aggiederelict said:
I am a physical therapist and encourage especially my older patients to stretch to maintain good mobility. It is helpful in pain reduction when not in the acute phase of tendonitis or even a nerve irritation. Also it provides a tensile load to that can helpful for remodeling during a tendonosis under load which is why you see protocols (alfredsons) utilize them for rehab. This idea that stretching does nothing seems so odd to me. It clearly has an impact for certain things.
Not saying it doesn't have a place and yes, it can be very beneficial depending on the situation and the person. You are working with elderly people who aren't likely trained individuals, so if this is their only form of movement, yes, it is greatly beneficial to them. Any modality where one can move, gain mobility and balance when they are not likely to lift weights can be very good for that type of individual. Pilates and yoga can be great for the less active people who are not trained. I argue these modalities do little to help weight lifters who get more than enough benefits from the actual lifting to get much of anything from yoga or pilates (might ruffle feathers here as I know some folks who swear by it but the evidence just doesn't back up that they help lifting) If these were younger trained individuals on the other hand, they likely shouldn't "stretch" and won't need much mobilizing outside of performing the warmups for the actual lifts themselves.
But, what has become fashionable in recent years is a lot of "experts" claiming the need to mobilize before any and all activities and throwing around claims that it would prevent injuries. The problem with that is that the overwhelming amount of evidence shows it doesn't. Some mobilizing can be great but in reality almost all mobilizing that works is really just a lighter version of the movement about to be performed, especially when lifting. I still sit unloaded into my squats, push my knees out with my elbows before I squat or do almost any kind of pressing activity with my legs. But that is essentially a squat without weight when you think about it. I sometimes will do ankle mobility movements if they feel tight. But we are talking about less then a minute each while "resting" between warmups sets. But the idea that every lifter needs a mobilizing protocol is is very misguided (not saying you advocate that). I saw a girl who claimed to be a PT say on her IG that you NEED to do her 20-30 min (seriously-you can't make this up) mobilizing drills for shoulders b4 doing your shoulder training. She never once stated any specific people with prior injuries or anything. Just everyone should be doing this or they greatly risk injury. I was laughing at the idea that in the time i could have just trained my shoulders, using proper warmups, i would be mobilizing needlessly. Maybe if it were a person with prior serious shoulder injuries, but even then, likely non of it is needed.
