© 2000 the British Journal of Sports Medicine
Leader
Stretching before exercise: an evidence based approach
Department of Physiology, McGill University Centre for Clinical Epidemiology and Community Studies Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research SMBD-Jewish General Hospital Montreal, Quebec H3T 1E2, Canada
Clinicians are under increasing pressure to base their treatment of patients on research findings—that is, to practice evidence based medicine.1 Although some authors argue that only research from human randomised clinical trials (RCTs) should be used to determine clinical management,2 an alternative is to consider the study design (RCT, cohort, basic science, etc) as one of many variables, and that no evidence should be discarded a priori. In other words, the careful interpretation of all evidence is, and has always been, the real art of medicine.3 This editorial explores these concepts using the sport medicine example of promoting stretching before exercise to prevent injury. In summary, a previous critical review of both clinical and basic science literature suggested that such stretching would not prevent injury.4 This conclusion was subsequently supported by a large RCT published five months later.5 Had the review relied only on previous RCT data, or even RCT
CiteULike 
Complore 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us 
Digg 
Reddit 
Technorati What's this?
This article has been cited by other articles:
-
Shanmugam, C., Maffulli, N.
(2008). Sports injuries in children. Br Med Bull
86: 33-57
[Abstract] [Full Text] -
Reider, B.
(2007). Announcing a Prize Competition: Reviewing Systematically. Am J Sports Med
35: 187-188
[Full Text] -
Dadebo, B, White, J, George, K P
(2004). A survey of flexibility training protocols and hamstring strains in professional football clubs in England. Br. J. Sports. Med.
38: 388-394
[Abstract] [Full Text] -
Ashe, M. C., Khan, K. M.
(2004). Exercise Prescription. J Am Acad Orthop Surg
12: 21-27
[Abstract] [Full Text] -
Sharma, P, Luscombe, K., Maffulli, N
(2003). Sports injuries in children. Trauma
5: 245-259
[Abstract] -
MacAuley, D., Best, T. M
(2002). Reducing risk of injury due to exercise. BMJ
325: 451-452
[Full Text] -
Shrier, I., Schur, P. E
(2001). Flexibility versus stretching. Br. J. Sports. Med.
35
: 364-364
[Full Text] -
Schur, P E
(2001). Effectiveness of stretching to reduce injury. Br. J. Sports. Med.
35
: 138-138
[Full Text]
- Full Text
- Full Text (PDF)
- Submit a response
- Alert me when this article is cited
- Alert me when eLetters are posted
- Alert me if a correction is posted
- Citation Map
Services
- Email this link to a friend
- Similar articles in this journal
- Similar articles in PubMed
- Add article to my folders
- Download to citation manager
- Request Permissions
Citing Articles
Google Scholar
PubMed
Topic Collections
Bookmark with
Register for free content
The full back archive is now available for all BMJ Journals. Institutional subscribers may access the entire archive as part of their subscription. Personal subscribers will also have access to all content when logged in. Non-subscribers who register have free access to all articles published before 2006 right back to volume 1 issue 1. Register here to access the free archive of all BMJ Journals.
Don't forget to sign up for content alerts so you keep up to date with all the articles as they are published.
