Stretching and Warm-up: Are They Important for Achilles Tendon Injury Reduction?

INTRODUCTION Achilles tendon rupture is among the most frequent musculoskeletal injury, with over 1 million cases annualy in the United States alone [1]. Calf stretches and warm-up are routinely used by professional and recreational athletes as an injury prevention measure. Both londitudinal stretch training studies and accute calf stretching have shown to decrease tendon stiffness [2,3], representing a possible mechanism for reducing the incidence of tendon rupture. However, these studies use stretching protocols that are impractical and of much greater intensity compared to those commonly used by ‘typical’ middle-aged indiviulas, who are most at risk of tendon injury. Moreover, no studies have addressed the effect of warm-up on Achilles tendon mechanical properties. Concequently, whether or not commonly adopted stretching and warm-up routines used by recreational athletes confer any accute adaptive response to the Achiles tendon remails unclear.