If you’re new to exercise you might wonder if you should stretch before or after a workout. The recommendation from strength and conditioning coaches and scientific research is to perform a full-body dynamic warm-up including dynamic stretching to increase heart rate and blood flow to muscles before exercising. After working out you should perform static stretching. Below, I will walk you through how to warm-up for your workout and how to cool down to help reduce soreness and improve recovery.
Static stretching vs. dynamic stretching
Before we get into how to optimally address stretching before or after your workout, we need to set some definitions.
Static stretching is probably what you think of when you hear the word stretching. This involves gradually extending the length of a target muscle or muscle group to a point where you meet resistance (i.e. you feel a stretch). Holding a static stretch for between 10 and 30 seconds before taking a short break is recommended to help increase range of motion.
To maximize the impact, you should repeat your 10-30 second stretch up to 4 times. If you hold a stretch more than a combined 2 minutes (more than 4 rounds of 30 second holds), the gains are no greater than if you stuck to just 2 minutes.
Dynamic stretching is a form of active stretching that you might see a professional athlete performing before their game. In dynamic stretches, you move fluidly through a comfortable (full) range of motion and repeat this movement several times. This controlled movement through a full range of motion leads to positive changes in the range of motion you can use in sport/training and life in general.
The key with dynamic stretching is to remember it is not ballistic stretching. Ballistic stretching is an outdated technique in which people bounce or jolt into positions (e.g. jerking to try to reach your toes to “stretch” your hamstrings). Ballistic stretching is associated with increased injury risk. Dynamic stretching, on the other hand, includes controlled, smooth and deliberate movements through a full range of motion.
Static stretching before vs. after a workout
The advice to stretch before you exercise or play a sport is probably outdated. It may be beneficial for older exercisers, those that are particularly stiff, or those that have a certain previous injury. However, research suggests that for most people it would be better to leave static stretching to after your workout.
Static stretching prior to exercise leads to decrease muscle strength measures and running and jumping performance. In fact, research has shown that static stretching can decrease muscular strength by significant amounts for up to two hours following the end of the stretching session. Additionally, it has been shown to decrease muscle power and exercise performance.
If your muscles are sore after working out, you may want to stretch more after your workouts and in the days between workouts. To learn more about why your muscles get sore after working out, check out my article about it here
However, dynamic stretching is not associated with strength or performance deficits. In fact, dynamic stretching is actually associated with improved muscular power and jumping and running performance – the exact opposite of what happens after static stretching.
Therefore, you should not static stretch before a workout. You should perform dynamic stretching before your workout and leave static stretching to your post-workout cool-down.
The goal of warming up
Prior to working out, you should take part in some form of a warm-up. This provides an opportunity for you to increase your heart rate, the blood flow to muscles and get a general feel for how your body is feeling on the day. Also, the warm-up can serve as an opportunity to switch your mindset from the rest of the world (e.g. work/school stress) to the task at hand.
By doing a warm-up before exercising you give your body an opportunity to ease into the workout. This leads to a gradual increase in body temperature, increased heart rate, and increased breathing rate. Your cardiovascular system also responds to the warm-up by changing the diameter of the blood vessels that deliver oxygen to working muscles. This decreases resistance to blood flow allowing more oxygen to get to the muscles, which increases the amount of energy that muscles have to do their job.
If you don’t perform a warm-up and jump right into high-intensity exercise, it can place a large strain on the heart, which could be dangerous. Additionally, having a proper warm-up contributes to improved exercise performance and can reduce the risk of injury to muscles and tendons (which connect muscles to bone).
How to warm-up before exercise
When determining how to warm-up before exercising or working out, the key is to know what your training is going to entail.
If you plan on doing a lower-body focused workout, it makes sense to structure your warm-up to ensure your lower body is fully prepared for the load that is about to be placed on in. However, regardless of what your workout will include, the warm-up should have certain components to it (this will also depend on available space):
- Increasing core temperature
- Stationary mobility
- Activation of muscles that will be used
- Dynamic mobility
- Nervous system readiness
Increasing Core Temperature
As the name suggests, this is an opportunity to “get the blood flowing” and increase your heart rate a bit. Core temperature is usually increased via a 5-10 minute cardio session, such as a bike or jog. The intensity of this should be enough to start to get a light sweat going.
