Tips on stretching

Tips on stretching

1. Never stretch a cold muscle. Always warm up the muscles with some cardiovascular exercises such as jogging or skipping. A warm muscle is more pliable and less tight.
   
   
2. Emphasize on dynamic stretches before or during your workout, focusing on the muscles you will be training. Current literature does not advocate static stretching before the workout as it may reduce performance. However, I feel that it is fine to do it after your dynamic stretches if it is specific to your activity. Gymnasts perform a lot of static stretches before their trainings and competitions. The reason is that they need that kind of stretched isometric movements in their sport. The key is it should not be done excessively (refer to point 5).
   
   
3. Do not test the pain barrier with your stretches. Stretch till the point of discomfort, not pain.
   
   
4. Exercises should always be done within their proper range of motion.
   
   
5. Avoid excessive stretching before or during your workout. Stretching, by itself is a workout especially when done to improve flexibility. It causes muscle fatigue which reduces performance and increase risk of injury.
   
   
6. Make time for stretching pre- and post-workout, and consider doing separate stretching sessions outside the gym to maintain or improve flexibility.

Reference:

Joe Weider’s Flex (Nov, 2010), pg 274-280