Strechy stretchy!! Do you stretch??

Great article in the C-L a couple of days ago… well, it was an AP article- don’t want to give them TOO much credit. The article was about the virtues of stretching before working out.

Apparently there is some discussion among the experts… which by the way I am not one of… about stretching. It seems that some experts say that it might promote injury if done just prior to working out or running- if you run like I do, then that is working out—-.

A bunch of really smart guys at the University of London compaired stretching just prior to working out to stretching out a rubber band to its maximum. These guys say that your body might “think” that it is at risk of being overstretched and ultimately contract.

The rub of the whole matter is this: they say that not only may all this stretching before working out be more likely to injure you, but it does not really help you preform any better. Many studies show that stretching before playing a sport make athletes slower and weaker. They also say that warming up with a light jog or sport specific exercise works better. It will get the blood flowing and get the body temperature to rise. According to the article, the experts advise stretching, but NOT before working out.

Paul Lacoste started me with stretching every morning before our workout. I am not sure that I could do it without stretching. I know that it would be hard to run without stretching beforehand. How do you feel about this? Can you start your workouts cold?

This entry was posted on Friday, April 30th, 2010 at 2:45 pm and is filed under Workout. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

4 Responses to “Strechy stretchy!! Do you stretch??”

heifer Says:
May 1st, 2010 at 8:56 pm

Not that I’m an expert on working out by any means, but I don’t real stretch. I do warm up on the elliptical for several minutes though!

Anonymous Fat Girl Says:
May 2nd, 2010 at 8:57 am

Personally, I think stretching is so important. I’ve learned how to do ballistic stretching from the P90X videos and I actually like that better. You know, jogging in place, jumping jacks, that sort of thing.

Karyn Says:
May 4th, 2010 at 3:05 pm

I don’t stretch prior to working out. I used too but find that I felt better if I left it until after my workout. I always warm up with a slow jog or brisk walk and that is sufficient enough for me. Stretching after a run feels awesome.

Old Dog New Tricks Says:
May 21st, 2010 at 10:13 am

You can teach an old dog new tricks. I just started working out again. When i was younger, I could just jump up and touch me toes for a few minutes. But now if I don’t stretch before and after I just simply walk I feel awful. You can walk further without the lactic acid building up and causing the cramping in you stretch.

I recommend stretching.

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