I am a junior in AFROTC going out for STO and as this is my first post I just want to thank TE and all of you for all of your information, it has been invaluable. I can't tell you how much I am looking forward to, God willing, joining your community.

My question is when should I be stretching? A light stretch (5 min) before and after my Workouts (after I warm-up) and then a heavier stretch (20 min) at night? Or a heavier stretch before and after my Workouts? I looked over the posts and the extensive stretching document, but couldn't really find anything that answered this question.

My Workouts usually consist of light cals all day on M,W,F,Sat with 3+ mile run and around a 1 mile swim. T,Th is light cals all day and a heavy cal session. Thank you for your help.

DO NOT STRETCH, BEFORE A workout!!!! Unless you are a sprinter, martial artist preparing to perform martial arts, a gymnast, there are rare reasons you need to stretch, before a workout. Stretching, before a workout, reduces performence. Instead of stretching, you should perform warm-up drills. It is too difficult to explain warm-up drills. I will have to find a website.


You should stretch twice a day, for 30-60 minutes. You should get a lot of flexiblity from strength training PROPERLY, and agility drills.

Since you are at a university, find a strength and conditioning coach, and/or track coach for instruction.

Hope this helps.

Cadet,
You need a strength training and conditioning program. It appears you have a lot of 'holes' in your program.

Thanks for your help. I'd definitely appreciate it if you could get me a basic description of those warm-up exercises. This was a scaled back version of my workout just to get ready for the Phase I test. I plan on really stepping it up this summer.

Ken, so this would go for running too?

Could you possibly elaborate with an educated abridged version of why stretching reduces performance before a workout?

Thanks!

Individuals who are not running 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m, hurdles, triple jump, long jump, and decathlon for competition SHOULD NOT STRETCH, BEFORE A workout! Also, most military personnel have no need to perform BALLISTIC STRETCHES, like track athletes, combat athletes, or gymnast.

The aforementioned athletes range of motion, lactic acid build up, and demand on paritcular muscles and connective tissue require stretching, before competition or workout. In other cases, the muscle will become dormant, thereby reducing performences.

huSTOn,
I will try to find website for you; however, it would be easier for me and you, to go see a track and/or strength coach.

I have never heard of that stretching concept before. I have always known to stretch before any type of workout. I am really interested in more information regarding this topic. Thanks.

A researcher in Hawaii, David Lally PhD. carried out a study in 1994 of ~1500 participants in the Honolulu marathon which yielded some surprising results concerning stretching. It has been a long held belief that stretching prior to working out will reduce the incidence of injury. Lally's study showed just the opposite, it showed that in white male marathon runners stretching prior to running actually increases the incidence of injury. Interestingly this didn't hold true in female marathoners. On the other hand runners who stretch AFTER running did have a reduced incidence of injury. A good discussion of this study and another study carried out in Australia which failed to reproduce Lally's findings can be found here:
http://www.sportsinjurybulletin.com/archive/stretching-exercises.html

As far as a pre workout warm up session goes, having personally been a competitve runner and triathlete for the past 20 some years I have found that what works best for me is light exercise such as a slow 10 minute or so run/swim or ride to literally get my muscles warmed up due to increased blood flow. If you jump right into a hard workout without doing something similar to this you will find that your cardiovascular system and muscular system will be surprised by the sudden increase in demand and you will get lactic acid build up a lot sooner along with corresponding decreased performance and earlier fatigue. It's kinda like being waken up by a bucket of cold water dumped on you, or a TI waking you from a dead sleep by kicking a trash can down the isle and yelling, you wake up feeling discombobulated and crappy, as opposed to hitting the snooze bar a few times and stretching a bit before you get up... If I am going to be doing a faster paced workout or race (i.e. anaerobic/threshold work) I always follow the light warm up with some gradually faster strides or pickups (not all out sprints)of 50-150 meters. This gives your muscles a chance to get ready for a longer sustained intense effort. If you do this I'm pretty confident you will find your performance will considerably increase and you will be more comfortable during the remainder of your more intense workout. I have also found this true for pushups and situps. Instead of jumping in and just going for broke in say a PAST you will probably find that if you do a couple or three sets of 10-20 easy pushups or sittups along with a light jog or swim starting about 20-30 mins before the test and stay loose and warm in the 5-10 mins prior to the actual test you will probably perform better than if you go in cold. A lot of athletes incorperate stretching into the post warm up period after their muscles are loose and not nearly as tight as if you just start stretching cold, tight muscles which is probably what accounts for the increase in injuries that Lally found. I'm probably preaching to the choir here since most people on here have done some form of endurance training but hey, maybe this will help someone on here who is just starting out...

You have helped me out. I thought I was doing a decent job with my training (ie. stretching, working out, etc.), I now realize that I have a lot to learn. I am so glad I came across this site and forum, I have truly learned a lot. Thanks guys