Don't stretch before exercise?

[dannyd]

I found this article which may be of interest to some of you:

Don’t stretch before exercise
Stretching before exercise won’t stop you being injured – and may even hinder your performance. So says an American sports scientist named Ian Shrier, following a review of research on the subject going back ten years. Shrier’s analysis included 23 studies evaluating the effects of ‘acute’ stretching – stretching immediately before exercise – and found it reduced performance on various tests, including muscle force, torque and jump height, according to a report in the Independent. Other studies showed that it had little effect on injury prevention. There is now firm evidence that “stretching immediately before a workout does not ward off injuries”, he says. To avoid injury, he recommends not stretching but simply jogging to warm up. “If one stretches, one should stretch after exercise or at a time not related to exercise.”

This came from the Health & Science section of the 9th October edition of The Week (a news journal that has a round-up of all the week's news). I've also seen similar articles on the internet recently (I think this was one of them, I haven't got time to read it all the way through to make sure at the moment: http://www.sportsinjurybulletin.com/arc ... bility.htm )

What do you guys think of this? I'm especially interested in what Maverick, Snyder & Skiffle (seeing as he's a RMR PTI) have to say.

Personally I don't find stretching before exercise all that effective. I prefer to just do a thorough warm up (jogging, mobilise all joints & sprints to raise heart rate) and then stretch after exercise.

[Guest]

I think the article has a good point but more research needs to be done first.

[Langarotti]

I have read into this subject somewhat and will tell you what I know.

From what I have read, research does suggest that Static stretches may not help in readying your muscles for repeated contractions. However [/b]Isometric[/b] stretching would be a much better idea.

Another intresting concept is agnostic/antagnostic relationship in muscle contractions.

Research suggest that warming up the prime agnostic muscles used in a movement will not help, but by warming up only the antagnostic muscles actually creates more power in the agnostic muscles.

I'll give you an example. For a set of bench-presses, the muscles used are the pectorals, triceps and anterior deltoids these are the agnostic muscles.
The antagnostic muscles would be the rear delts, latismuss dorsi and the biceps.
Try warming up the antagnostic muscles by pulling one of the supporting columns on a power rack, then when you are lying on the bench, pull down hard on the barbell while it is still racked. Then do your set and see if could push out any more reps than normal.
I added about 10 kgs to my 1RM, the first time I tried this.

[snyder]

danny, I think it doesn't really matter very much. We're talking fine points here, and the reality of conditioning is that, unless you're an Olympic athlete, it's a much simpler matter than that.

Prior to circuit training it would be fine to do a light jog, but I wouldn't do a "light jog" before strength training because it would almost certainly reduce your strength. When I advocate stretching, note that I advocate doing a lot of it. I think many people stretch before their workouts but not enough. At least 15 minutes of it, better if it's more like 20 or 25 minutes. I also used to do a couple minutes of jumping jacks prior to workouts, which I think would have a similar effect on the muscles to a light jog but without the reduction of strength.

But whatever you do, danny, do something. I hope that you've been feeding your inner meathead the last couple weeks. No one ever made gains posting on the Internet. I'm going to feel much better when I read messages from you about how much more you can lift today than you lifted last month.

[mercury]

I don't stretch cold before exersise

I warm up first , then stretch

and I stretch after

Sometimes if I finish a run and have to do something straight after I forget to stretch , usually you can get away with it once or twice a month