By To stretch or not to stretch?
This is a question many people have asked when it comes to working out. Most of us were taught early in life that stretching is the most important thing to do before you start working out. This was so that you could warm your body and muscles up, and you would be looser, stronger, which would make you less susceptible to injury.
Now, some experts have people rethinking their pre-workout stretching routine. Here’s why.
Pre-exercise stretching has been said to be unnecessary and counterproductive. A study was published in The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, were they concluded that if you stretch before you lift weights, you may feel weaker than you were expecting during your workout.
Many of these experts believe that it’s better to warm up the muscles that you will be working on. Jumping jacks, and high leg kicks will help prepare your muscles for a more strenuous workout, rather than stretching alone.
On the contrary, other experts still believe that stretching is necessary, and can help strengthen muscles. They say many of your muscles are shortened during your work day, so stretching is good for preventing chronic pain. Did you know that stretching can reverse back pain that you may have from sitting at a desk for long periods of time.
When I was working at my last job, we all would sit at our desks for 8 hours a day or more. One of the guys there said it wasn’t good for us, and put pictures of different stretches we should do every hour to keep our blood pumping. This is an awesome idea.
So, if your job keeps you in the same position all day, do 2-minute stretch breaks. This will help to reverse that posture and help your joints from getting stiff.
How do you start your work out?
What do you think?