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Stretching protects muscles - Brief Article
Men's Fitness, Sept, 2002
Recent debates have questioned just how beneficial stretching is in minimizing muscle injury, with the majority of reports remaining anecdotal. Now comes a study that says stretching before working out does protect muscles--well, mice muscles, anyway.
Researchers at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and the University of Toledo in Ohio stimulated the muscles of two groups of lab mice: the first with "passive stretching" comparable to what humans do before a workout, the second with more intense "eccentric contraction." While inflammatory immune-system response proved greater in the latter group, the "passive stretchers" also showed signs of significant cellular protection--without evidence of injury to provoke the activity.
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According to the investigators, who presented their findings at the Experimental Biology conference in New Orleans, the greatest benefits seem to occur when stretching is done just prior to vigorous exercise.
COPYRIGHT 2002 Weider Publications
COPYRIGHT 2002 Gale Group
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