Stationary Mobility
Stationary mobility is designed to introduce movement into specific body areas and/or joints that will be further targeted during the dynamic mobility part of the warm-up. This might include “opening up” different parts of the spine or moving the hips through a full range of motion.
Activation Exercises
This is when you start trying to “turn on” specific muscles that will contribute during your workout. One key is to try to include some activation of your core muscles during this part of the warm-up.
I always suggest performing 8 reps of a dead bug or cat-cow variation to get the core firing a bit. If you are prepping for a squat workout you might include some glute bridges or side-lying leg raises (Jane Fondas). If you’re getting ready for a bench press workout you may include some shoulder external rotations or yoga push-ups.
Dynamic Mobility
Dynamic mobility is a movement-based mobility component that includes exercises that mimic movement patterns and positions that will occur in the workout.
I prefer to perform dynamic mobility over a 10-15-meter distance. I usually instruct athletes to perform a rep of the exercise then take a couple of small steps and repeat on the other side of the body. Exercises you might find here include lunges with a reach to the sky, hamstring scoops, lateral lunges and/or the “world’s greatest stretch.”
Nervous System Readiness
Now that you’re warm and have focused on some mobility work, it’s time to get the nervous system ready for your workout. The faster and stronger signals your nerves send to your muscles, the better your muscles perform.
In this part of the warm-up, you might include forward and backward skips, jump progressions or accelerations/sprints. This is the time to up the intensity a bit, get the body fully into work mode and be primed and ready to go.
How to improve range of motion
Now that we know how to warm-up for workouts, the question becomes: how do we improve our mobility, if we’re not stretching before exercise? But first, a little information on why joints have or don’t have a full range of motion.
Joint range of motion is a result of the interactions of the bones at the joint, the lubricating fluid around the joint and the muscles that move the bones at a joint
If any of these components are out of sync with the rest, then there will be a limit in the range of motion. There could be bony blocks (your bones literally running into each other) that prevent the bones from working together. Bony blocks make movements at a joint like trying to fit together puzzle pieces that aren’t meant to go together.
Muscles act to move bones at a joint and allow for all human movement. However, when opposing muscles have different levels of tension (even when relaxed) it can limit the ability for the bones of the joint to move -thus limiting the range of motion.
One way to improve mobility that I don’t address below is spending a lot of time in positions. For those of you that struggle with lower body mobility, I highly advise you to spend a lot of time in a deep squat position. Not only is it great for mobility, but it can also improve digestive health. Check out my article on the benefits on a deep squat hold here.
Banded distraction to improve range of motion
If there are bony blocks at a joint, no amount of stretching will be able to improve the range of motion. Regardless of how flexible your muscles are, bones are still running into each other. To fix this problem, you may have to seek out medical help from a physiotherapist or chiropractor to get the bones in the right position. If you want to attack things in a DIY sense, then you can try banded distraction techniques.
Banded distraction is a method of creating space between the bones at a joint. The idea is that if you are able to increase the space between the bone the lubricating fluid may be able to help the bones move over each other better.
The bands provide traction, helping bones get “un-stuck”. This allows bones to move back into their correct position and normal alignment. Therefore, banded distraction can help ensure all the bones at a joint are lined up as intended, which hopefully leads to a greater range of motion at that joint.
For help with banded distraction, I suggest searching on YouTube the area that is tight (i.e. hip) and including the terms “banded distraction” and “Mobility WOD”. Kelly Starrett and the MWOD crew put out a lot of great content around improving range of motion through banded distraction. Kelly’s YouTube channel can be found here
Stretching to improve range of motion
If you are experiencing a reduced range of motion because of muscle tightness, the solution is to decrease the tension. Studies have shown that increased muscle tension is related to decreased muscle length. Often our muscles get over-active through the day and this leads to increased tension and decreased length (think of a stressful day and how your shoulders and neck get tight and tense). Poor posture can also contribute to muscle tightness because the muscles are forced to stay contracted to support the body in inefficient positions.
If muscle tightness is decreasing your range of motion, you need to take care of the muscles. This could be through a thorough stretching session, foam rolling or massage. However, the key is to remember that one 15-minute stretching session is not going to fix days/months/years of tightness. You really need to attack your mobility on a daily basis if you want to see real improvements.
References:
Page, Int J Sports Phys Ther. 2012.