The Fitness Thread

[Arch0wl]

I have heard conflicting things about stretching, honestly. I'm not sure it's even necessary for some exercises.

[SCWolf]

Originally Posted by Reincarnate

Do you have any thoughts on pre/post workout stretches to improve flexibility/help prevent injury/etc? Dynamic pre, static post?

Check my post, I posted a link to Agile 8. I am for pre-workout warm-up exercises. It really helps my shoulder mobility. I do exercises that help with warming up my groin muscles as well before I squat.

[Wayward Vagabond]

tons of articles on why stretching before working out is a bad idea

http://www.sparkpeople.com/blog/blog...e_you_exercise

[SCWolf]

Originally Posted by Wayward Vagabond

tons of articles on why stretching before working out is a bad idea

http://www.sparkpeople.com/blog/blog...e_you_exercise

I suppose stretching is the wrong word. I do warm-up exercises before starting my regular training.

I do agree with a lot of stuff in that link though.

[Wayward Vagabond]

oh ok. yeah i do the same.

[Reincarnate]

My hip/hamstring flexibility is shit. Probably why my squats suck.

[SCWolf]

Originally Posted by Reincarnate

My hip/hamstring flexibility is shit. Probably why my squats suck.

Widen your stance.

[Cavernio]

wv, can't find the link to the study. That's quite interesting if it's the case though, that stretching doesn't prevent injuries.
When I used to dance, we'd always stretch before and after. One of my instructors (who also teaches pilates) taught us that you should never ever make a stretch hurt, you should always hold them for a minimum of 30s, and you should never 'bounce' your stretches. But that was also 15 years ago.

[Wayward Vagabond]

Stretching is still good just as its own thing and not something you want to mix with other workouts.

[Reach]

I mostly just warm up the muscles when I hit the gym, not stretching specifically. i.e. windmill my arms around to warm up shoulders before benching, curl some really light dumbbells before curling, do some body weight squats atg with some holds and hamstring stretches before squatting etc.

I don't see the point of excessive warmups/stretching routines though. They don't prevent injury and they don't improve flexibility.

If you want to improve flexibility quickly you should have a routine dedicated specifically to that, not as a warmup.

Back when I could do the splits with ease and kick above my head, grab my foot, hold it and bend it back behind myself pretty far...I did a lot of dedicated stretching. Most of it was part of my Taekwondo training but we did a lot of stretching exercises. Many classes were partially if not entirely dedicated to stretching. We would warm up and then move to various stretches and practice holding them and getting people to help us push ourselves further. To learn to kick high enough to grab my foot and hold it above my head, we used to get someone to push our legs up as far as we could handle it, hold it there for awhile and then slowly push it up a tiny bit further and then repeat. Worked really well.

Alas, much like muscles themselves, you lose flexibility if you don't use it. olo

I'm regaining a lot of it though through my weight lifting alone and simply using maximum ROM for my exercises. I can finally squat ATG comfortably now, 1.5+ years later, for example. I could never do that before. It was far too painful and I pulled ligaments even thinking about it.


In other news, I laughed http://www.cbc.ca/thisisthat/blog/20...cer/index.html

[SCWolf]

Originally Posted by Reach

I mostly just warm up the muscles when I hit the gym, not stretching specifically. i.e. windmill my arms around to warm up shoulders before benching, curl some really light dumbbells before curling, do some body weight squats atg with some holds and hamstring stretches before squatting etc.

I don't see the point of excessive warmups/stretching routines though. They don't prevent injury and they don't improve flexibility.

If you want to improve flexibility quickly you should have a routine dedicated specifically to that, not as a warmup.

Back when I could do the splits with ease and kick above my head, grab my foot, hold it and bend it back behind myself pretty far...I did a lot of dedicated stretching. Most of it was part of my Taekwondo training but we did a lot of stretching exercises. Many classes were partially if not entirely dedicated to stretching. We would warm up and then move to various stretches and practice holding them and getting people to help us push ourselves further. To learn to kick high enough to grab my foot and hold it above my head, we used to get someone to push our legs up as far as we could handle it, hold it there for awhile and then slowly push it up a tiny bit further and then repeat. Worked really well.

Alas, much like muscles themselves, you lose flexibility if you don't use it. olo

I'm regaining a lot of it though through my weight lifting alone and simply using maximum ROM for my exercises. I can finally squat ATG comfortably now, 1.5+ years later, for example. I could never do that before. It was far too painful and I pulled ligaments even thinking about it.


In other news, I laughed http://www.cbc.ca/thisisthat/blog/20...cer/index.html

That article looks straight out of the fucking Onion

[Poison-]

I can't stand things like that. Yes, sports are about competition...

[AniMeowzerz]

The article is satire, This is That is a comedy show

[Reach]

Yes it is satire.

But particularly good satire IMO. Sports have been dumbed down a lot for kids and it's starting to get out of hand in some places.

I went to my little cousin's baseball game a few months ago and was appalled at how it was run. It was dumbed down so much, there were no points, there were almost no rules, when adults got involved they always threw the game so that the kids would win and every kid got to win no matter what (couldn't hit the ball at the plate? it's ok, you get to walk a home run anyway oh and you win a gold trophy at the end)

D:

Man my team sucked shit when I played hockey when I was little. I never won anything. Actually, I got a small participation trophy once. XD

[Throwaway]

everything you call a 'warm-up' is known as dynamic stretching, and yes you should do it pre, static stretching post. how else you gonna develop full rom jobrahs?!?!?!?!

(do not over-stretch)

[Arch0wl]

What do y'all think of this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1npN-qENNOU

[Senip]

It helps.

Did my competition, got smushed. When you're 6'1 and 210, going up against 5'8 guys and 250 (they merged heavy and super heavys, womp womp), you aint gonna win. :P Got like 8th, was fun!

[Reach]

Originally Posted by Senip

It helps.

Did my competition, got smushed. When you're 6'1 and 210, going up against 5'8 guys and 250 (they merged heavy and super heavys, womp womp), you aint gonna win. :P Got like 8th, was fun!

You entered an open competition senip?

Kinda hard to win when you're against guys on huge amounts of gear lmao

GJ though, glad you enjoyed it.

[mnnicol]

Originally Posted by Senip

It helps.

Did my competition, got smushed. When you're 6'1 and 210, going up against 5'8 guys and 250 (they merged heavy and super heavys, womp womp), you aint gonna win. :P Got like 8th, was fun!

Any pics? (no homo)

[mnnicol]

And limited time only:

Edit: Time's up

Today at 212 lbs. Floating anywhere between 210-214 these days.