You see them every week on television. No matter what the sport, you will see athletes on the ground, trying to manipulate their bodies into weird contortions in an effort to stretch out tight muscles. What happens when you overstretch a rubber band? It snaps!

The same thing applies to muscles, ligaments, tendons, and joints. Stretching these structures in the traditional sense will put the athlete at risk for tearing one of them. It is not a natural phenomenon to lay on the ground and hold the body in some strange position until it hurts. The hurting sensation means that something is going to tear if the athlete does not stop. This passive type of stretching can lead to loose, stretched tissue. The problem with this is that these ligaments, tendons, muscles, and joints are made weaker by the stretching. Stretched tissue is easily injured. Traditional passive stretching does not decrease incidence of sports injuries. It increases them.

Increasing flexibility is one of the keys for the athlete to prevent injury. This must be done with muscle strength control. This training involves strengthening the muscles around the joint, which will, in turn, naturally increase the flexibility of the antagonistic muscles. A good example of this is an athlete who desires to increase hamstring muscle flexibility. Traditional passive stretching would involve getting into some weird contortion and bending over until it hurt. This usually hurts the back, as well as the hamstrings. Nothing was accomplished toward strengthening the hamstrings or the quadriceps muscles in the leg. Muscle strength control training involves leg lifts, kicks that increase the strength of the quadriceps of the leg, or leg strengthening exercises which then have the reciprocal effect of stretching the hamstrings. The ultimate result is a longer stride length for the runner, and stronger thigh and leg muscles, which can aid any athlete.