso J, Clemente FM, Nakamura FY, et al. The effectiveness of post-exercise stretching in short-term and delayed recovery of strength, range of motion and delayed onset muscle soreness: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Frontiers in Physiology. 2021;12:677581. doi:10.3389/fphys.2021.677581. 11 trials; no evidence that stretching afterwards speeds recovery, and very low confidence either way.
T1 Kay AD, Blazevich AJ. Effect of acute static stretch on maximal muscle performance: a systematic review. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. 2012;44(1):154–164. doi:10.1249/MSS.0b013e318225cb27. Read as the accepted manuscript. 106 studies; under 30 s −1.1% and 30 to 45 s −1.9%, neither a significant effect.
T1 Wilson JM, Hornbuckle LM, Kim JS, et al. Effects of static stretching on energy cost and running endurance performance. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. 2010;24(9):2274–2279. doi:10.1519/JSC.0b013e3181b22ad6. 10 trained men; 16 min of stretching; 6.0 against 5.8 km in a 30-min run, 3.4% less; 425 against 405 kcal.
T1 Lowery RP, Joy JM, Brown LE, et al. Effects of static stretching on 1-mile uphill run performance. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. 2014;28(1):161–167. doi:10.1519/JSC.0b013e3182956461. 10 male college cross-country runners; six stretches, three 30-s holds each; 1 mile uphill in 7:04 against 6:51 without stretching. The authors’ own percentage does not follow from their times; we use the times.
T1 Mojock CD, Kim JS, Eccles DW, Panton LB. The effects of static stretching on running economy and endurance performance in female distance runners during treadmill running. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. 2011;25(8):2170–2176. doi:10.1519/JSC.0b013e3181e859db. 12 trained women; 5.53 against 5.52 km.
T1 Damasceno MV, Duarte M, Pasqua LA, et al. Static stretching alters neuromuscular function and pacing strategy, but not performance during a 3-km running time-trial. PLoS One. 2014;9(6):e99238. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0099238. 11 recreationally trained men; about 20 min of stretching; 3 km in 11:35 against 11:28, no significant difference; the first 100 m slower.
T1 Warneke K, Zechner M, Siegel SD, et al. Acute and chronic effects of stretching on running economy: a systematic review with meta-analysis. Sports Medicine Open. 2025;11(1):61. doi:10.1186/s40798-025-00859-0. 15 studies, 181 people: no clear effect of one stretching session on running economy. Names the only two weeks-long trials on economy (Godges 1993 and Nelson 2001), neither with an effect.
T1 Yamaguchi T, Takizawa K, Shibata K. Acute effect of dynamic stretching on endurance running performance in well-trained male runners. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. 2015;29(11):3045–3052. doi:10.1519/JSC.0000000000000969. Read as the accepted manuscript. 7 runners; time to exhaustion 928.6 against 785.3 s (+18.2%) against sitting still.
T1 Yamaguchi T, Takizawa K, Shibata K, et al. Effect of general warm-up plus dynamic stretching on endurance running performance in well-trained male runners. Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport. 2019;90(4):527–533. doi:10.1080/02701367.2019.1630700. Read as the author manuscript. 8 runners; time to exhaustion 640.6 against 760.6 s (−15.8%) when dynamic stretching was added to a warm-up.
T1 Abstract. Zourdos MC, Wilson JM, Sommer BA, et al. Effects of dynamic stretching on energy cost and running endurance performance in trained male runners. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. 2012;26(2):335–341. doi:10.1519/JSC.0b013e318225bbae. 14 trained men; 15 min of dynamic stretching against quiet sitting; 6.1 against 6.3 km in a 30-min run, no difference; 416.3 against 399.3 kcal.
T1 Konrad A, Močnik R, Nakamura M, Sudi K, Tilp M. The impact of a single stretching session on running performance and running economy: a scoping review. Frontiers in Physiology. 2021;11:630282. doi:10.3389/fphys.2020.630282. Dynamic stretching helped running performance in the short routines (about 220 s), not in the longest (900 s).
T1 Konrad A, Alizadeh S, Daneshjoo A, et al. Chronic effects of stretching on range of motion with consideration of potential moderating variables: a systematic review with meta-analysis. Journal of Sport and Health Science. 2024;13(2):186–194. doi:10.1016/j.jshs.2023.06.002. 77 studies; range of motion effect size 1.00; static 1.01, PNF 1.28, dynamic 0.55.
T1 Magnusson SP, Simonsen EB, Aagaard P, Sørensen H, Kjaer M. A mechanism for altered flexibility in human skeletal muscle. Journal of Physiology. 1996;497(Pt 1):291–298. doi:10.1113/jphysiol.1996.sp021768. Seven women stretched the hamstrings of one leg twice a day for 20 days; no change in stiffness at the same angle; more range through greater stretch tolerance.
