Most of us were taught the same routine at school. Before you run, you stand still and hold a stretch for half a minute.
So should you stretch before exercise? The research says that classic routine isn’t the best way to warm up.
Long, still stretches can slightly weaken you for a short while. And they don’t seem to prevent injuries.
- Holding a stretch for 60 seconds or more just before exercise cut performance by about 4.6% in a major review.
- A trial of 1,538 army recruits found stretching before training didn’t meaningfully cut injuries.
- A full warm-up with strength and balance work, like FIFA 11+, cut football injuries by about 39%.
Should you stretch before exercise?
You don’t need long, still stretches before most exercise. A gentle, moving warm-up is a better start.
Static stretching means holding a muscle at a stretch without moving. Dynamic stretching means moving through a range of motion, like leg swings or walking lunges.
The NHS says to warm up before exercising “to prevent injury and make your workouts more effective”. Its suggested routine takes at least 6 minutes.
That routine is all movement: marching on the spot, heel digs, knee lifts, shoulder rolls and knee bends. There are no long, still holds in it.
Short stretches are fine, especially if your sport needs flexibility. The problem is long holds right before you need to be strong or fast.
What the research shows
The big review
The most quoted review is a 2016 systematic review in Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism. It compared static, dynamic and a third type called PNF stretching.
PNF stretching combines stretching with tensing the muscle, often with a partner.
When people were tested straight after stretching, the average performance changes looked like this:
| Type of stretching | Change in performance |
|---|---|
| Static stretching | Down 3.7% |
| Dynamic stretching | Up 1.3% |
| PNF stretching | Down 4.4% |
Length of the hold matters
The dose mattered too. Static stretches of 60 seconds or more per muscle cut performance by 4.6% on average.
Holds shorter than 60 seconds cut it by only 1.1%. That’s small enough to matter little for most people.
The real-world twist
Most of these studies tested people 3 to 5 minutes after stretching, with nothing in between. That’s not how most people exercise.
When studies added more active movement after the stretches, there was no clear effect on performance. So a stretch followed by a proper warm-up seems unlikely to slow you down.
The review concluded that stretching within a warm-up that includes dynamic activity afterwards has “inconsequential effects” on performance.
Long static stretches just before exercise can slightly weaken performance. Short stretches inside a moving warm-up seem to be fine.
The newest review: athletes who need flexibility
What it looked at
A 2026 systematic review in Frontiers in Physiology focused on athletes whose sports demand flexibility. That included gymnastics, swimming, wrestling, dance, and track and field.
It gathered 23 studies with 627 athletes. These athletes have the most to gain from stretching, so they’re a tough test.
What it found
Static stretching improved flexibility by about 3% but cut performance slightly, by 0.88%. Dynamic stretching gave small gains in both flexibility and performance.
Holds of over 60 seconds gave the biggest flexibility gains, about 6%. But they also cut performance by 1.8% before versus after.
| Approach | Flexibility | Performance |
|---|---|---|
| Static stretching | Up about 3% | Down 0.88% |
| Dynamic stretching | Small gain | Up 0.55% |
| Long holds, over 60 seconds | Up about 6% | Down 1.8% |
The authors summed it up neatly. Long static stretching “boosts flexibility but slightly reduces performance”, while dynamic stretching “enhances readiness”.
The caveats
Most of the included studies, 15 of 23, were rated low quality. The authors said the findings “should be interpreted with caution”.
It also only tested athletes, and it didn’t measure injuries. The review was funded by the University of Graz, with no commercial conflicts declared.
Does stretching prevent injuries?
This is the big reason many people stretch. Sadly, the evidence says stretching alone does little.
The army trial
A 2000 trial randomly split 1,538 male army recruits into two groups for 12 weeks of training. Both did an active warm-up before training.
One group also did a 20-second static stretch for each of six major leg muscle groups. The other group didn’t stretch.
There were 158 injuries in the stretching group and 175 in the group that didn’t stretch. That difference wasn’t statistically significant.
The authors concluded that a typical stretching routine “does not produce clinically meaningful reductions” in injury risk. Interestingly, fitness was a strong predictor of who got injured.
