Jan 11
11

The Death of Stretching Before Exercise

4 Comments

This is a training blog post by Grant Lofthouse 

funny granny The Death of Stretching Before ExerciseIm going to tick off your ‘old schooled’ gym teacher when I tell you that a light jog and then static stretch is the worst way to warm up before exercising.

Back in the day your sporting coach would have said that your muscles are like blu-tack; if you try to stretch them when they’re cold they will snap. But if you warm the blu-tack up first and then stretch it will lengthen quite significantly. To a certain degree this is correct, you definitely need to be warm before you get into physical exercise. But there is the wrong way and the right way.

As much as I like keeping this blog a science free place… studies has now shown that static stretching before exercise…

-          Decreases the muscles isometric strength

-          Decreases the muscles dynamic strength.

 Or in other words…

 -         makes you slower

-          makes you weaker

-          decreases you balance

-          decreases you reaction time

I don’t know about you but before I even touch a weight I want to be the opposite of the list above.

I want to be fast, strong and balanced. If I’m not then it defeats the purpose of training, and not only that it increases the risk of injuring myself.

I know this will be hard to get your mind around this. I am not saying there is no room for static stretching. You should stretch some muscles to help you hold certain positions better, but don’t use static stretching as your answer to prevent injury. Especially if you want to improve your training/competitive performance.

Ok so how do you prepare yourself correctly to maximise your training performance?

Dynamic flexibility/mobility – a controlled movement thought the active range of motion of a joint.

A correct dynamic flexibility warm up will…

  • Fire up our CNS system which will increase your strength.
  • Decrease the risk of injury.
  • Improve our range of motion.
  • Fix some posture problems.
  • Fire up the ‘lazy’ muscles that get ignored through static stretching.

I have provided a video for you that you can complete before any form of sport or training, most of these exercises are from Magnificant Mobility and Pavel’s Super Joints. It will take about 10 minutes and I guarantee this will get your firing and ready for your training session.

I only do about 2 reps on each exercise to save time on the video I recommend doing at least 10-15 reps on each exercise.

And if you have any questions about warming up, don’t be hesitant to ask me in the comment box below.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOokzSZYynY[/youtube]

sneaky showlove The Death of Stretching Before Exercise

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Posted in Training by Grant 4 Comments

4 Responses to "The Death of Stretching Before Exercise"

  • naomi says:
    January 13, 2011 at 3:59 pm
    Reply

    yep! that was rly helpful! Thanks! I can’t say this still isnt a little hard to digest but it certainly made it into bite size peices :) Im way clearer on it!
    Thanks so much, naomi

  • naomi says:
    January 12, 2011 at 10:52 pm
    Reply

    Hi! Ive done alot of reading tonight and I must admit im rly confused. Like should I be dropping all the cardio I do and switching to only weights? I am SO confused! If this is too broad a question than feel free to ignore although I am interested in getting this straight. Or if you think I should do more reading then I will. Although I do a TOn of reading for uni so Im feeling quite readed out (if thats a word) The videos were rly cool and different thank G-d, Thanks! :) OK. I guess my question is, How much cardio SHOULD one do? Do not say none, that is way too unconventional. I actually don’t do tonz of cardio but always feel guilty abt it. I do more weights, body combat classes and sometimes pilates. Mayb I should be working myself harder? I dont know. I am SO lost! and the stuff abt the stretching just makes me feel like I am doing EVERYTHING wrong! Ok, that was all my frustration, feel free to ignore!…or delete

    • Grant says:
      January 13, 2011 at 12:17 pm
      Reply

      Hi Naomi, I understand your confusion. Believe it or not your confusion is coming from reading. As Dave Tate (a well known expert) says “f*ck science, show me what you can do under the bar.”

      I completely agree with him, don’t get me wrong science is helpful but the problem is it gets mixed up with reality. These days due to work, having a life, stress etc. People haven’t got the recovery ability to train at 100% every day.

      How much cardio should you do? If by cardio you mean
      running on a treadmill or riding on a bike at one pace for 45+ minutes – None.

      On the other hand if you are talking about cardio as being a 5-10 minute circuit with some sandbags, body weight exercises and kettlebells. I say 3 times a week.

      You should train with weights 3 times a week, after a your weight session follow up with a 5-10 min finisher (download the eBook in the top right hand corner to get 9 killer finishers)

      Pilates, body combat and pump classes is not weight training. Weight training is lifting actual weights in the 5-12 rep range, not 50-100.

      Hope this clears up your confusion.

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