Nick U.
Gentle exercise wont injure you and warms muscles. Strenuous activity could is bad. Depends on exercise if warm up is really necessary but never cold to heavy
Stephanie Z.
I think a warm up vs stretching is helpful especially when it's cold. I feel I stay injury free when I routinely stretch (or do yoga), but not necessarily after a workout.
Gilian I.
There are reasons to stretch before and after a workout. Your stretches before should be movement based and combined with your warmup, these are called dynamic stretches. They help protect your joints before the workout. Your stretches after can be longer and deeper as part of your cooldown, these are called static stretches and they help with increasing overall flexibility. I recommend looking up a few of each type (dynamic and static) and incorporating them as part of a complete workout which should include a warmup and a cooldown phase anyways.
Aaron T.
You can warm yourself up to the real stretch – by stretching! If you're not warm don't push, relax key bits of your body. The important rule is not to overstretch before exercise, which would mean that your joints can operate outside their normal strong range and this could easily result in injury. So stretching before strenuous exercise should be limited to 10seconds per stretch.
Paolo T.
I’ve heard that ‘dynamic stretching’ is good for before exercising and the proper static stretches are better once you’ve warmed up, so maybe you could try that? I’m no expert though.
Thea P.
When you want to stretch it better to get a little warm, maybe a small jog. Not too intense. But also remember to stretch after a workout to release stress in your muscles and prevent aching in following days.
Nicole F.
This is true. Though in my experience, it depends on the stretch too. If it's very strenuous then better stretch only after you've warmes up, otherwise stretching right away should be okay (just don't force anything too much, especially when it's cold!)
It also depends on experience. If you frequently stretch, after stretching for a while you probably can handle stretching 'cold' too.