What does prevent injuries
The 2016 review found stretching had no clear effect on injuries overall. But other kinds of warm-up do much better.
A 2017 review pooled trials of FIFA 11+, a football warm-up programme with running, strength and balance exercises. It cut injuries by 39% compared with control groups.
The older FIFA 11 programme didn’t show the same benefit. So the details of a warm-up matter.
What earlier research found
Exercise to prevent injury
A 2014 meta-analysis in the British Journal of Sports Medicine pooled 25 trials with 26,610 people. Stretching showed no benefit for preventing sports injuries.
Strength training was the standout. It cut sports injuries to less than a third, and balance training also helped.
Young athletes
A 2022 review of structured warm-up programmes in children and teenagers found a 36% lower injury rate across 15 studies. These programmes mix several kinds of exercise, not just stretching.
Runners
A 2025 meta-analysis in Sports Medicine – Open looked at stretching before running. Across 15 studies with 181 people, stretching didn’t significantly change running economy, a measure of how efficiently you run.
The authors said it “seems unreasonable” to avoid stretching before a run for that reason. The certainty of the evidence was low.
Stretching after exercise
A 2021 review in Frontiers in Physiology pooled 10 studies with 229 people. Stretching after exercise didn’t help muscles recover their strength.
Its authors rated their confidence in the evidence as very low.
Sore muscles
A 2011 Cochrane review found that stretching doesn’t meaningfully reduce muscle soreness in the days after exercise.
How it fits together
The pattern is consistent across decades. Strength, balance and full warm-ups prevent injuries far better than stretching alone.
How much should you trust this?
Promising. The main messages are consistent, but many of the individual studies are small.
What makes it convincing
- Several large reviews, years apart, reach the same conclusions.
- The army trial was large and randomised.
- The injury-prevention results for strength and balance work are strong.
What makes me cautious
- Many performance studies are small, and most in the 2026 review were low quality.
- Lab tests straight after stretching don’t match real training.
- Most studies involved athletes or recruits, not casual exercisers.
- I could only read the summary of the 2016 review, not its full text.
| The evidence shows | The evidence does not show |
|---|---|
| Long static holds can slightly cut performance | That any stretching ruins a workout |
| Dynamic warm-ups slightly improve readiness | That stretching is harmful in general |
| Stretching alone doesn’t prevent injuries | That flexibility doesn’t matter |
| Strength and balance warm-ups cut injuries | The perfect warm-up for every sport |
What this means for you
- Start with movement. Walk, jog, march or cycle gently for a few minutes to warm up.
- Use dynamic stretches. Try leg swings, arm circles and walking lunges.
- Keep static holds short before exercise. Under 60 seconds per muscle had little effect on performance.
- Save long stretches for after, or for separate flexibility sessions.
- Add strength and balance work. That’s what the injury evidence supports best.
- If your sport needs flexibility, like dance or gymnastics, short stretches inside a full warm-up are still sensible.
The NHS guide to warming up has a simple routine that takes at least 6 minutes.
In this short video, Northwell Health explains whether stretching before exercise is necessary:
What we still don’t know
- What’s the ideal warm-up for everyday exercisers? Most studies involved athletes or recruits.
- Does stretching prevent specific injuries, like hamstring strains? The evidence is thin.
- How long does any performance dip last? Most tests happened within minutes.
- Do the small effects matter for casual exercise? Probably not much, but it hasn’t been tested well.
- What about older adults? The studies here mostly involved younger, active people.
My take: move, don’t hold
What I like about this research is that it gives a clear, easy swap. Replace long, still holds with a few minutes of moving.
I’m less convinced by fear-based claims that stretching is bad. The performance losses are small, and they shrink with a proper warm-up.
If you want fewer injuries, the evidence points to strength and balance work, not more stretching.
Last reviewed: 2026-10-03
Covers: Whether to stretch before exercise, static vs dynamic stretching, how long to hold a stretch, and what prevents injuries
Evidence: Promising — consistent reviews and a large trial, but many small studies
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