Posted by request of Gene Newman:
From Alan Roth
Well, we are finally ready to launch after two long years of preparation.
Here is some text that you can use to send to runners you know. This soft
launch of the stretch study is not for the media. We only need a hundred or
so participants to enroll so that we can see what questions they have and
build the FAQ page before we do the large-scale public launch. If you have a
local listserv or bulletin board in your running community, please post this
to your local runners, or at least share it with friends of yours who run.
Thanks,
Alan
USA Track & Field is launching the Pre-Run Stretch Study. It is an important
study in that there has not been a large randomized, well-controlled study
to show whether pre-run stretching helps prevent injuries. This is a soft
launch in that it is not yet going to the media to be announced to the
public. The intention of the soft launch is to recruit a hundred or so
volunteers to enroll in the study before a full-scale public launch.
The soft launch will give us an opportunity to monitor progress and identify
where runners will have questions. We are building a
frequently-asked-questions page so when we do the public launch we won't
have large numbers of runners calling us with the same questions. As you go
through the registration, if you have a question, the best way to reach us
with it is to send it to stretchstudy@usatf.org.
Some of you may already have pre-run stretching routines or you may be
averse to pre-run stretching. If you have a strong bias one way or the
other, then participation in the study is not for you. We hope there are
many of you who may or may not do pre-run stretching but who wish to help us
learn whether it really does help reduce injuries and will agree to be
randomly assigned to stretch or not stretch.
Since this is a medical study on human subjects, it is being implemented
with the approval of the institutional review board (IRB) of Holy Cross
Hospital in Silver Spring, MD.
To learn more about the study, you can read the text below or just go
directly to the stretch study website at www.usatf.org/stretchstudy/
Alan Roth
Project Coordinator
*Announcement of what the study is:* A study to learn if pre-run static
stretching will help reduce injuries in distance running. Many studies have
been conducted to understand the impact of stretching or warm-ups on the
risk of injury, but with conflicting results and a broad review of
'stretching' shows it is not conclusively determined whether a pre-run
static stretch protects runners from injury during their routine training.
*What we need* We are soliciting volunteers to participate in this study.
Each participant will be randomly assigned to stretch or not to stretch
before their usual running routine and those stretching are to follow a
detailed protocol of stretches of the hamstring, quadricep and calf muscles
for a total of 4 minutes over a period of 3 months.
Participants are free to stretch as they normally would at other times than
the pre-run period (eg: post-run cool down stretching).
*How to join the study:* Participants are to fill out a questionnaire which
asks for information about their running level and relevant medical status.
The information will remain private and be used only for statistical
analysis of study results.
*What is required of Participants:* Participants are to follow the protocol
for 3 months and report injuries during their participation in the study. If
there is no injury, they are to confirm that at the end of the 3 months of
stretching or not stretching.
*How to take care of injuries:* If injuries require medical attention,
participants are asked to use the medical services and health insurance that
they would be using outside the study.
*Who qualifies:* Participants are expected to be running at least ten miles
per week, are over the age of 13, have not suffered any injury impeding
their ability to run at any point within 6 weeks prior to study
participation, do not plan to reduce or stop their current running routine
at any time during the 3 months of participation, and are willing to be
randomly assigned as either a stretcher or non-stretcher.
*Risks of Participation: *The study is important because we don't know
whether a pre-run stretch will cause or prevent injury. It is possible that
participants who are assigned to stretch or not-stretch will experience more
injuries. Also, even if stretching or not-stretching is found to prevent
injuries, when we analyze the entire group, every individual is different
and stretching or not stretching may not prevent you from experiencing an
injury.
*How long the study will last:* The study will be open to new participants
until there is enough evidence to make statistically relevant conclusions.
The results of the study will be made public and will be valuable to runners
throughout the country and throughout the world. We urge those runners, be
they sprinters, road runners, trail runners or ultra runners, who would like
to contribute to this knowledge, who have no bias about stretching or
non-stretching and who otherwise meet the criteria, to visit the USATF
website to sign up for the study. www.usatf.org/stretchstudy/
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