Efeito agudo do alongamento estático no desempenho de atletas em sprints: uma revisão da literatura

Abstract

Static stretching is an intervention that can be used to increase the range of motion and consequently to ease sports gestures. Despite this, several studies have shown that this intervention can impair muscle performance when performed immediately before tasks such as jumping and maximal voluntary contraction. Thus, the aim of this study was to observe the acute effect of stretching on performance in short runs (up to 100 meters) at high speed. A search was performed in the PubMed, Scielo and PEDro databases using the terms: “effects”, “static stretching”, “sprint”, and “athletes”. The search result totaled 85 articles, of which 7 were included after careful selection. The designs were very different,which made it difficult to compare the results. One study showed that stretching had no effect on running time for a 20-meter sprint. Another demonstrated that there was adifference of 0.04 seconds in the execution time of 6 sprints of 20 meters, which wasstatistically significant. There was no difference in total 100-meter sprint time after a 30-second stretch as assessed by one study. One study evaluated the performance in the 40-meter sprint and found a significant difference in total time in the situation in which thesubjects performed static stretching, meaning there was an increase in the time of completion. The only study that evaluated female subjects found that static stretching significantly increased time in 30-meter sprints. Another study that also used 30-meter sprint time as an outcome measure also found significant differences after performing static stretching. One of the studies did not present a statistical analysis comparing the control and intervention situations, however, it showed that the detrimental effect on performance occurred only in individuals who had greater baseline flexibility. More studies are needed to elucidate this issue, because in addition to the low number of studies, the designs had many differences, presenting controversial results.