History of stretching

Whereas animals have pandiculated (stretched and yawned) for eons, our historical records indicate that humans have stretched for thousands of years (yoga [~3000 bce], Asian martial arts [~1000 bce], Greeks and Egyptians [~2000 bce]). Although ballistic stretching was popular in the 1950s, static stretching became predominant from the 1960s to the late 1990s. Proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation (PNF) stretching was popularized to a greater degree, starting in the 1970s, but in the late 1990s, research started to indicate that static stretching could lead to performance impairments. Since that time dynamic stretching has made a resurgence. The most recent studies suggest that the move away from static stretching may have been premature and based on impractical study designs.