One of the things I find interesting about the field of physical therapy/sports medicine is how few concrete facts there are about many things that people assume are good for them. For example, most people have learned to stretch before exercising. About a decade or so ago, however, static stretching before running was found to be harmful. Newer studies are ambivalent about stretching, and the consensus, as reported in The New York Times, seems to be: keep stretching if you stretch, but don’t start stretching if you haven’t.
It’s interesting that something so prevalent is so untested, especially when in the studies sited here, about 20% of runners seem to injure themselves after taking up running. I don’t know as much about sports medicine research, but I imagine it’s hard to make sure subjects all face identical treatments and that they stay in the study. I’m eager to learn more about how research is conducted in the field, and why so much of it is contradictory.