Preprint
Review

Soccer Post-Match Recovery – a Review of the Evidence on Static Stretching

This version is not peer-reviewed.

Submitted:

09 July 2018

Posted:

10 July 2018

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Abstract
Soccer is the most played sport worldwide, with over 265 million participants. It is an incredibly demanding sport, with many different technical skills and physical loads placed on the body. This makes post-match recovery strategies amongst high level soccer players of great importance. The aim of this review is to summarize the existing literature on stretching for post-match recovery, examining its relation to injury prevention, Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS), and performance. Scientific evidence of the highest quality and relevance was extracted and reviewed. Despite its common practice, evidence does not support static stretching as a modality to improve recovery post-match amongst soccer players. Larger trials with important outcome measures are needed to determine if a post-match stretching regimen to facilitate recovery exists.
Keywords: 
Static; Stretching; Post-Match; Soccer; Recovery; DOMS; Injury; Performance
Subject: 
Medicine and Pharmacology  -   Orthopedics and Sports Medicine
Copyright: This open access article is published under a Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 license, which permit the free download, distribution, and reuse, provided that the author and preprint are cited in any reuse.

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