The Misperception of Good Intentions
Tommy Boone, PhD, MPH, MA, FASEP, EPC
Professor and Chair
Department of Exercise Physiology
The College of St. Schoastica
Duluth, MN 55811

“The human heart is always expecting people to think right with good intentions.”  -- William T. Boone

It seems that regardless of the meaning of something, there is always somebody who is interested in finding another meaning.  We find athletes in particular who are predisposed to one order of thinking.  Their understanding of stretching exercises is anything but random.  They think the story has been written on the subject.  It is complete without need for modifications.  To speak to an athlete about the time wasted stretching the quadriceps is like waiting for a brick wall to talk back to you.  They are not just unsatisfied with someone who has a different take on stretching before and after sports participation, but predictably at variance as well.

Why athletes feel the way they do is a product of the comments by coaches and the years of doing the same exercises without reflection.  The more one thinks about flexibility exercises, the more one understands that it is essentially a waste of time to try and change the minds of athletes.  Nothing has been so engrained in their minds than the imposing (but little understood) range of motion exercises before a workout.  And, this is true across all sports and all athletes.  No one type of athlete is free from the inertia of the misperceptions of which exercises should be done and which ones can be thrown away.  As a result, athletes continue to work under the illusion that this exercise or that exercise is necessary to win.

With good intentions, occasionally I will speak up to clarify the ambiguous nature of the value and type of range of motion exercises.  Often athletes and even colleagues will look on with some amusement, if not patience.  Athletes are always looking for the holy answer to winning.  My impression is that they would eat a snake (maybe one that isn’t dead) if they could be assured to win.  Winning is everything to many young men and women.  At times, I have found myself thinking of them as hopelessly lost in the world of sports and the notion that winning is absolutely everything (i.e., nothing else is important or can match up to winning).  In other words, winning is so important that if it means substituting one addiction for another it is without question the thing to do.  This article only briefly touches on this theme. 

My primary purpose for this piece is to talk about the misperceptions of flexibility training.  Athletes and coaches believe they know better than anyone which stretching exercises are good.  Athletes are heard saying, “When I win I go back over everything I did before the race, especially the warm-up.  It’s important to identify why I ran better and why I won the race.”  The practice is common.  It is also contrary to good science and critical thinking.  Athletes do not seem to get it, however.  Their performance on a given race is independent of the stretching exercises (i.e., as long as there is an adequate range of motion to perform the sport itself).

Success is a function of many things.  But, still unconvinced, athletes believe in wearing the same socks they won in their last race.  They tend to be rather predictable since their preconceptions to athletics and winning bias their sense of what is needed to win.  Streaks of success may be remembered more when taking creatine while excellent performances when not on supplements may be forgotten.  It is the same with flexibility training.  Because chance is part of athletics and because athletes want to win, they will try anything or believe anything (however erroneous) to win.  The idea that participation is a vital part of sports went out the window with hard work when supplements came on the scene.

I’ve heard athletes ask other athletes, “What shoes are you wearing?”  Technology is a big concern.  Athletes expect to win using the “best, highest priced technology”.  Many coaches believe it, too.  It is obviously an over-application of everything they know about athletic competition, but who cares?  Winning is everything!  It is easy to see why they ask questions about everything.  Still, it is hard to sit back and watch it.  Even mysterious forces like the phases of the moon must be part of winning, right?  We can easily imagine how the presence of special fitness supplements could be interpreted to be necessary to win.  The important point here is that all athletes are using them.  Athletes know what they need.  What could a researcher know about sports?  If he doesn't have big arms, how could he know anything about lifting weights?

A dramatic illustration of this point was brought to my attention last week.  In one of the academic departments where I work, there is a middle-aged man who is dead serious about running.  The individual has been running for decades.  Imagine, when other adults stopped competing in their college sport when they graduated, this individual kept running and competing.  It is as much part of his life as being married.  As is common with college meetings, the subject of running among others was being discussed when I walked up.  I was asked if the quadriceps stretch exercise was a necessary stretch prior to running.  My common response makes it clear to everyone that it is not only unnecessary but a useless waste of time!

It was particularly striking that the runner quickly disregarded my comments.  Without a deep understanding of anatomy, I wondered about his imperfect and biased statement:  “You are not an athlete.  You do not run.  You couldn’t possibly know what is important.”  His comments caught me by surprise.  Intrigued by what he said I asked for an appointment with him to discuss the anatomy of flexibility training.  Perhaps my suggestion was too much too fast.  He turned and walked away.  Athletes cling stubbornly to old ideas and remedies.  I knew that any further attempt to discuss my comments with him was not going to happen.  I had good intentions.

Many of the beliefs we hold are largely the result of confirmatory information.  Athletes are especially convinced of believing what they want to believe.  To illustrate this tendency, consider the athlete’s circus of supplement and drug usage.  The thrust of much of the lack of wisdom about expected outcomes from cheating at sports with supplements and drugs is the bottom line.  Business is about making money.  Sports are about building character.  Well, that is what we used to think.  Athletics is now driven by money and money is tied to winning.  All of this is very unfortunate, but the truth and it is not going to change any time soon.  The belief that it is appropriate to place greater emphasis on winning and/or money than character and ethics is simply wrong.  It stands to reason then, that parents, coaches, athletes, and exercise physiologists, should stop gambling with the "character" development of their children. 

Interestingly, Bacon said, “Man prefers to believe what he prefers to be true.” The difficulty in preferring supplements and drugs to hard work is failure even if the athlete wins.  Any idea otherwise is crooked thinking.  Similarly, why athletes prefer that it is true that the quadriceps need stretching before aerobic exericse is a learned preference with connections to past beliefs.  Our desire to believe different things about athletics or health is comforting if it helps us feel better.  However, note that feeling better is not the answer.  The evidence required for affirming that the quadriceps needs stretching does not exist.  Similarly, the research that supposedly supports the use of supplements is framed to benefit the companies.  The majority of it is also secondhand information or, perhaps, even loud noise. 

“Consider the source” was something my parents taught me.  Other statements included “look before you leap” and “trust science not opinion”.  Implicit in these statements is the idea that truth can be determined if a person considers the source.  Not everything said or read makes sense much less is true.  The source from which the information is coming is critical to whether the information has merit.  Looking into the subject matter before taking drugs can spare an athlete the shame of cheating when caught.  Trust solid science, not advertisements or testimonials.  Also, when considering the source, understand that the educated and the smart can be plagued by ideas and beliefs that drive fraudulent practices and products.  Quackery flourishes on the backs of those who are willing to believe, who are desperate to win, and who prefer easy answers.

The tendency to rely heavily on misinformation contributes to problems in sports and life. The recommendation to stretch out with 12 to 15 different exercises before exercising is a waste of time.  The crude sort of logic that supplements are necessary to compete successfully with other athletes is hurting sports and young men and women.  The influence of advertisements and outright fraud is toxic to the naturalness with which life ought to be.  And, most broadly, it is the misperception of good intentions that keeps good people from wanting to speak up.  Yet taking responsibility for others is part of my professional life as is helping athletes make informed decisions by thinking straight and asking questions.