Stretching for work outs.

Research into stretching has come a long way in the past decade. With all the money that goes into professional sports the source of this research is no mystery. Lots of money goes into making professional athletes faster, stronger, and over all in better shape. Unfortunately a lot of this research takes years upon years to work its way down to the common person. Why you may ask? For starters in our school systems money has been cut from PE programs so the instructors only receive updated training if they go out and seek it and pay for it themselves.  And as adults most of our information comes from health magazines. Which are usually more concerned about cutting weight or building muscle and a lot of other information falls through the cracks. Back to the subject at hand stretching. (and to get the usual disclaimer out of the way before starting or changing a work out check with your health care provider) Research has shown that stretching is actually more beneficial after a workout or at least a very good workout then before and when done before a workout can lead to injuries… A lot of people find this hard to believe after all we’ve always stretched before and been told this prevents injuries. But stop and think about it. Stretching lengthens muscles and most of the time we stretch before we work out so our muscles are cold. Now after stretching we start to work out which heats up our muscles causing them to lengthen even more! So our muscles are over lengthened and now can very easily rip causing injuries. Stretching after a workout can still give this double lengthening BUT you don’t follow it up with an impacting activity like a workout resulting in ripping muscle tissue. The point of this blog is just to give you something to think about and encourage you to research all of your workout not just the lifting or cardio part. Consider a personal training session once a year if you are serious about working out. Do it with someone with a recent degree not just a certification and ask them to go over your whole workout with you to look for areas you might improve in from warm up to cool down.