The unsettled debate over the benefits of flexibility for athletes.

News about stretching seems to come in waves.
Stretch as part of your warmup.
No, stretch after your workout.
No, don¡¯t even bother stretching.
Or the most confusing: Even if you think you like it, it¡¯s been oversold as a way to prevent injury or improve performance.
The truth is that after dozens of studies and years of debate, no one really knows whether stretching helps, harms, or does anything in particular for performance or injury rates.
Yet most athletes remain convinced that stretching helps, and recently more and more have felt a sort of social pressure to show that they are limber, in part due to the popularity of yoga.
Flexibility has become another area where many athletes want to excel.
They¡¯re like one of my running partners, Claire Brown, a 35-year-old triathlete.
¡°I always feel like, well, athletes should do yoga,¡± Claire said.
¡°It¡¯s supposed to be really good for running, and when I do it regularly, it does loosen up my hips and make me feel better for running.
¡± For the final word on stretching, there is an official government review by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published in the March 2004 issue of the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise.
Its conclusion, that the research to date is inadequate to answer most stretching questions, still holds.
The best that Dr. Julie Gilchrist, a medical epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and one of the study¡¯s authors, can offer is a few guidelines and observations about why studies have yet to answer the stretching questions.
If your goal is to prevent injury, Dr. Gilchrist said, stretching does not seem to be enough.
Warming up, though, can help.
In fact, Dr. Gilchrist said, in her review of published papers, every one of the handful of studies that concluded that stretching prevented injuries included warm-ups with the stretches.
That is one reason the studies so far have been inadequate.
Researchers need to separate their variables, said Malachy McHugh, the director of research at the Lenox Hill Hospital Nicholas Institute of Sports Medicine and Athletic Trauma in Manhattan.
¡°What¡¯s missing are studies of stretching alone and studies of no stretching and no warm-up,¡± Dr.
McHugh said.
But it may not be so easy to do such studies, he admitted, because most athletes in strength and speed sports like soccer and football believe in stretching, no matter what scientists say.
Suppose you wanted to do a proper study, with a control group that did not stretch.
Good luck, he said.
¡°If you go to a team and say, ¡®You guys are not going to stretch and you guys are going to stretch,¡¯ they would say, ¡®You can leave the room now,¡¯ ¡± Dr.
McHugh said.
Some athletes - gymnasts, hurdlers and swimmers among them - may need to stretch to gain the flexibility they need for their sport, Dr.
McHugh said.
But distance runners do not benefit from being flexible, he found.
The most efficient runners, those who exerted the least effort to maintain a pace, were the stiffest.
Dr. Charles Kenny, an orthopedist in private practice in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, is adamantly opposed to stretching.
The practice, he said, weakens performance and makes an injury more likely.
¡°If stretching was a drug, it would be recalled,¡± Dr. Kenny said.

????, ? ???, ? ????
?? ???
????? ?? ? ?? ????. ????? ???? ??, ??? ?? ??? ??, ???? ?? ?? ??? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ??. ??? ??? ?????? ?? ???? ?? ?? ???? ?? ?? ???? ??? ???? ??? ??.
??? ???? ??? ???? ?? ?? ????? ??? ???, ????, ??? ?? ???? ?????? ??? ??? ??? ???? ??? ??? ???? ???. ??? ???? ?????? ????? ??? ??? ???? ?? ????? ??? ???? ??, ??? ??? ????? ??? ??? ????? ??? ??? ?? ?? ???? ??. ???? ?? ?????? ????? ??? ??? ??.
¡°???? ?? ??? ???? ??¡±?35?? ???? ?? ??? ???? ¡°?????? ??? ????? ?? ?????? ????? ?? ??? ??? ???? ??? ???? ?????¡±? ???.
????? ?? ??? ???? 2004? 3?? ??? ???? ?????? ?? ??? ???? ??? ?? ?? ??? ?? ??? ?? ??? ? ? ??. ??? ???? ?? ???? ????? ?? ??? ???? ??? ?????? ???, ??? ?????.
? ??? ???? ????? ?? ???? ??? ??? ?? ?? ??? ?? ?? ???? ??? ??? ??? ?? ??????? ???? ?? ????? ??? ??? ??? ????? ???????? ??? ?? ???? ????? ??? ? ? ??? ???. ???? ?? ???? ??? ???? ????? ??? ????? ???? ??? ???? ???? ????? ????? ?????? ????? ??? ???.
??? ????? ???? ?????? ??? ??? ??? ???? ??? ? ????? ???? ??? ??? ???? ?? ???? ???? ??? ??? ¡°???? ??? ? ??? ????? ??? ????? ?? ??? ??¡±? ????.
??? ?? ??? ??? ?? ?? ???? ?? ?? ?? ??? ????. ??? ???? ?? ??? ??? ???? ??? ????? ?? ?? ???? ????? ???? ??? ????? ?? ?? ?? ??? ??? ??? ??? ?? ???? ?? ???. ¡°?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ????? ?? ??, ?? ?? ????? ??? ?? ?? ??? ???¡±
??, ?????, ?? ?? ?? ?? ???? ?????? ??? ??? ???? ?? ? ?? ???? ?? ??? ???.
??? ??? ????? ???? ? ??? ???. ??? ???? ??? ???? ??? ???? ??? ?? ?? ??? ?????.
?????? ??????? ???? ???? ??? ?? ?? ??? ????? ??? ????. ????? ??? ??? ???? ???? ? ??? ?. ¡°?? ????? ????? ????? ?¡±??? ?? ??? ???.

Stretch ????, ??, ??? ? ??
warm-up ????, ???
in part ??
due to ~? ????, ~ ???
limber ??? ?????, ???
loosen up ?? ?? ??? ??
epidemiologist ?????, ???
believe in ????, ??
no matter what ?? ~????(????)