As long time readers know, I worship at the altar of data. I want to know truth not theory. We have preached for years that stretching prevents muscle injuries. Stretching 'fails to stop muscle injury'

These showed that stretching reduces soreness by such a small amount that most athletes would not consider the effect worthwhile. Neither does it significantly help to prevent injuries.

Data from two studies on army recruits in training, whose risk of injury is high, show that muscle stretching prevented on average one injury every 23 years.

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Researcher Dr Rob Herbert, from the University of Sydney, told BBC News Online the belief that stretching reduced injury first came to prominence in the 1960s.

The theory was that muscles were more likely to spasm, and cause pain, if they were suddenly called into vigorous action.

Dr Herbert said: "It sounded like a good idea, and the timing was perfect - around the time we were learning that physical activity reduced risk of heart disease, so recreational exercise was becoming very popular.

"But like many good ideas, the muscle spasm theory of muscle soreness was wrong and has since been discredited, but the practice of stretching before exercise persists."

Dr Herbert said it was possible that a gentle warm up before strenuous exercise may reduce the risk of injury - but even this was far from certain.

"There is no proven way of preventing muscle soreness associated with unaccustomed exercise apart from repeated performance of that specific type of exercise.

"With unaccustomed exercise, people get sore, but with repeated performance of the exercise they become resistant, for a time, to the muscle damage that causes soreness.

"It appears that the only way to prevent soreness is to get muscle soreness."

For those who like reading the original article - Effects of stretching before and after exercising on muscle soreness and risk of injury: systematic review