Stretching for performance enhancement.

Stretching exercises have been considered an essential component of physical training programs for decades. Cross-sectional studies have demonstrated that flexibility measures are related to performance in many sports, suggesting that using stretching to enhance flexibility may indirectly improve performance. However, observations by athletes and coaches have called into question the universal prescription of stretching for the purpose of enhancing sport performance, and this skepticism is being supported by a growing body of empirical data. Whereas the tissue responses and adaptations to stretching have been the most widely studied area of stretching research, comparatively little is understood regarding the neural influences on range of motion, which may have more applicability when the range of motion needs are related to skilled movements as in sport.