My clients are always complaining about the length of time it takes to stretch before exercising (since I make them stretch after, too).
During the 2-day live session our instructor says he never has his clients stretch prior to exercising (although he does have them do a good 5-10 minute warm up). The College of Sports Medicine also now seems to be of the opinion that pre-stretching is worthless. Yet a search on the net indicated that some agree with that while others don't. The PT guru, Douglas Brooks, neatly skirts the entire issue in his book Program Design for Personal Trainers!
I am going to play it safe and have my clients do three of each stretch before exercising, and the full set after...but I hate to have them do it before if it's worthless.
Personally, I know that I dare never run or use a treadmill unless my adductors have been warmed and stretched -- for me, personally, it's a recipe for disaster.
Opinions?
Oh, yes, one other question! Suppose you are doing five reps of one stretch. The common wisdom is 10 seconds of rest in between...is that in between each of those stretches in the set or in between stretches of different muscle groups!
ADDENDUM! Okay, I tried NOT stretching before a good hard workout today. Sorry, experts, it made a negative difference. I came away feeling much less comfortable than I do when I DO stretch beforehand.
lol no static stretching pre-workout this can lead to reduced strength in the relaxed(stretched)muscles
try AIS (Active Isolated Stretching) or mobility drills that work the joint(s) you are going to exercise through its full range of motion(this is individual)
and its not so much a comfort issue as a strength issue as I said above
check out pt on the net and look at their functional flexibility course....I did it and it was interesting
p.s. if you are not interested in the course I could just send you the list of articles that you can read that comprise the course but you should be able to find it on the website
-- Edited by akyoda32 at 15:14, 2008-07-16
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If a person wants something that they have never had, they have to do something that they have never done. - Shawn Fears, CPT
if you have an imbalance it is ok to statically stretch the tight muscles pre workout as long as you activate the opposing muscle, this keeps the length-tension relationship of the muscles surrounding the joint while resetting proper body alignment for your workout otherwise you are reducing the structural support for the given joint, potentially leading to an injury in intense workouts
remember that any short muscle has a lax muscle opposing it, the reason for this is joint integrity. it is this compensation that corrective exercise specialists address
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If a person wants something that they have never had, they have to do something that they have never done. - Shawn Fears, CPT
