The Low Down on Stretching

By Move Live Play Jul 29, 2018 6 Comments winter, tips,exercise

Even when temps soar well into the 80s, it’s still important to warmup before starting your workout to prep your muscles for the work ahead and prevent injury.
There are two main types of stretching:

Dynamic Stretching– This type of stretching involves doing movements that are specific to your activity. For example, high knees and butt kicks before a run. This type of stretching recruits all of the muscles involved in your upcoming workout.
Static Stretching– This type of stretching targets one or two muscles at a time and involves holding a stretch for a period of time, typically 30 seconds. The key to successful static stretching is doing it repeatedly. If you only stretch your muscles once, they go back to their regular size. But if you stretch them multiple times they stay in an elongated position.

You may have heard that it’s best to save static stretching for after a workout because your muscles are already warm and easier to stretch. But there’s really no downside to doing both types of stretches before your workout. I usually recommend people do what they feel is best for their performance.
In addition to stretching, I recommend strengthening your hips. A lot of hip, knee and back issues can stem from having weaker hips so I suggest doing bridges and clamshells before engaging in a lot of running, jumping and cutting movements.