Stretching: is it really important to prevent injury? Apparently not...

I was browsing through a few websites and a few sports physiology journals about the benefits of stretching in preventing injuries. Here is something that i came across that i found that was published last year in a sports medicine journal. 
 
Basically, to summarise, researchers conducted a systematic review to assess the evidence for the effectiveness of stretching as a tool to prevent injuries in sports based on all previous research. This is what they found:
 
"Stretching was not significantly associated with a reduction in total injuries (OR = 0.93, CI 0.78-1.11) and similar findings were seen in the subgroup analyses.
CONCLUSION: There is not sufficient evidence to endorse or discontinue routine stretching before or after exercise to prevent injury among competitive or recreational athletes. Further research, especially well-conducted randomized controlled trials, is urgently needed to determine the proper role of stretching in sports" (The Impact of Stretching on Sports Injury Risk: A Systematic Review of the Literature - Source: Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2004 Mar;36(3):371-8)
 
I looked around a bit more and this is what one of the other experts in the area had to say about it.
 
" I felt this review paper was important because I feel the world’s exercise practices are steeped in tradition rather than actual knowledge of how the body responds to exercise and related practices such as stretching.
 
The results of this review paper clearly demonstrated that there isn’t sufficient evidence to believe that stretching before exercise or sport prevents injuries. However, the research did indicate that stretching increases temporary flexibility. Well that makes sense doesn’t it? But once again, even increased flexibility has not been shown to prevent injuries. Not only that, but increased flexibility has actually been shown to decrease performance in more than one study.
 
One thing this paper brought out was that “warm-up”, rather than mere stretching, may indeed be useful in preventing injury. Warming up helps to increase the blood flow to muscle tissue, increase temperature of the tissue, and even increases range of motion.
 
Effective warm-up for weight lifting should include multiple reps on the exercise that is to be performed. Using about 50% of the maximum workload is generally effective for warm-up. Warm up for a given muscle group is not necessary after a work set has been performed. In other words, it is only necessary to warm up before your first set for a given muscle group.
 
Now I can hear many of you thinking, “I enjoy stretching. I don’t know if I want to stop stretching.” Please don’t misunderstand the purpose of the article. I don’t want people to stop stretching. All I want is for people to stop telling other people that stretching is required to prevent injury. There is no evidence to believe that stretching prevents injury and the ongoing belief and practice of stretching to prevent injury is just one more stumbling block preventing understanding and real progress in the practice of bodybuilding.
 
Stretching acts as a sort of primer or a pre-exercise ritual. It helps people get mentally prepared for maximum effort even if it doesn’t do much for the muscle itself. This is important and shouldn’t be abandoned."
 

I agree with the last statement in the article- Whether stretching actually does help prevent injury or not, I personally feel it helps warm up at the least, and mentally prepares me for a workout. Even if the actual stretch itself does nothing, but the increased flow of blood helps prepare the muscles for activity, it's worthwhile- I know I have to stretch before a run, otherwise my legs feel way too tight. But besides all the research stating otherwise-
Whenever I run on tight muscles, it feels like my step is off- My feet hit the ground wrong, my legs don't seem to want to stride right, etc- If you ask me, this sort of thing could lead to injuries, either immediate or long term. I don't know.

Dont get me wrong. Im not trashing Stretching.

This study was a meta-analysis - which means, they gathered information from a lot of previously done studies and combined the results, put it all together and came up with a conclusion at the end. So this wasnt just the work of a few people who were 'anti-stretching'.

This has been an interesting point of debate for a while now. If you read what Paul Cribb (from AST - founders of Max-OT) has to say about it, you will see that he too doesnt see stretching as helping you lift heavier weights.
 
"stretching before training won’t protect you from tearing a muscle. Stretching is an important component for building strength and improving athletic performance as it increases/maintains range of motion of the joints. However, stretching should be left until after the hard work is done.......It's well documented that stretching plays a role in rehabilitation from injury. It is also widely accepted that stretching improves athletic performance by increasing range of motion. With this information it seems to reason that greater range of motion means you are less likely to become injured by overextending your body while competing or working out"
 
But Cpl, youre right in saying that before a run if u dont stretch you feel stiff. Scientists at Tokyo, Japan did a study which showed that prolonged stretching (about 10 minutes - no the 10 or 15 seconds a lot of people do) does increase tendon elasticity and decrease tendon stiffness and improve flexibility. But then again increased flexibility has actually been shown to decrease performance in more than one study --> What the??
 
If you ask me, this whole situation is like a dog chasing its tail.
 
My opinion = if stretching works for you and you feels stronger, safer and less stiff from it, dont stop doing it. If you are the kind of person who doesnt usually stretch, theres no point (and no evidence) that you should start doing so now. If it aint broke, dont fix it.