T1 Freitas SR, Mendes B, Le Sant G, et al. Can chronic stretching change the muscle-tendon mechanical properties? A review. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports. 2018;28(3):794–806. doi:10.1111/sms.12957. Read as the accepted manuscript. 26 studies of 3 to 8 weeks; muscle stiffness effect size −0.19, tendon −0.06, both trivial.
T1 Weppler CH, Magnusson SP. Increasing muscle extensibility: a matter of increasing length or modifying sensation? Physical Therapy. 2010;90(3):438–449. doi:10.2522/ptj.20090012. That the end point of most stretch tests is what the person feels.
T1 Takeuchi K, Akizuki K, Nakamura M. Time course of changes in the range of motion and muscle-tendon unit stiffness of the hamstrings after two different intensities of static stretching. PLoS One. 2021;16(9):e0257367. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0257367. Range of motion still raised at least 20 min after stretching.
T1 Konrad A, Warneke K, Donti O, et al. Detraining effects following chronic stretching training on range of motion: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Sports Medicine Open. 2025;11(1):141. doi:10.1186/s40798-025-00935-5. 13 studies, 556 people; after 2 to 6 weeks without stretching, range of motion still above where it started.
T1 Arntz F, Markov A, Behm DG, et al. Chronic effects of static stretching exercises on muscle strength and power in healthy individuals across the lifespan: a systematic review with multi-level meta-analysis. Sports Medicine. 2023;53(3):723–745. doi:10.1007/s40279-022-01806-9. A small strength gain, larger in sedentary people than in recreationally active ones, unclear in trained people.
T1 Afonso J, Ramirez-Campillo R, Moscão J, et al. Strength training versus stretching for improving range of motion: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Healthcare. 2021;9(4):427. doi:10.3390/healthcare9040427. 11 trials, 452 people, some of them older adults or patients: no clear difference in range of motion between strength training and stretching.
T1 Abstract. Gleim GW, Stachenfeld NS, Nicholas JA. The influence of flexibility on the economy of walking and jogging. Journal of Orthopaedic Research. 1990;8(6):814–823. doi:10.1002/jor.1100080606. 100 adults; the stiffest third used 9% less oxygen than the loosest third.
T1 Craib MW, Mitchell VA, Fields KB, et al. The association between flexibility and running economy in sub-elite male distance runners. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. 1996;28(6):737–743. doi:10.1097/00005768-199606000-00012. 19 runners; ankle dorsiflexion r = 0.65 and standing hip rotation r = 0.53 with running economy.
T1 Abstract. Jones AM. Running economy is negatively related to sit-and-reach test performance in international-standard distance runners. International Journal of Sports Medicine. 2002;23(1):40–43. doi:10.1055/s-2002-19271. 34 runners; r = 0.68.
T1 Abstract. Godges JJ, MacRae PG, Engelke KA. Effects of exercise on hip range of motion, trunk muscle performance, and gait economy. Physical Therapy. 1993;73(7):468–477. doi:10.1093/ptj/73.7.468. 25 male college students, 9 of whom stretched; three weeks of hip stretching raised hip range of motion but did not change walking or running economy.
T1 Abstract. Nelson AG, Kokkonen J, Eldredge C, Cornwell A, Glickman-Weiss E. Chronic stretching and running economy. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports. 2001;11(5):260–265. doi:10.1034/j.1600-0838.2001.110502.x. 32 students, 16 of whom stretched 40 min three days a week for 10 weeks; no change in the oxygen cost of a submaximal run.
T1 Battista S, Sansone LG, Testa M. Prevalence, characteristics, association factors of and management strategies for low back pain among Italian amateur cyclists. Sports Medicine Open. 2021;7(1):78. doi:10.1186/s40798-021-00370-2. A survey of 1,274 amateur cyclists; stretching sessions dropped out of the model for low back pain.
T1 Wolfe AE, Brown LE, Coburn JW, Kersey RD, Bottaro M. Time course of the effects of static stretching on cycling economy. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. 2011;25(11):2980–2984. doi:10.1519/JSC.0b013e318234e55f. 10 endurance-trained men and women cycling; 16 min of stretching; oxygen use higher in the first 5 min of a 30-min ride only.
T1 Abstract. Esposito F, Cè E, Limonta E. Cycling efficiency and time to exhaustion are reduced after acute passive stretching administration. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports. 2012;22(6):737–745. doi:10.1111/j.1600-0838.2011.01327.x. 9 active men cycling to exhaustion: 26% less time after stretching.

Found a mistake here? Tell us at info@enduranceproof.com. You do not need to be a scientist, and "this number looks off" is a perfectly good message. Anything we correct, and when, goes on our corrections page.

This is educational material about stretching. It is not training or medical advice, not a stretching routine, and not a treatment for an existing injury.

Stretching: what it does and doesn't do for runners