is it best to do 10/15 mins of cardiovascular BEFORE stretching?

Jay Pentatonic

I just read that it's not advisible to do stretches on cold muscles, & you should be warming up by jogging or whatever before stretching.

Weird, I never came across this before I thought doing this would cause more of a risk of pulling something...

Will Heffernan

Jay1989 wrote: »

I just read that it's not advisible to do stretches on cold muscles, & you should be warming up by jogging or whatever before stretching.

Weird, I never came across this before I thought doing this would cause more of a risk of pulling something...

1. Your muscles aren't ever really cold...your body temperature doesn't vary to any significant degree.

2. Doing some light exercise prior to stretching is sound thinking.

3. This is also dependent on your definition of stretching...as in are you 'stretching' as in trying to improve your flexibility...or are you 'stretching' as in just gaining mobility prior to exercise?

4. The activity you quoted...jogging...is probably the activity with the least joint angle change and ROM requirements there is...so very little chance of injury there...I'm sure you'll be fine.

Jay Pentatonic

Will Heffernan wrote: »

3. This is also dependent on your definition of stretching...as in are you 'stretching' as in trying to improve your flexibility...or are you 'stretching' as in just gaining mobility prior to exercise?
.

I actually do both, so what's that mean?

Will Heffernan

Jay1989 wrote: »

I actually do both, so what's that mean?

I'm not too sure what you are asking here but if you want to talk stretching I'm happy to do so.

Jessup1

id always say warm up. I use to do Tae Kwon Do for years and stretchin was a major part of as we where trying to get our legs as high up as posible and as quickly as possible. if we ever did it without a warm up u definitly feel the strain on the muscle.

mushykeogh

Jay1989 wrote: »

I actually do both, so what's that mean?

Stretching is trying to bring about a more permanent change in the length of the muscle, i want a bigger range of motion in my hamstrings so il stretch them in an attempt to to get length. If i have an excessively short muscle i will stretch it to try and lengthen it.

Your pre stretch or mobility work prior to exercise is where your bringin the muscles through an active range of movement similar to what youl be doing in your sport. More of a short term gain in flexibility i spose (although i feel a good dynamic warm up done regularly and properly can bring long term change.), my first sumo squat will be pretty lame compared to my tenth one.

new shoes

Id always to 15 minutes on the bike before any sort of stretch..

have dodgy hammers quads etc and do be in bits if legs arent nice and warm before running..

Inspector Coptoor

unless you're training in a freezer, your body temp usually stays around the 37 degree mark.

When you;re cold, you shiver to try top get back to that temperature

When you're warm, you sweat to try to get back down to that temperature.

This is called homestasis.

What I'm trying to say, and Will alluded to it earlier, is that your body temperature doesnt go too far above or below 37 degrees.

This whole thing about "warming up muscles", and "getting the blood flowing" are misnomers as your body takes care of them anyway.

if it didnt, you'd die.

On the other hand, stretching or some bike work to loosen joints, elongate muscle fibres etc work well.

In answer to the OP's question, I would say do both.
ie some light jogging/bike/prowler work followed by stretching one day, then some stretching followed by light jogging/bike/prowler work the next day and see if it makes any difference to you.
Also - foam rolling.
cannot recommend it enough.

A good warm up/prehab session should/could last around 15 minutes and if you spend that long on it, you'll have very little risk of doing yourself an injury

dartstothesea

mushykeogh wrote: »

Stretching is trying to bring about a more permanent change in the length of the muscle, i want a bigger range of motion in my hamstrings so il stretch them in an attempt to to get length. If i have an excessively short muscle i will stretch it to try and lengthen it.

Are you talking about a permanent change in this part? I've read some about the potential for calf muscle size being limited by the calf 'length' (or sometimes 'height') - would this be something huge amounts of stretching could improve?

mushykeogh

dartstothesea wrote: »

Are you talking about a permanent change in this part? I've read some about the potential for calf muscle size being limited by the calf 'length' (or sometimes 'height') - would this be something huge amounts of stretching could improve?

Well the aim of stretching is to bring about a permanent change in the muscle spindle, withregards to the calf i would imagine that the ability for any muscle to lengthen would be dictated by the surrounding joints and how much movement is possible at these joints? In other words, im not sure!

cc87

dartstothesea wrote: »

Are you talking about a permanent change in this part? I've read some about the potential for calf muscle size being limited by the calf 'length' (or sometimes 'height') - would this be something huge amounts of stretching could improve?

Size wouldn't have a huge influence on flexibility which is the component in question with regards to stretching and vice versa (ie flexibility influencing size).

It does seem to be the case that big calf muscles have a larger genetic component than other muscles, similar to forearm muslces (the case of another recent thread). However, i would be of the opinion that genetic limitations should be ignored until you reach the peak of your chosen field.

[-0-]

I usually do some stretches first, then run up/down my stairs a couple of times and do some more stretches afterwards.

Brian?

Jay1989 wrote: »

I just read that it's not advisible to do stretches on cold muscles, & you should be warming up by jogging or whatever before stretching.

Weird, I never came across this before I thought doing this would cause more of a risk of pulling something...

When and how you "stretch", depends why you are stretching. If it is prepare for an activity, forget about static stretching you should do a dynamic warmup
e.g. :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ss09vqzHkwQ

new shoes

[-0-] wrote: »

I usually do some stretches first, then run up/down my stairs a couple of times and do some more stretches afterwards.

Ha ha great idea... are u serious though? My ma would go mad!

Barry.Oglesby

briankeating wrote: »

When and how you "stretch", depends why you are stretching. If it is prepare for an activity, forget about static stretching you should do a dynamic warmup
e.g. :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ss09vqzHkwQ

wow that's a really good and handsome video...:)