Stretching before a workout?

tigerlily886

My gym teacher always taught to stretch before a workout. I always have and do not feel as sore in the morning. I read somewhere that stretching before a workout is actually bad because it weakens the muscles. Any thoughts?

Guamybear

My doc said to stretch after the workout when your muscles are warm.. i am doing Insanity and they don't even stretch until after the killer warm up...

EHisCDN

In the 30DS it's recommended that you do "dynamic" and not "static" stretches. So do big movements that don't work one muscle in particular. For instance we do arm crosses, windmills, jumping jacks, hip rotations and knee rotations.

SonicDeathMonkey80

In the 30DS it's recommended that you do "dynamic" and not "static" stretches. So do big movements that don't work one muscle in particular. For instance we do arm crosses, windmills, jumping jacks, hip rotations and knee rotations.

^^This

fight_for_fit

I would suggest stretching after a warm up. Its recommended not to stretch cold muscles because of the possibility of "tearing" them.
If you do decide to stretch pre-workout without a warm-up. Then I would stretch them out very slowly with no bouncing or anything like that.

gerard54

I feel like u need to stretch to get loose. Its like not warming up your car on a cold day...

angieleighbyrd

I'm doing p90x...there is stretching after the warm up, then a little included in the cool down and a whole dvd dedicated to just stretching that is optional but I do in on my rest day every week.

mrphil86

You should stretch after you warm up, I usually run a .25 of a mile then stretch. You could pull something if you do it while your body is cold.

On the flip side, if I don't stretch first, I'll usually feel worse after my workout especially running.