REST DAY - STATIC STRETCHING IS OUT!

We have all been taught that prior to doing any exercise, we should spend 5 to 10 minutes stretching. Conventional wisdom states that without stretching you are more prone to injury while you exercise since the movements adequately prepare your muscles to be more flexible and limber increasing performance.

Ask anybody what the best way to warmup is and surely they’ll show you a myriad of static holds they believe stretch and warm muscles. Well it turns out, we may have been hurting our performance by doing this. Static stretch warmups are out!

I too found this news a bit shocking. So what’s the right way? Dynamic stretching. Dynamic stretching involves doing various functional type exercise movements at a lower capacity effort. Examples are bodyweight squats, lunges, jumping jacks, or even jumping rope. For joggers or runners, warmup by jogging or running, but do so at maybe 40% your running speed. Any of these at a reduced exertion level will help prime your body for your sport or workout. The brain gets the message that something bigger is coming, and it prepares accordingly.

The jury is still out on how much a dynamic workout will actually prevent injuries, but it is certain that the static stretches most people are used to doing, can actually be a detriment to your performance and in fact are just a waste of time.

MY WARMUP OF CHOICE: TABATA JUMPROPE, SQUAT, PUSHUP, SITUP. Every 20 seconds switch movements. Do each movement twice during the 8 cycles. No score taking.

Tabata Squats

Tabata Squats from Crossfit San Antonio on Vimeo.