Should you stretch and cool down after a workout?

two really important things that will make a huge difference as you age -- moving and stretching.

RunTimer wrote: »

I favor the POST WORKOUT STRETCH. I've been told that stretching before hand TIRES the muscles (so you can't get the full performance from them). True or no, I find my body reacts best to a cool down than a warm up. And stretching gives me that pause, Mentally and physically, to get back to 'normal'

For more information on post/pre stretching (links within)
http://run-that.com/2014/11/12/its-a-stretch/

Interesting that they would post a blog like that and not post any of the research. First, there are many ways to stretch. Stretching does not tire your muscles before hand and if you stretch properly then you will not hurt yourself. Why should you stretch? When you make a certain movement you have agonist and antagonist muscles. For instance, when you flex your knee that is your hamstrings working as the agonist muscle and your quadriceps (antagonist) should relax to allow the flexion to occur. However, if the quadriceps stay active during knee flexion then proper flexion will not occur and this is how some injuries occur. That situation is called Altered Reciprocal Inhibition. With that being said, if you go into any workout without proper mobility then you actually have a greater risk of injuring yourself then you would if you stretched.

Now, how should your stretch? Keep in mind that this is based on NASM's approach to mobility as it relates to exercise. If you have muscles that are overly tight to where some movement imbalance exists, then pre-workout and post-workout static stretching would be appropriate. A static stretch should be held for 30-seconds. Research does show that as you exceed 45-sec's and get to around 1-min then muscle inhibition can occur. When using static stretching you should follow-up that stretch with Active Isolation or Dynamic stretching to regain any lost neuromuscular control. If you're just a little stiff and need to get your muscles working, then pre-workout you can use Active Isolation Stretching instead of Static. Basically you move the muscle through a range of motion and hold the stretch for 2-sec's but repeat for 5 to 10 reps. You can also do Self-Myofacial Release (SMR) before stretching by means of a foam roller , lacrosse ball, tennis ball, etc.

Before exercise it's a good idea to do some form of mobility work based on your immediate needs. Using myself as an example, I have a very tight piriformis, hip flexors, and quadratus lumborum. Pre-workout I do SMR for those 3 muscles, static stretching for 30-secs, but then I use a Dynamic movement that affects those areas, something like a V-Roll.

There are studies out there that display injury related to stretching, however; don't take a blog's word for it. Go actually read those studies and see what population of people were affected, what type of stretching interventions were done, and what types of injuries actually occurred. Simply saying a study says "x" can be very misleading if you don't understand all aspects of what was actually studied. But when you think about stretching and you understand the basic kinematics of movement and understand the consequences of poor kinematics, then you'll understand why stretching is important.

I warmed up when I played volleyball but that's just what the coach did...we jogged, skipped and did drills before we started play but we didn't stretch after...our cool down was taking down the net and putting away the volleyballs. For the gym, my warm up is no weight or light weight at first and I don't stretch after. I superset as a rule so I do my exercises back to back so my muscles never get cold. The only break I take is when I drink water or set up for another exercise. I'm out of the gym quickly. I do practice yoga twice a week so that's my stretch time. Plus I'm a sweaty mess at the end and don't like lying on gym mats. If I'm very sore or injured I'll use my foam roller or tennis balls at home but that's not really stretching.