3 Ways That Stretching Before A Workout Can Cause Injury

It should come as no surprise that stretching is an important part of fitness, but why?

For those of you who don’t know: flexibility is defined as; the ability  to flex, extend or circumduct the joints through their full intended range of motion (ROM).  It is through stretching that we become more flexible.

However, the vast majority of people already have an adequate level of flexibility.  In other words, you probably have ample flexibility to meet the daily exigencies of live with room to spare.

That doesn’t mean you should ignore all-together.  I mean you’re most likely strong enough to meet the daily demands of life but you still train, right?

Many trainers typically tend to over emphasize flexibility training, as opposed to developing functional strength while in a stretched position.

I mean, what good is being flexible if you aren’t strong enough move through your new range of motion?  If you develop your joints ROM without also improving the strength of your surrounding musculature can set yourself up for injury.

Tip:

When you’re performing any type of strength exercises make sure you are using the full ROM, and especially for new movements and techniques.

Here is what I recommend:

Add some basic stretching to engage the muscles of which you exposed during your workout, but do it after your training session (5-10 minutes is sufficient). A good rule of thumb is to hold the stretched position for 20-60 seconds and not much more.

Now this doesn’t mean; don’t warm up before your workouts.  You should always warm-up before an intense training session, but leave the stretching for after the workout.  I don’t recommend stretching to any real degree before your workout, it can actually prohibit you during strength exercises.

If you’re workout is mostly long form cardio, then stretching before hand is more important.  I highly discourage long form cardio unless you are training for a marathon, in my professional opinion long-form cardio to get fit is broken!  I’ll prove it to you; however, I will save that for a different post.

Here is an good example of a quick warm-up for most intense strength training sessions: