First things first, after 50 squats this morning, am having serious trouble staying in control of my legs. Kinda fun. Kinda annoying.
So Slashdot tells us that stretching before exercise may weaken your muscles. I haven't read the original report yet, but this is really interesting. I've always been a bit of a lazy stretcher. I've got moderate flexibility and at times I've stretched a huge amount, and at times not so much. Through it all I've maintained moderate flexibility. Now, I may not feel so guilty!
It looks like the recommendation is to go with dynamic stretches (described in the article). They look pretty cool.
Posted by kdawson on Friday November 07, @09:40AM
from the everything-you-know-is-wrong dept.Khemisty writes"Back in grade school you were probably taught the importance of warm-up exercises, and it's likely you've continued with pretty much the same routine ever since. Science, however, has moved on. Researchers now believe that some of the more entrenched elements of many athletes' warm-up regimens are not only a waste of time but are actually bad for you. The old presumption that holding a stretch for 20 to 30 seconds — known as static stretching — primes muscles for a workout is dead wrong. It actually weakens them. In a recent study conducted at the University of Nevada, athletes generated less force from their leg muscles after static stretching than they did after not stretching at all. Other studies have found that this stretching decreases muscle strength by as much as 30 percent. Also, stretching one leg's muscles can reduce strength in the other leg as well, probably because the central nervous system rebels against the movements."
