How useful is stretching for weight training soreness?

In article
,
jonpaulwade wrote:

> According to this article, stretching does little to prevent muscle
> soreness after training. Is this something people agree with, or
> disagree? Do you find that stretching helps cope with soreness?
>
> http://www.motleyhealth.com/articles/2007/10/stretching-before-you-exercise-ma
> y-be.html

Without looking at the article (which is called stretching before
exercise, not after) you have to define what stretching is. If you are
doing a passive static stretch you probably aren't doing yourself much
good. You inhibit your ability to develop force during the workout and
do nothing to prevent injury.

If you are doing a dynamic range of motion stretch prior to working out
or after it is probably all good. If you are doing an active static
stretch after working out it is probably all good.

So the short answer is: it depends. What we often think of as stretching
- a passive hold to increase ROM - is really only useful if there is a
problem about a joint in terms of ROM. It wouldn't be useful for muscles
soreness. However, an active ROM stretch (yoga poses for example)
increases the useful ROM and strengthens joints and muscles about
joints. It can be thought of as a relatively moderate resistance program
that can help restoration.

--
Keith
 >> Stay informed about: How useful is stretching for weight training soreness? 

On Fri, 30 Nov 2007 07:03:38 -0800, jonpaulwade wrote:

> According to this article, stretching does little to prevent muscle
> soreness after training. Is this something people agree with, or
> disagree? Do you find that stretching helps cope with soreness?
>
> http://www.motleyhealth.com/articles/2007/10/stretching-before-you-exe...se-may-


That article was lacking in some important details. Like, what kind of
stretching? Active? Passive? Dynamic? ... And for how long the
stretching program was done. Stretching will produce few results if only
done over the short term. It has to be chronically to have any serious
effect.

my personal experience is that static stretching before hand doesn't help
much, but stretching after can really help take the edge off the soreness.
 >> Stay informed about: How useful is stretching for weight training soreness? 

Cheers, I am lazy when it comes to stretching, so any excuse to not do
it! I will stick with stretching afterwards and not bother so much
with the before stretches. Although I'll still warm up of course.
 >> Stay informed about: How useful is stretching for weight training soreness? 

On Nov 30, 10:03 am, jonpaulwade wrote:
> According to this article, stretching does little to prevent muscle
> soreness after training. Is this something people agree with, or
> disagree? Do you find that stretching helps cope with soreness?
>
> http://www.motleyhealth.com/articles/2007/10/stretching-before-you-ex...

Yes I agree with the article and this one seconds it.
http://www.illpumpyouup.com/articles/stretching-and-exercise.htm
 >> Stay informed about: How useful is stretching for weight training soreness? 

On Sun, 02 Dec 2007 23:05:56 -0800, jonpaulwade wrote:

> Cheers, I am lazy when it comes to stretching, so any excuse to not do
> it! I will stick with stretching afterwards and not bother so much
> with the before stretches. Although I'll still warm up of course.


Your results may vary.
If i am going to be doing cardio-endurance training, i do try to work
active, dynamic stretches into my warm-up. That is fairly easy to do (a
few forty yard intervals doing high-knees, then but kicks, etc. for
example). i have heard many runners claim that the best for stretching
the lower leg is warm up, then spend a couple minutes stretching it out.

Try it one way, and then another. Which ever works best for You, go for
it.
 >> Stay informed about: How useful is stretching for weight training soreness?