Is stretching with a partner beneficial, dangerous, or both?

Question

One thing I've seen practiced before are stretches involving a partner, particularly for the legs. I've seen mixed reviews of this practice in a variety of different locations, and wondered if someone had some good experience or research on whether they were beneficial, dangerous, harmful (or perhaps counterproductive), beneficial only in selective situations, or beneficial and dangerous (in a way that can be mitigated through proper technique).

I've seen this particularly with respect to legs before doing kicks in arts that emphasis high kicks, generally working off of a wall with a partner facilitating the leg stretch.

For the purpose of this question I'm ignoring the commonly reported issue of a partner going too far relative to what a person would ask them to do or move too quickly. I've mostly heard of or seen this done with more experienced practitioners who go very slowly and who communicate quickly and effectively. Basically I'm interested in the "happy path" arrangement: the partner goes as far as the person being stretched indicates they should and no further, at a consistently slow speed.

Answer 1

Both!

Starting with dangerous: Obviously, if your partner pushes you to hard, you could easily over stretch and tear something. Just like if you try to stretch to much, or to cold by your self and over do it.

Now on to the good stuff: It is absolutely beneficial. The one technique that I use quite often is to have yourself stretch to as far as it's comfortable, have your partner hold it, and you resist against your partner for 8-12 seconds. Then relax and your partner will push the stretch just a little further (as far as comfortable). This style of stretching is great for increasing flexibility and is hard to do solo.

By favorites for this are:

1. Place your back against the wall, lifting a leg straight in front, with the resistance pushing down.
2. Sideways to the wall, leg straight up to the side, with the resistance pushing down again.
3. The butterfly stretch (sitting, bottoms of feet together, partner will be behind you, pushing your knees down).

You could also adapt these to some shoulder stretches. I don't do a lot of those, because I have fairly messed up shoulders, and the joints don't like that kind of stress.

Also note that it is important for the partners to communicate well with each other and for there to be a level of trust. They need to work together and push each other but not overdo it.

Some More information about the benefits of using a partner: Some of these you could, in theory do with out a partner, but you'll get a better stretch, and be able to push against the resistance better, if it's being provided by a partner. The standing, leg sideways one is a good example, sure, you could get almost the same stretch from doing the splits, but how can you resist against that? For the "butterfly" stretch, having to use your own elbows or hands to push your knees down will take away from your proper posture for the stretch.

Basically, by using a partner for the resistance, you allow for better range of motion and form and will have more steady source of resistance then you could provide yourself.

here are a couple of links about isomentric or pnf stretching:

http://articles.submityourarticle.com/Richard-Lane-372/stretching-83751.php

http://www.cmcrossroads.com/bradapp/docs/rec/stretching/stretching_4.html#SEC34

Answer 2

From Tom Kurz' Stretching Scientifically, page 25, it's a great book, pick it up:

The practice of using partners in stretching is a waste of time, and it is dangerous. The helper is neither stretching nor resting.

This is an important point to remember: the wild inefficiency of partner stretching. Class time is valuable. Spending it holding someone else's leg for no good reason is a waste. Continuing!

The danger of using a partner in stretching is obvious. The partner does not feel what you feel. He or she can easily stretch you a bit more than you would like. If you feel pain and let your partner know about it, by the time the partner reacts, it can be too late.

I think there are exceptions (such as this), but they are very rare, and involve professionals guiding you through very specific stretches that, without a partner, would be logistically impossible or difficult. This is not the case for the vast majority of basic stretches, and does not include students haphazardly trying to help each other, or as happens too often in the martial arts, an instructor walking by in a group setting and trying to "help" (or more likely, show off his prowess at producing such flexible students) with a push.