Stretching and warm-up

It never ceases to amaze how warm-up and stretching are equated. Warm-up to stretch, do not stretch to warm-up. Essentially it is counterproductive and a huge waste of time. If you are spending ten minutes a day static stretching in warm-up, that is ten minutes that you are not making them better athletically.There is plenty of research to show that pre exercise stretching does NOT prevent injury. Despite this knowledge you still see Football teams lying on the ground for ten minutes doing static stretching – what a waste. Don’t get me wrong there is a place for active stretching in warm-up. In the later third of the warm-up when the body is well on it’s way to being warmed up. To see where it is placed go to www.gambetta.com/resouces to see the active warm-up sequence. Watch Oregon football warm-up that is the way it should be done, active and dynamic. I have been told that Cal Berkeley Football is now warming up the same way. I have been using an active warm-up with a minimum of static stretching for thirty plus years. I think the results and lack of injuries bear out its efficacy.

That is not to say that flexibility is not important, it certainly is. It is when you work on flexibility. It is separate and distinct training unity. It is best done post practice or after a good warm-up. More on flexibility in another post.