Don't stretch before working out.

[SpeedRacer 1]

NYTimes article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/02/sports/playmagazine/112pewarm.html?em

November 2, 2008
Phys Ed
Stretching: The Truth
By GRETCHEN REYNOLDS
WHEN DUANE KNUDSON, a professor of kinesiology at California State University, Chico, looks around campus at athletes warming up before practice, he sees one dangerous mistake after another. “They’re stretching, touching their toes. . . . ” He sighs. “It’s discouraging.”

If you’re like most of us, you were taught the importance of warm-up exercises back in grade school, and you’ve likely continued with pretty much the same routine ever since. Science, however, has moved on. Researchers now believe that some of the more entrenched elements of many athletes’ warm-up regimens are not only a waste of time but actually bad for you. The old presumption that holding a stretch for 20 to 30 seconds — known as static stretching — primes muscles for a workout is dead wrong. It actually weakens them. In a recent study conducted at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, athletes generated less force from their leg muscles after static stretching than they did after not stretching at all. Other studies have found that this stretching decreases muscle strength by as much as 30 percent. Also, stretching one leg’s muscles can reduce strength in the other leg as well, probably because the central nervous system rebels against the movements.

“There is a neuromuscular inhibitory response to static stretching,” says Malachy McHugh, the director of research at the Nicholas Institute of Sports Medicine and Athletic Trauma at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. The straining muscle becomes less responsive and stays weakened for up to 30 minutes after stretching, which is not how an athlete wants to begin a workout.

THE RIGHT WARM-UP should do two things: loosen muscles and tendons to increase the range of motion of various joints, and literally warm up the body. When you’re at rest, there’s less blood flow to muscles and tendons, and they stiffen. “You need to make tissues and tendons compliant before beginning exercise,” Knudson says.

A well-designed warm-up starts by increasing body heat and blood flow. Warm muscles and dilated blood vessels pull oxygen from the bloodstream more efficiently and use stored muscle fuel more effectively. They also withstand loads better. One significant if gruesome study found that the leg-muscle tissue of laboratory rabbits could be stretched farther before ripping if it had been electronically stimulated — that is, warmed up.

To raise the body’s temperature, a warm-up must begin with aerobic activity, usually light jogging. Most coaches and athletes have known this for years. That’s why tennis players run around the court four or five times before a match and marathoners stride in front of the starting line. But many athletes do this portion of their warm-up too intensely or too early. A 2002 study of collegiate volleyball players found that those who’d warmed up and then sat on the bench for 30 minutes had lower backs that were stiffer than they had been before the warm-up. And a number of recent studies have demonstrated that an overly vigorous aerobic warm-up simply makes you tired. Most experts advise starting your warm-up jog at about 40 percent of your maximum heart rate (a very easy pace) and progressing to about 60 percent. The aerobic warm-up should take only 5 to 10 minutes, with a 5-minute recovery. (Sprinters require longer warm-ups, because the loads exerted on their muscles are so extreme.) Then it’s time for the most important and unorthodox part of a proper warm-up regimen, the Spider-Man and its counterparts.

“TOWARDS THE end of my playing career, in about 2000, I started seeing some of the other guys out on the court doing these strange things before a match and thinking, What in the world is that?” says Mark Merklein, 36, once a highly ranked tennis player and now a national coach for the United States Tennis Association. The players were lunging, kicking and occasionally skittering, spider-like, along the sidelines. They were early adopters of a new approach to stretching.

While static stretching is still almost universally practiced among amateur athletes — watch your child’s soccer team next weekend — it doesn’t improve the muscles’ ability to perform with more power, physiologists now agree. “You may feel as if you’re able to stretch farther after holding a stretch for 30 seconds,” McHugh says, “so you think you’ve increased that muscle’s readiness.” But typically you’ve increased only your mental tolerance for the discomfort of the stretch. The muscle is actually weaker.

Stretching muscles while moving, on the other hand, a technique known as dynamic stretching or dynamic warm-ups, increases power, flexibility and range of motion. Muscles in motion don’t experience that insidious inhibitory response. They instead get what McHugh calls “an excitatory message” to perform.

