Stretching; when and what?

gnolan

At the moment I begin my routine with 30 sec static stretching of the calves, quads, hams/glutes, groin, then shoulders, triceps, back and abdominals. I do this before any cardio warmup. The same is repeated after my weights and cardio session.

I'm sure there's something i'm doing wrong, as this is always an aspect of my routine that i have overlooked. Can anyone recommend the ideal way for stretching before and after my workout? If it helps, i'm doing a 5 x 5 A,B routine 3 days a week.

gnolan

less of a bump, more of a nudge

Reyman

I don't stretch before training ever, on the basis that it's not a good idea to stretch when your muscles are cold. There's also evidence that stretching a lot reduces your strength in subsequent exercise so you could be reducing your total lifts as a side effect.

You're stretching at the moment with the recommended 30 sec sessions after your training and this is fine. You coould also look at dynamic stretching - some of the guys here find it very good and they should be able to help on this.

Brian?

Unless I'm misinformed, you should do a cardio warmup before you stretch as stretching cold can cause micro tears in your muscles leading to increased chances of injury.

What I do is, a 5 minute warm up and then stretch based on what excercise I am about to perform eg.:

If I am getting ready to squat it takes about 5 minutes of stretching quads, hams, hip flexors, calves and back. This includes both static and dynamic stretches.

If I am about to bench I stretch chest, shoulders and triceps.

Post work out, stretch everything you've working cause it feels great and helps recovery time. Hopefully this is not too far off the mark.

On the big excercises like squats, bench, deads and rows I stretch in between sets as well, I am not sure if this is the right thing to be doing though, but it feels good.

Killme00

If i didnt stretch before and after training, i would be fecked.

Roper

The last video I posted with our warm up was
a) crappy quality
b) incomplete
c) had me playing DJ with the stereo at the same time
and it actually caused more questions than answers. So I'll do another one with my camera and not my phone and do the full warm up.

gnolan

Thanks. I guess i'll just move my stretching after my warm-up, but i'm still unsure as to the (dis)advantages of static over dynamic and vice-versa.

The only dynamic stretching i do is for the groin, but i've heard that the kind of bouncing motion motion of dynamic stretching can be a bad thing.

Roper

No don't move it. Think for second, you've spent all that time warming up and now you're going to stretch and cool down again? Your warm up should include stretching of the right kind.

Here's the bad video of our warm up. Lots of mobility and stretching motions but moving all the time. Active-Dynamic.http://barryoglesby.blogspot.com/2008/11/quick-one-before-training.html

That warmup would be pretty hard to do in a gym though, you need a lot of space.

Roper

Deleted User wrote: »

That warmup would be pretty hard to do in a gym though, you need a lot of space.

Use your imagination. I've done it in tiny dressing rooms. Instead of walking forward, you could just do it for reps on the spot. Or do it in front of a mirror checking your form on the movements. All you really need is space to lunge and soft enough surfaces to kneel on.

Tristram

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

That's a brilliant article. I read it before.

Roper

Good article, for illustration in the vid I posted we're doing an advanced version of the straight leg march in that article (we call that a leg swing, stupid Americans!) that includes a stiff leg deadlift variation and what the article calls a hand walk, you'll hear called a caterpillar walk in the video.

It's amazing the amount of people I see doing static "warm ups". Occasionally every now and then someone arrives in my gym, does the AD warm up with us and then goes off into a corner and does their static stretches anyway. Grrrrrrr!!!!!

Can you not just tell them that it does nothing for them and it weakens their performance? That would piss me off.

Roper

I do and yes it does.

Brian?

Nice one, I've been doing the wrong thing.

I was including dynamic stretching, but was led to believe static stretching was also important. Maybe someone should take all the static stretching charts off the walls in gyms.

Roper

Well the words baby and bathwater come to mind. Some static stretching is useful when it comes to tightnesses but the problem is that people don't usually stretch their tightnesses. They just got through the usual.

Racing Flat

briankeating wrote: »

Maybe someone should take all the static stretching charts off the walls in gyms.

That would probably only serve to make it popular again;).

Brian?

Roper wrote: »

No don't move it. Think for second, you've spent all that time warming up and now you're going to stretch and cool down again? Your warm up should include stretching of the right kind.

Here's the bad video of our warm up. Lots of mobility and stretching motions but moving all the time. Active-Dynamic.http://barryoglesby.blogspot.com/2008/11/quick-one-before-training.html

Roper,

You seem to be doing a lot of arguing today so I thought I'd send some love your way. Ever since you posted this I have been trying to memorise it and put it in to practice. Its brilliant, the mobility I've gained is savage, I'm even squatting more weight when going a lot lower. I have kept a bit of static stretching for my hams though as they constantly feel tight.

Roper

briankeating wrote: »

Roper,

You seem to be doing a lot of arguing today so I thought I'd send some love your way. Ever since you posted this I have been trying to memorise it and put it in to practice. Its brilliant, the mobility I've gained is savage, I'm even squatting more weight when going a lot lower. I have kept a bit of static stretching for my hams though as they constantly feel tight.

I....

I....

How do I react to this? It's praise I think. One down, 600,000 to go.

Glad to be of service. Wrt to the hams are you doing the leg swing/stiff leg deadlift one? Done right that should hit the hams pretty well. If you are particularly tight though it's no harm static stretching them a bit.

I'm at a loss here...

FruitLover

gnolan wrote: »

The only dynamic stretching i do is for the groin, but i've heard that the kind of bouncing motion motion of dynamic stretching can be a bad thing.

You're thinking of ballistic stretching, which is a different thing to dynamic stretching. All 'dynamic' means is 'moving' (as long as your in control of the movement, and not swinging something out of its maximum range of flexibility, you're grand).

I think static stretches are great!

...After a workout.

Brian?

Roper wrote: »

I....

I....

How do I react to this? It's praise I think. One down, 600,000 to go.

Glad to be of service. Wrt to the hams are you doing the leg swing/stiff leg deadlift one? Done right that should hit the hams pretty well. If you are particularly tight though it's no harm static stretching them a bit.

I'm at a loss here...

It is indeed praise.

As for the hams, I am doing the leg swing/stiff leg dealift one and it does hit the hams very well indeed. I am just extremely paranoid about my ham flexibility, last time I touched my toes stretching was when I was 16 and did Tae Kwon Do, even then it was a struggle.

Cheers again