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I know Keifer has scratched this topic, but I was curious of anyone else had any good ideas for any of these? Which you do? Which not to do? Research? I have just noticed my hamstrings have became pretty tight but I know stretching before lifts decrease strength. Thoughts please.
I stretch my quads, hips and hamstrings before I squat and deadlift. I know what the research says, but if I don't I can't get into proper position. So stretching is the best thing that has happened to my squat.
That makes sense. I'm going to stretch this week before I deadlift and see if I can tell any adv/disadv.
That makes sense. I'm going to stretch this week before I deadlift and see if I can tell any adv/disadv.
I never stretch before deadlifts of squats. I do however foam roll after every session of lower body, and if necessary after a extremely taxing lat day. I feel stretching, even dynamic stretching is not advantageous to being able to work with heavy weights. Better to warm up with weights.
Do you ever foam roll before? I use a PVC pipe personally and I roll my back on it before and it usually pops like crazy.
Do you ever foam roll before? I use a PVC pipe personally and I roll my back on it before and it usually pops like crazy.
I usually dont need to foam roll before because I do it for so long after a workout. If I feel especially bad after a workout I do it the morning after as an active rest. Your body will usually tell you a lot about what hurts and need more attention.
What about soaking yourself in warm Epsom salt bath? Or sit in a steam room if have it and sit in the hot tub?Sent from my iPod touch using Tapatalk
Steam room and Sauna are one of the main contributors to losing weight. They Dehydrate you unless you adequately hydrate during and after. Thats how powerlifters can drop so much weight so fast. So be carful, but other then that its great. Just do it on a day where you dont lift, and for god sake please dont do it after a session.
My starting strength trained coach has me do 3 minutes on a rowing machine before squats or dead lifts.
Static stretching: Studies have shown that static stretching can reduce your strength by up to 10% for a short period of time. Depending on wether you're powerlifting or bodybuilding this may be a negative or a positive thing. If you're powerlifting you want to produce maximum power when training to get the biggest strength gain from your workout. If you're bodybuilding, you're not using that big weights anyways so I don't think there's any detriment. I personally find that a bit of stretching before squats and deadlifts makes the movement feel a lot safer and more comfortable. I can also feel the muscle work much better. I don't know what the research says about stretching and mind-muscle connection though. For me it feels like it makes it better, which would be very beneficial for bodybuilding.I've never noticed any loss of strength from stretching either. Every single time I've set a PR on a squat or a deadlift, I've done a good long warm up first that included some stretching. I don't do just static stretches though, I combine static, dynamic and active stretches for my hamstrings, glutes, calves and adductors. I feel weak and vulnerable and tend to injure myself if I don't stretch. But I have a long history of hamstring strains.Foam Rolling: is Awesome. Do it if you find any places that feel like they need it. If it hurts, roll it. It helps a lot.I foam roll all the time, and if I don't I get more sore after workouts and inflammation tends to stick around for a bit longer.Flexibility/Mobility:This is very poorly researched. How stretching affects flexibility isn't fully understood yet. Heck, we don't even fully know how cramps work...In my opinion you have to take the studies that are done with a grain of salt. Kiefer says that stretching doesn't lengthen the muscle tissue at all, all it does is train your nervous system to allow for a greater range of motion.The research supports this. But I've been a taekwondo instructor for many years, and practiced several martial arts for 10 years, and I've seen a whole lot of people achieve massive gains in flexibility with just static stretching. People who are stiff and immobile can become flexible enough to do splits in all directions in a relatively short amount of time. When a person who is 10 cm away from being able to even touch his toes, through static stretching for less than 2 years is able to fold his torso flat onto his legs with knees straight, you know it's doing SOMETHING.If it's lengthening the muscle tissue or not, or just changing the neural tolerances for muscle elongation, I don't know. I'd like to see some advances in this area of science that would make it easier to create training programs for increasing flexibility safely, efficiently and most of all: reliably.My experience is this: When I stretch regularly, regardless of what kind of stretching it is, I never get hurt, and I progress in my strength training. When I don't stretch, I get injured. (But like I said, I have a history of hamstring strains. This is probably because I have short hamstrings genetically)
I never static stretch. I start with foam rolling and then do some dynamic movements that will warm up the area I am working that particular day.
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