Dynamic stretching is at its most effective when it’s relatively sports specific. “You need range-of-motion exercises that activate all of the joints and connective tissue that will be needed for the task ahead,” says Terrence Mahon, a coach with Team Running USA, home to the Olympic marathoners Ryan Hall and Deena Kastor. For runners, an ideal warm-up might include squats, lunges and “form drills” like kicking your buttocks with your heels. Athletes who need to move rapidly in different directions, like soccer, tennis or basketball players, should do dynamic stretches that involve many parts of the body. “Spider-Man” is a particularly good drill: drop onto all fours and crawl the width of the court, as if you were climbing a wall. (For other dynamic stretches, see the sidebar below.)

Even golfers, notoriously nonchalant about warming up (a recent survey of 304 recreational golfers found that two-thirds seldom or never bother), would benefit from exerting themselves a bit before teeing off. In one 2004 study, golfers who did dynamic warm- up exercises and practice swings increased their clubhead speed and were projected to have dropped their handicaps by seven strokes over seven weeks.

Controversy remains about the extent to which dynamic warm-ups prevent injury. But studies have been increasingly clear that static stretching alone before exercise does little or nothing to help. The largest study has been done on military recruits; results showed that an almost equal number of subjects developed lower-limb injuries (shin splints, stress fractures, etc.), regardless of whether they had performed static stretches before training sessions. A major study published earlier this year by the Centers for Disease Control, on the other hand, found that knee injuries were cut nearly in half among female collegiate soccer players who followed a warm-up program that included both dynamic warm-up exercises and static stretching. (For a sample routine, visit www.aclprevent.com/pepprogram.htm.) And in golf, new research by Andrea Fradkin, an assistant professor of exercise science at Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania, suggests that those who warm up are nine times less likely to be injured.

“It was eye-opening,” says Fradkin, formerly a feckless golfer herself. “I used to not really warm up. I do now.”

You’re Getting Warmer: The Best Dynamic Stretches

These exercises- as taught by the United States Tennis Association’s player-development program – are good for many athletes, even golfers. Do them immediately after your aerobic warm-up and as soon as possible before your workout.

STRAIGHT-LEG MARCH

(for the hamstrings and gluteus muscles)

Kick one leg straight out in front of you, with your toes flexed toward the sky. Reach your opposite arm to the upturned toes. Drop the leg and repeat with the opposite limbs. Continue the sequence for at least six or seven repetitions.

SCORPION

(for the lower back, hip flexors and gluteus muscles)

Lie on your stomach, with your arms outstretched and your feet flexed so that only your toes are touching the ground. Kick your right foot toward your left arm, then kick your leftfoot toward your right arm. Since this is an advanced exercise, begin slowly, and repeat up to 12 times.

HANDWALKS

(for the shoulders, core muscles, and hamstrings)

Stand straight, with your legs together. Bend over until both hands are flat on the ground. “Walk” with your hands forward until your back is almost extended. Keeping your legs straight, inch your feet toward your hands, then walk your hands forward again. Repeat five or six times. G.R.

Speed Racer
--------------------------------------------------

[IronTwoSix 0]

The recently updated Army physical fitness manual has also moved to this form of dynamic warmups.

Muff Brother #4204
SCR #14843

[downwardspiral 0]

I agree and disagree. First of all stretching was never intended as a performance enhancing warm up routine. It intention is to minimize injuries. Stretching too much before a workout is a bad thing. Not stretching at all or just doing dynamic stretching can likely result in injury. Especially an injury which stretching is utilized to reduce....muscle cramps, pulls, and tears as well as ligament damage.

Shin splints and stress fractures are a result of a lack of use not a lack of a warm up routine. Also the study was done on a demographic that typically does not require a warm up to prevent injury.

www.FourWheelerHB.com

[simplyputsi 0]

Interesting, very interesting.

I'm going to have to say though what type of workout are we talking about here?
I can buy that stretching a bunch can affect trying to bench press a high load. Same goes for any other exercise.
However, what if the athlete in question is doing low weights high reps, for endurance. I'm not so inclined to buy that stretching is bad in this instance.

