Flexibility training before or after exercise

For the vast majority of ordinary fitness and sports enthusiasts, dynamic flexibility training should be done before exercise, and static flexibility training should be done after exercise. People with special flexibility needs or rehabilitation needs can flexibly adjust according to their own goals. There is no absolute standard answer.

Here we need to clarify two concepts first: Dynamic flexibility training is what we often call dynamic stretching, such as walking lunges, raising legs high, wrapping arms, turning and touching feet. You pull while moving and will not stop at a certain angle for a long time.； Static flexibility training is the familiar leg press, shoulder stretch, stretching to a sore and swollen position and stopping for twenty or thirty seconds. In many people’s minds, “Lajin” basically refers to the latter.

A while ago, I took a friend who had just started running to practice intervals. He stood there holding his ankles and pressing his legs for three minutes. As soon as he finished the first 400 meters, he complained that his thighs were so soft that he could not lift them up. His running posture collapsed and he almost sprained his feet. This is a typical stretching sequence reversed. There have long been relevant studies in exercise physiology: if a single static stretch exceeds 30 seconds, the muscle's ability to generate instant force will temporarily decrease by 10%-20%, and the effect can last for nearly half an hour. Think about it, you were originally going to sprint and squat heavy weights, but as a result, your muscles were "stretched" in advance, and you couldn't exert force. If your movements were deformed, you would be particularly vulnerable to injury. Dynamic stretching uses active activities to gradually expand the range of motion of muscles and joints, which is equivalent to "preheating" the muscles that need to be worked. It not only increases flexibility, but also activates muscles, which can actually improve sports performance and reduce the risk of strain.

Of course, some people will argue: When I was in school, the physical education teacher asked us to press our legs together in class every time, and no one had any trouble? Harmful, this is normal. First of all, the intensity of most people's physical education classes is to run 800 meters and shoot a basketball. The exercise load is already low. Even if you do static exercises in advance, there will not be too obvious negative effects. ； Secondly, what many teachers teach is based on old experience more than ten years ago, and current research has long been updated and iterated.

It doesn’t mean that you can’t do anything static for half a minute before exercise. The needs of different sports are completely different, and the circles have different operating habits. Friends I know who practice classical dance, in addition to dynamic stretching such as kicking their legs and opening their shoulders, they also do cross-body stretches for more than ten seconds before going on stage. They have been practicing every day since they were young, and their muscle tolerance is not at the same level as ordinary people. Moreover, their core need is to open their joints to the maximum range. There is no need for ordinary fitness people to learn hard. There is also a brother who does powerlifting. His ankle dorsiflexion is limited and he can't always squat properly. Every time he warms up, he will pull his triceps calf for 30 seconds. Just pulling it for a short time can help him squat more standard, which is good for improving performance and reducing the risk of injury. This kind of targeted short-term static exercise is absolutely fine before exercise.

Let’s talk about the benefits of static stretching after exercise. I’ve been through this pitfall several times myself. After practicing deadlifts last winter, I was in a hurry to go home for dinner and forgot to stretch my hamstrings. I struggled to squat on the toilet the next day, and the hamstrings were stretched so hard that it hurt for three whole days. Static stretching is like slowly relaxing a rubber band that has been tightened for a whole session. It can help muscles return to their original length and relieve tension after exercise. Existing research has also confirmed that static stretching for 10-15 minutes after exercise can effectively reduce the degree of delayed onset muscle soreness (the kind of DOMS that people often say hurts for two or three days after exercise). Now, whether I'm playing badminton or practicing strength training, I have to sit there and do a slow pull for 10 minutes, two sets of shoulder, back, leg, and hip pulls each. I basically won't have too much soreness the next day, and the price/performance ratio shouldn't be too high.

Nowadays, there is a lot of quarrel on the Internet. Some people say that you must stretch all the way before, and some say you must stretch all the way after. In fact, they all fail to understand the difference between different types of stretching, and they do not take into account that everyone's exercise goals and physical foundation are different. There is really no need to stick to any standard answer. Your own body feeling is the most accurate - if you stretch for 1 minute before exercising and your joints feel more stretched, and your strength is not affected when running and jumping, then you will be done with it. Fitness is a very personal matter, so there are not so many black and white rules.