Do you warm up and stretch?

[FrancisK]

I've always done a 5 minutes cardio warm up and a full set of stretches for my entire body before both lifting and cardio days. As time has gone by Ive grown to hate it, I always want to just get to lifting on my lift days but still I do it, it's just what I've always done to avoid injury.

I also do cals before and after my workouts, normally over and under hand pull ups, dips and push ups, these I actually enjoy. I bought a tower for my basement gym and want to start doing cals every morning before I shower just for some extra credit, am I risking injury by not warming up stretching?

Do you guys regularly warm up and stretch or am I just being a baby bitch?

 

[Gymjunkie38]

Really should although I neglect too do it frequently enough. Only thing I do Consistant is 10 min on the bike at a moderate pace then light leg extensions before I start my leg workout . Info really hard and heavy on legs and I find this gets the blood flowing and lubes my knees and I don't have knee pain

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[heavyhitter]

I just warm up on the first movement that I'm doing. Slowly ramping up in weight

 

[zee-man]

I'd be interested in learning what folks do for stretching as I think that's a key in a long, injury free lifting career.


My understanding though is stretching is better post workout as before it makes you weaker.

 

[monster-ish]

I warm up before lifting and stretch post workout


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[FrancisK]

I'd be interested in learning what folks do for stretching as I think that's a key in a long, injury free lifting career.


My understanding though is stretching is better post workout as before it makes you weaker.

I've read the same but i would rather be slightly weaker lifting than suffer an injury because I didn't stretch and then can't workout at all. I would love to hear some opinions on this as well.

 

[Cinder]

Stretching a "cold" muscle just sounds bad

 

[biglizard225]

Warming up for me consist of thoroughly warming up on my first movement which is 95% of the time a power movement to start with.

Example, chest day.

I will typically start with incline barbell or flat barbell. I take the 45 pound Olympic bar and get 50 repetitions with it. Same goes for military pressing same goes for squatting. The only thing I don't do lots of warms up on is back. It stays pretty fresh in terms of my joint integrity because you don't really have a lot of connective tissue or joint tissue in the upper back.

Stretching is something I do to recover not to warm up. For me stretching a sore muscle is so satisfying. Like my quads still get extremely sore every week so I love laying back on my shins with my quads completely stretched and then having the blood flow into them when you get out of the stretched position. Feels great. Same for lats and chest and also hammies. Extreme stretching when sore is very painful but feels so good after wards lol

 

[g0ttequila]

Warm up with weights before working out. Stretching (statically) trained muscles after workout. Usually cardio afterwards


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[eaglecall]

No.

 

[alvinstrong]

sure.it's very necessary.

 

[PitbullTank]

i was always taught to NOT actively or aggressively stretch a muscle you are going to then train at max loads..

 

[richiec]

I'd be interested in learning what folks do for stretching as I think that's a key in a long, injury free lifting career.


My understanding though is stretching is better post workout as before it makes you weaker.

Stretching a "cold" muscle just sounds bad

Per my college and professional baseball trainers, stretching a "cold' muscle is a recipe for disaster. I didn't study A&P or Kinesiology, but they did and I trust their advice. Plus, anytime I do light stretches on cold muscles it feels weird

 

[TheOtherOne55]

Any warmups for lower body exercises are just low weight, high reps, getting some blood in.

But for upper body i've added in those over&backs that JM advocates for shoulder health. I used a red ELITEFTS band and do sets of 10-15...really gets blood in my pecs, front delts, traps, etc.
My shoulders are terrible and I swear the only thing that keeps them healthy is this exercise....which is basicaly Dante's broomstick work with a band instead of a broom stick.

 

[epoxy]

Any warmups for lower body exercises are just low weight, high reps, getting some blood in.

But for upper body i've added in those over&backs that JM advocates for shoulder health. I used a red ELITEFTS band and do sets of 10-15...really gets blood in my pecs, front delts, traps, etc.
My shoulders are terrible and I swear the only thing that keeps them healthy is this exercise....which is basicaly Dante's broomstick work with a band instead of a broom stick.

With ya on this. The only group that I really warm up BIG time is shoulders. I can do incline cardio warm up for legs, and light weight work to get into my heavy lifts on lats, arms, and chest. But if it's chest or shoulder damn, DAMN sure I am spending about 10 minutes pre-workout to warm up my stiff ass shoulders. I would be permanately injured by this point if I didn't.

 

[buck]

Stretching will aid in flexibility. But most injuries seem to happen within a normal range of motion. When looking through the studies I find at least half of them show the injury rate to be the same whether some one stretches or not. and stretching seems to do little to nothing for soreness. And people are often weaker immediately after stretching so it would not be beneficial preworkout.

 

[richiec]

With ya on this. The only group that I really warm up BIG time is shoulders. I can do incline cardio warm up for legs, and light weight work to get into my heavy lifts on lats, arms, and chest. But if it's chest or shoulder damn, DAMN sure I am spending about 10 minutes pre-workout to warm up my stiff ass shoulders. I would be permanately injured by this point if I didn't.

Shoulders are a MUST for me as well!

I have to warm them up for a good 5 minutes or more so I don't get hurt.

Stretching will aid in flexibility. But most injuries seem to happen within a normal range of motion. When looking through the studies I find at least half of them show the injury rate to be the same whether some one stretches or not. and stretching seems to do little to nothing for soreness. And people are often weaker immediately after stretching so it would not be beneficial preworkout.

I believe many people stretch incorrectly and do so at the wrong times. Stretching when "cold" is no bueno, and that's when most people do it. See it all the time, even young kids in youth sports.

 

[FrancisK]

Well like I said I always stretch after I do a cardio warm up, but would doing some cals in the morning without stretching or warming up be asking or injury?

 

[richiec]

Well like I said I always stretch after I do a cardio warm up, but would doing some cals in the morning without stretching or warming up be asking or injury?

I don't believe so. The first few "sets" could be considered a warm up I guess

 

[MikeS]

I stretch before workout and warm up. Hold (static) stretches 20-30seconds.
No cardio warmup (and that's just for me, not that its a bad idea). Then, the warm up is 3-4 sets with very light weight, for low reps (5-6). I don't want to burn out glycogen and ATP on warmups. I never do static stretching after warmups, sometimes do light dynamic stretching. Sets after initial warmup are increasingly heavier until the heavy workset.
After workout static stretching is optional.