I have done reps with increased speed to build endurance and I am pretty sure without stretching a tear would be more likely to happen.

I was taught a while back to not overly stretch before a workout though. Get the blood flowing and give the muscles a little stretch, but maxing out your stretch before the workout is a bad idea.

Maybe that is what it's saying though. How would that be anything new though? A gym/health teacher taught me that years and years ago.

Skymama's #2 stalker -

[micduran 0]

You should never stretch cold muscles

Be patient with the faults of others; they have to be patient with yours.

[Cari 0]

I stretch out by thumbs everyday before powering on the Xbox.

[BillyVance 34]

Quote

I agree and disagree. First of all stretching was never intended as a performance enhancing warm up routine. It intention is to minimize injuries. Stretching too much before a workout is a bad thing. Not stretching at all or just doing dynamic stretching can likely result in injury. Especially an injury which stretching is utilized to reduce....muscle cramps, pulls, and tears as well as ligament damage.

Shin splints and stress fractures are a result of a lack of use not a lack of a warm up routine. Also the study was done on a demographic that typically does not require a warm up to prevent injury.

When I was in high school on the cross country and track teams, our coach emphasized that stretching before and after workouts were paramount to minimizing injuries such as pulled muscles/ligaments. Too bad he didn't make that speech in the preseason instead of halfway through the race season after several injuries put some of us on the bench. After that, no more injuries.

"Mediocre people don't like high achievers, and high achievers don't like mediocre people." - SIX TIME National Champion coach Nick Saban

[jumpwally 0]

I think you need to re-read the article

smile, be nice, enjoy life
FB # - 1083

[downwardspiral 0]

The title of the thread is "Don't stretch before a workout" which I disagree with. Do me a favor and make some points rather than assume I misread the article. I'm not going to reread anything just because you thin i should. Not saying I didn't misread it it but have some courtesy. And what's with the angry face? lol

www.FourWheelerHB.com

[ltdiver 3]

Quote

I agree and disagree. First of all stretching was never intended as a performance enhancing warm up routine. It intention is to minimize injuries. Stretching too much before a workout is a bad thing. Not stretching at all or just doing dynamic stretching can likely result in injury. Especially an injury which stretching is utilized to reduce....muscle cramps, pulls, and tears as well as ligament damage.

Shin splints and stress fractures are a result of a lack of use not a lack of a warm up routine. Also the study was done on a demographic that typically does not require a warm up to prevent injury.

I agree with your statement. Static stretches have their place, as do dynamic ones. Depends on what you're aiming at achieving.

Static stretches are not meant to increase 'muscle strength and power'. However, a lengthened tendon will help prevent injury for those who lack full ROM (range of motion) already.

One just has to listen to the horrid pop that Gold Medalist Beach Volleyball Star Misty Mae-Treanor experienced! (shudder still when I think about it). I would love to hear her comment on what type of warm-up she did before taking the floor for that rehearsal. Listen to just the first minute of this review to hear the snap! Yes, that sound is the rupture of the tendon. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Em9kwsCeTNo&feature=related

For an athlete a conservative static stretching program is needed, and a dynamic one (which includes a warm-up before hand) is required before performance.

Then there's the geriatric population....

ltdiver

Don't tell me the sky's the limit when there are footprints on the moon

[Andy9o8 0]

Quote

Static stretches are not meant to increase 'muscle strength and power'. However, a lengthened tendon will help prevent injury for those who lack full ROM (range of motion) already.

Those of you under the 35-40 age range might not realize (yet) just how much this means YOU. You'll find out soon enough.

[gjhdiver 0]

Have you ever seen a racehorse strecth before a race ? I submit you have not. I never stretch. All racehorses do is wander around in a circle and have a poo.

That's all I do before a jump.

[jtval 0]

Quote

Have you ever seen a racehorse strecth before a race ? I submit you have not. I never stretch. All racehorses do is wander around in a circle and have a poo.

That's all I do before a jump.

While I am not calling bullshit here I am going to bet that on at least one of your 9800 jumps you've poo'd WHILE IN THE AIR.

My photos

My Videos