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posted by Fnord666 on Tuesday October 22 2019, @12:50PM   Printer-friendly
from the why-not-both? dept.

Stretching before or after a workout: Only one of them is right

Even though most of us probably don't work on it enough, flexibility is vital to overall health, and it's especially important in connection to your exercise routine. While all stretching may seem the same, there are important distinctions about what stretching routines to perform at different points of your workout.

Working out already feels like an onerous task, and the thousands of opinions on the internet about how to exercise in the correct way aren't helping. You've probably heard tons of conflicting advice surrounding your workout routine, and when there's voices shouting in all directions around you it's far easier to just give up and push off the gym for another day.

One part of exercising I often hear disagreements on is stretching. Some people are vehemently opposed to the idea, saying that the practice is bunk and a waste of time. Others swear by it, believing that stretching is vitally important and helps ward off all kinds of injuries. Even for those in the pro-stretching camp, there are differing opinions on whether to stretch before or after your workout.

I'm here to dispel the confusion once and for all and explain how exactly stretching should fit into your exercise habits so that you can finally get back to what's really important -- actually working out.


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  • (Score: 2) by VLM on Tuesday October 22 2019, @11:35PM

    by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday October 22 2019, @11:35PM (#910601)

    since stretching itself can become a kind of exercise

    Well, if I'm doing stifflegged deadlifts with dumbbells, "stretching" without any weights is kinda by definition exercise.

    For weightlifting I'm not sure stretching prevents anything bad but it is kinda a test of range of motion if you've hurt yourself very slightly and would like to avoid worse in the near future when holding 100+ pounds of cast iron.

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