Inhibition of Maximal Voluntary Isometric Torque Production by Acute Stretching is Joint-Angle Specific

lthough stretching exercises that enhance flexibility A are regularly included in the training programs and pre-event warm-up activities of most athletes, research suggests that preexercise stretching could negatively impact the performance of skills for which success is related to maximal force output. Wilson, Murphy, and Pryor (1994) suggested that a stifFmusculotendinous system allows for an improved force production by the contractile component and provided evidence to support this suggestion by demonstrating that concentric performance in the bench press was significantly related to musculotendinous stiffness. The findings of Wilson et al. (1994), coupled with the results of several studies (Magnusson, Simonsen, Aagaard, & Kjaer, 1996; Rosenbaum & Hennig, 1995; Taylor, Dalton, Seaber, & Garrett, 1990), indicating that the musculotendinous unit becomes less stiff as a result of acute stretching, lead Kokkonen, Nelson, & Cornwell (1998) to investigate the effect of acute stretching on knee extension and knee flexion onerepetition maximum (IRM) lifts. Kokkonen et al. (1998) reported that a regimen of acute stretching inhibited the one-repetition maximum lift (IRM) of both knee extension and knee flexion. Kokkonen et al. (1998), however, could only speculate about the mechanisms responsible for this phenomenon. One speculated mechanism was derived from a Wilson et al. (1994) supposition that the lesser force pro-