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Re:Staying Healthy and Sane At a Startup by forgot_password on Tuesday September 07, 2010 @10:50PM (#1670855)
whoa this seems a bit dangerous and flies in the face of what we get drilled into us since children about weightlifting. Do you have any authoritative source for this?
Re:Staying Healthy and Sane At a Startup by naner on Tuesday September 07, 2010 @11:13PM (#1670896)
Well, this is a bit of a fools' errand. I went ahead and searched google and found support for any conceivable position on the whole stretching situation. Anyways, this is what I was taught:

http://www.bodybuildingforyou.com/articles-submit/tanja-gard...

For strength training, there’s evidence that stretching before a workout is counter-productive. Strength training requires muscles to contract tightly against a heavy weight, and loosening the muscle fibres by stretching them first reduces their ability to do this. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t warm your muscles up before strength training – just avoid stretching them first. If you want to include stretching in the same workout as strength training, it’s better to wait until after you’ve finished your weights work.

I typically warm up on the elliptical machine for 5 minutes and then for each muscle group I'm doing that day I start with a set of low weight/high reps to warm it up. After the workout I do stretch my hamstrings because I sit on my ass all day.

Re:Staying Healthy and Sane At a Startup by billpaetzke on Tuesday September 07, 2010 @11:31PM (#1670927)
I have heard the same thing from other fitness nuts. I'm pretty into health and fitness myself. I'll try to find a reference. Cardio before and after to warm up and cool down your heart. No stretching before. Deep stretching after.

Look at results from this search: http://www.google.com/search?q=dont+stretch+before+weightlif...

Here's an example from : http://www.bodybuildingforyou.com/articles-submit/tanja-gard...

"For strength training, there’s evidence that stretching before a workout is counter-productive. Strength training requires muscles to contract tightly against a heavy weight, and loosening the muscle fibres by stretching them first reduces their ability to do this. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t warm your muscles up before strength training – just avoid stretching them first. If you want to include stretching in the same workout as strength training, it’s better to wait until after you’ve finished your weights work."

[Note: I did not refresh the page and see that user naner replied similarly. May I say: great minds think alike! Haha.]

Re:Staying Healthy and Sane At a Startup by Devilboy on Tuesday September 07, 2010 @10:55PM (#1670865)