# Is it really necessary to stretch before exercising? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 12, 2003, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-really-necessary-to-stretch-before-exercising/160892 "2003-03-12T18:20:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Epimetheus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c4cdca/32.png) [@Epimetheus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Epimetheus)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2003, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-really-necessary-to-stretch-before-exercising/160892/21 "2003-03-13T18:09:00Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by ultrafilter \* > \*\*You know as well as anyone here that this isn’t what’s meant by warming up. Why don’t you address what (s)he’s actually saying? \*\* Actually I am not sure what people mean when they say warm up the tendons and the joints. I was under the impression that a warm up was just getting the blood flowing in the muscles. Which is not really necessary to do much more than press up against a wall a couple times for the upper body and just walk for the lower body. Walking from the locker room to the weight area is generally enough. Warm ups sets just fatigue the muscle which limits strength gains because not as many fibers are recruited as are possible if the heavier weights are able to be used. Of course not everybody is going for the strength, but endurance athletes and bodybuilders don’t NEED to warm up or stretch before sets either. It isn’t detrimental, isn’t going to severly limit them (except for a little bit of fatigue as mentioned above) but that doesn’t mean it is necessary. I walk into the weight room, swing my arms back and forth a bit to get some blood flow and adrenaline, focus a bit to get into the zone, walk over, pick up my weights and go to right to my worksets. 80-100% of my 1rep max. I don’t get nearly as sore (sometimes not sore at all), I have more energy for my other lifts, and I have not been injured, pulled a tendon, lost flexibility, been bruised, felt pain or anything else. Yet people always tell me that stretching and warm up sets are very important or I will get hurt. My reply- Really, is that why many strength coaches don’t teach a person to do warm up sets? Is that why you see only a handfull of countries do static strecthing before races? Is thier injury rate higher than any others? Is stretching necessary before exercising? If your body is used to it, and you want to stop? Don’t do it all at once. Let your body adapt to it. If you don’t stretch or warm up? Don’t worry about it. Pavel says this: > [@](#): > > I’m going to burst your bubble. There is no scientific evidence that a conventional warmup/or stretching before you do something active decreases the possiblity of an injury or improves your performance. > > **(snip a bit- don’t want to get to put too much of his book on here, buy it borrow it, read it)** > > According to soviet research, in wild animals and properly conditioned people the physiological changes needed for fight or flight- such as increased temperature, fluid viscosity, circulation and muscle tone- takes only seconds to develop. It is necessary for survival and you do not learn these things in the safety of the lab. > > I come from a world where they eat their youngand evolution is still at work. My advice is more practical. If you cannot perform at full throttle when the shit hits the fan- you are lunch. And- > [@](#): > > Dr. Judd Biasiotto did a study on the practice of warming up with a lead bat. (for baseball) It was believed to increase the bat velocity. The question the owners of the Kansas City Royals were asking was not whether the batting speed increased, but rather by how much. > > He found that FOURTY-SEVEN out of FIFTY professional baseball players tested had a better bat veloicty without a warm-up. Curiously, they all believed it was the other way around. Since the difference in speed was minor, the team management decided to stick with the tradition, so the vunerable psyches of the players would not be traumatized. He goes on to discuss Dynamic flexibility, something that Quercus mentioned. Long term effect. I agree with this part, just not about the warming up the tendons and the joints. Getting your blood pumping and adrenal glands working is important, I wouldn’t call that warming up though. An experienced person can do that just by thinking about it. ---
**Author:** ![Epimetheus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c4cdca/32.png) [@Epimetheus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Epimetheus)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2003, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-really-necessary-to-stretch-before-exercising/160892/22 "2003-03-13T18:22:34Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Fuel \* > \*\*You just reiterated what i said. And you could have been more clear by saying it’s always good to get your muscles wet with blood before exercising. > **Epimetheus** , what’s your deal? He said it’s good to warm up before exercising… what wrong with this? \*\* My point is that it isn’t good or bad, but that it isn’t necessary. Your muscles always have blood flowing through them, always wet as you say. Lifting a weight automatically signals for the heartbeat to speed up and pump more nutrients through and carry off waste. The question on the thread title is if it is NECESSARY, which I am answering with a no. According to many of the experts with studies backing them, it in no way prevents injuries or improves performance. The only exception to the warm up is the deadlift. In six studies by a Doctor Biasiotto it was shown that ramping up, I.e warming up with a lower weight, actually improved performance. The other lifts? Five out of six times the non-warm up group showed better results in the bench and squat than the warm up group. No injuries occured in the study, although over 200 of max or near maximal lifts were made. ---
**Author:** ![Epimetheus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c4cdca/32.png) [@Epimetheus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Epimetheus)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2003, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-really-necessary-to-stretch-before-exercising/160892/23 "2003-03-13T18:23:42Z")
Oops, typo, in the above post, it should read 500 max or near max lifts. ---
**Author:** ![Epimetheus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c4cdca/32.png) [@Epimetheus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Epimetheus)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2003, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-really-necessary-to-stretch-before-exercising/160892/24 "2003-03-13T18:37:20Z")
Here is a good article on dynamic flexibility with some good references in them. [http://www.pponline.co.uk/encyc/0860.htm](http://www.pponline.co.uk/encyc/0860.htm) ---
**Author:** ![smalltowngirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4bbf92/32.png) [@smalltowngirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smalltowngirl)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2003, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-really-necessary-to-stretch-before-exercising/160892/25 "2003-03-13T19:32:54Z")
I work with a personal trainer twice a week, and my goal is to lose weight, not become overly muscular. We don’t stretch before the workout, but we do warmup with a brisk 5 minute walk. Then it’s lunges (ick) girlie pushups, sometimes some resistance bands which will include curls, triceps, squats. THEN we stretch after all else is done at the very end. His explanation before has been that since my goal is to lose weight, I have to have a cardio workout. Stretching afterwards keeps me from getting too tight, and the warmup before is strictly to get my heart going in the right direction. I guess once it’s up in the target range, it pretty much stays up, no matter what exercise I’m doing - kind of a jump start, I guess. The stretching afterwards is to bring everything back down to normal. STG ---
**Author:** ![Venoma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/c4cdca/32.png) [@Venoma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Venoma)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2003, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-really-necessary-to-stretch-before-exercising/160892/26 "2003-03-13T20:02:43Z")
This is more of an anecdotal answer - if I don’t stretch before lifting, I get a tight, mildly painful feeling in the muscle being worked - I usually will then stretch that muscle between sets. It usually _saves_ me time if I stretch all my major muscle groups before I start my routine. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-really-necessary-to-stretch-before-exercising/160892.md?page=1)