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DRS STRONG WEEK 82: IS STATIC STRETCHING BEFORE TRAINING HELPFUL?

Rosario Rios Aguilar • April 18, 2016
" WE CAN'T BECOME WHAT WE WANT TO BE BY REMAINING WHAT WE ARE." Oprah

        Week 3 of The Chad Attack Beach Series 1 and we are already seeing a tremendous improvement on barbell cycling while still adding different stimulus and movements on top of a movement. This means that you are becoming more efficient at your movement for that specific load. It is important to take advantage of a repetitive movement to do the best you can on moving the same way every single rep. THE FOCUS OF THIS WEEK IS TO MENTALLY CHANGE SOMETHING NEGATIVE TO SOMETHING POSITIVE! As soon as you feel yourself saying or thinking something negative during the workout, before or after CHANGE IT IMMEDIATELY with something positive! We are hoping this changes the way you attack certain workouts and through out time, become more positive overall :) I think everyone does a pretty good job on reminding each other on the hard work that everyone puts in, so keep that up!!

        I wanted to give a shout out to my weightlifters for being patient on their technique on working on their position day in and day out! Here we see Shannon Black with awesome front depth position :) WOOT WOOT!

Ok now, the stretching dilemma! This week I will go into some discussion about stretching before the training. I have mentioned this before but it is important to know the purpose of your stretch. If you want to discuss this topic please feel free to chat with me because this can go into a very detailed discussion :))

1. Do not stretch when you are cold.

2. Are you stretching because you are tight? If you feel tight, sometimes all you need is blood flow to the area and then minimal stretching can help.

3. Are you stretching to become more flexible? If that is the case, do it after a workout when you are warmed up and you can spend at least 10-20 mins doing so to actually change muscle length permanently.

4. Are you stretching to get warmed up? THIS IS THE NO NO!!! if you are going to perform any dynamic, lifting, sprinting, powerful movements, stretching prior to training has to be minimal so that way you do not slow down the rate of muscle contraction when you need to be fast. Only stretch if your sport or activity requires for you to get to a full range of motion like gymnastics, martial arts, etc. As you might have noticed we do static stretching on thursdays before gymnastics :)

Use dynamic stretching like high knees, tuck jumps, duck walks etc to open up joints for lifting. The best way to get into a position is to work the position!

5. Static Stretching should be done after training not before unless again is minimal and the stretches are helping and are relevant to the movement to come.

Unless you spend a good 20 minutes a day stretching, stretching a bit before training or a bit during or after will only give you a temporary relief or lengthen your muscle but it will not have a permanent effect. In conclusion, stretch for a purpose and understand timing of stretching due to the activity itself. My recommendation is to stretch after training for a good 10 mins, dynamic stretch before training and short stretches during training :)

Stay Strong,

DRS Strong

Coach Rosario 

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