NY times article on stretching

Wham BAM. Final nail in the static stretching pre-lift coffin.

Check out what science is showing us today!

awesome find, soy_vey.  i do lots of body weight squats and also core work like duck-unders and step overs, which are good for mobility and dynamic stretching.  but there are lots of other good ones, like ytwl and scapular pushups and lateral lunges and overhead squats (these last two done w/a body bar or super light weight). 

the line between muscle "activation/stimulation" and actual weight lifting, as you might predict, begins to get grey at times.  is a lateral lunge a warmup or an actual lift?  what if you do them fast?  what if a 15lb overhead squat IS heavy for you, then is it stretching or strengthening?  but i think that's okay.  everyone can find what works for them as a warmup and what challenges their muscles more than a dynamic stretch.

and those spider-mans are really something.  these take up less real estate and i think i'll try them tomorrow and count it as my ab work.

Oh em gee I love how those spiderman lunges work. I should try them tomorrow.

Okay, so even though I'm going to the gym later today I decided to have some fun before breakfast and did 3 supersets of lateral lunges, DB squats and spiderman lunges at higher reps and pretty much no rests. It took like 10 minutes and now I'm sweating like crazy. Awesome find. Thanks!

soy_vey, i did the spiderman lunges from the video too.  i found that the core really gets worked when you demand that your hips stay down, instead of letting them float up while your leg steps forward.  by the sound of your perspiration, i'm gathering you picked that up already :)

there are stretching and mobility possibilites all over the place.  another one i remembered today is one that melkor introduced to me, the voyer shrug.  for a long time, i didn't understand where exactly the lower bar position would be on your back (for back squats, there's the "high" bar position and the "lower" position).  the voyer shrug helped me located that shelf in the middle of my back.  but it's also great for mobility. 

this article addresses some of the problems that many of us have as 9-5 desk residents.  it's mostly suggestions for program strength training, but the information is key for figuring out what exactly we need to open/mobilize/loosen during dynamic stretching; and toward the bottom, there are some good warmup videos of neck pullaparts and walls slides.

great find on the spiderman lunges.  must incorporate that into my routine at some stage. right now im just finding it hard to get back to the gym after having a month off.

*formerly r-n-j-t*

wow. ive never heard that before lol

.... fun fact to know and tell.

thx for posting this

My College phy ed teacher told us that 8 years ago. We would just jog for 12 minutes to warm up instead of stretch. This is not new. Stretching is for flexibility not for warming up. You don't need to rip apart rabbits to figure that one out.

okay, well in my opinion there's never sufficient reason to rip apart a rabbit.  but this is, actually, unconventional information.  warming up (by jogging, as kardiana suggests) is definitely a big part of why a person would do mobility drills; but it doesn't get at the reason most ppl think you should engage in some form of static stretching, which is to increase range of motion.

mobility drills both warm up your muscles and increase your range of motion (while cardio only warms up your muscles).  the question of whether or not stretching increases flexibility, as kardiana indicates, is debatable/controversial.  some yogis hold a single asana for a long time, while others keep moving through a series of asanas to increase flexibility.  some ppl do a little of everything.  i don't know where i stand on that issue.

i engage in static stretching after my workout, its like dessert for me. i did find that if i didn't do static stretching for awhile, when i got back to it, i was not able to stretch as far as before, but would quickly get back to where i was within a couple of sessions. but that is the only experience i have had. there could be other factors tho. but it feels good & i can feel tension being released from stretching while im doing it. other's may not have the same experience, i can't really say.

ur not sposed to stretch before working out, u should do it after, my friends dad is a body builder he tells me so I would know