Stretching Before You Exercise: Is it Really Bad?

MESA, Ariz. - Sept. 25, 2013 - PRLog -- If you have competed in sports at any stage of life, and at any level of competition, stretching before you begin an event is the common practice.  After that, you might even jog a few laps to “warm up”.  Then, you're ready to go 100% on the field, court, or wherever you are.  Right?  Well, apparently the new consensus is that stretching before exercising has negative affects on your performance.

After browsing a few articles from USA Today and New York Times that details this new fact about stretching, it’s hard to buy it.  Both articles include professionals/experts that claim certain things about stretching, more specifically static stretching.  Their claim is that there is scientific evidence that static stretching decreases performance and leaves you more susceptible to injury.

When reading the articles, you’ll notice a red flag:  different explanations about the effect stretching has.  One article states that the reason for the decrease in performance, and increased susceptibility to injury, is due to the fact that your muscles tighten as you stretch.  The idea is that when you stretch your muscles to maximum, your body compensates this action by contracting its muscles.  The second article claims their reasons to be that static stretching loosens your muscles, which in regard to performance; weakens the output of force our muscles can create.  This type of contradiction makes it harder to buy this “stretching is bad” argument.

Both articles are well done, and do deliver some statistical information that may or may not be true.  All I know is my own experience with the matter, which is to always stretch before exercising.  Another thing to think about is their statistical information, and points, are drawn from static stretching alone.  But like I said in the beginning of this article, most people warm up by jogging or moving their body in some way before competing at 100%.

To see the article visit http://naturalpaincream.com/blog/stretching-exercise-bad-2/.