Is it beneficial to stretch immediately before strength training?
I recently read that after stretching, there is less contact between the muscles actin and myosin heads, which temporarily reduces the muscles strength. I am wondering if this is true throughout the muscle’s entire ROM and how long does it take for the muscle to regain it’s original strength? Would stretching negatively impact a weight lifting regimen? Thank you for sharing your thoughts.
As some have mentioned static stretching tight or overactive muscles is a good idea pre-workout. For example if a client sits all day (as most do), then static stretching the hip flexor complex would be beneficial. The goal with static stretching pre-exercise is to help return a shortened muscle back to normal length, creating proper length tension relationships. The key is to assess a clinet and only static stretch tight areas. You don’t have to only do static or dynamic you can do both. Random use static stretching is not beneficial and dynamic stretching alone won’t help with movement compensations. The decrease in performance associated with static stretching has been blown out of proportion if holding 30s or less there is not a decrease in performace, also the also the average client would benefit more from having better posture via streching vs. being able to lift a little more and having poor posture which can lead to injury. Here is a link reviewing the meta study on static stretching.
http://peakcontrol.wordpress.com/2012/01/23/to-stretch-or-not-prior-to-e…
Although dynamic stretching incorporated into the warm-up is beneficial, so can static stretching. Specifically for muscular imbalances.
Say for example a client runs with external rotation of the femur so that their foot hits the ground at a detrimental angle, then specifically stretching or self myofacial release of the external rotators of the femur are imperative pre-workout. Not addressing imbalances allows imbalances to become more ingrained.
If decreased power is a factor then do specific light drills immediately after releasing said muscles to reintegrate them.