Note: this is an unusual newsletter. It consists of short summary of key insights from the Huberman Lab podcast on stretching. Its’ value comes from providing a quick and actionable path to optimize your stretching practice. I am doing this because I derived value from this information and I wanted to share it. Huberman distills the research he looked at into a podcast, and then I distill that into this short text for easy use.

Best type of stretching to increase range of motion in the long term

- Static is significantly better than dynamic or ballistic. Static stretching is holding a pose at the end range of motion. Dynamic or ballistic work by moving through the range of motion.

- Low intensity is more effective than moderate or high intensity. This means at 30-40% of what is considered pain, comfortable, not even approaching pain. This is great because it means stretching should be comfortable to be efficient (a concept I never understood until now).

- Optimum frequency and volume: 3 sets of 30 seconds each day for 5 days per week per area to be stretched. Unlike other types of training, stretching really needs almost daily practice for great results.

- Best to stretch when core temperature is raised, e.g. do a warm-up beforehand or right after training.

Unexpected benefits

Stretching makes you more relaxed. It increase pain tolerance and your understanding of your own body.

Research on yoga practitioners found they had twice the pain tolerance of non-practitioners. Pain tolerance correlated with experience in practicing yoga (e.g. someone doing it for ten years had higher tolerance than someone who started two months ago). This seems to work by increasing the volume of the insular cortex. Besides pain tolerance, it appears to confer improved proprioception: better e information about your own body.

A remarkable study on mice found 10 minutes of daily full body stretching led to a 50% decrease in tumor volume. Researchers induced tumors in all of the mice and observed their progress, with no additional treatment. Not saying stretching beats cancer, but clearly there are benefits in immune system and signaling body ‘repair mechanisms’.

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Watch-outs

Don’t injure yourself pushing beyond your range of motion. It should feel comfortable.
Static stretching before running might reduce efficiency of running. No definite conclusions on this, but to keep in mind
If you are doing exercise which necessitate your full range of motion, you should stretch beforehand to ensure you get that ROM. For this purpose active stretching appears better than static.
There are physical limitations that you cannot change. Stretching works but it’s not limitless change. Expect improvements, not miracles.
Hyper-flexibility is a real problem. It’s actually a greater injury risk than limited flexibility. Hyper-flexible people need to work on stabilizing muscles to avoid accident.

Bonus: technique to temporarily increase maximum range of motion.

You need only contract the muscles antagonistic to those you want to stretch. So if you want to stretch the hamstrings, you should do contractions of the quadriceps. This sends neurological signals that effectively increase range of motion in the hamstrings.

Resources:

Huberman Lab Podcast on Stretching

Research mentioned:

Force enhancement after stretch of isolated myofibrils is increased by sarcomere length non-uniformities

Microfluidic perfusion shows intersarcomere dynamics within single skeletal muscle myofibrils

The Effect of Time and Frequency of Static Stretching on Flexibility of the Hamstring Muscles

The Relation Between Stretching Typology and Stretching Duration: The Effects on Range of Motion

A Comparison of Two Stretching Modalities on Lower-Limb Range of Motion Measurements in Recreational Dancers

Stretching Reduces Tumor Growth in a Mouse Breast Cancer Model

Insular Cortex Mediates Increased Pain Tolerance in Yoga Practitioners

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