It never ceases to amaze howwarm-up and stretching are equated. Warm-up to stretch, do not stretchto warm-up. Essentially it is counterproductive and a huge waste oftime. If you are spending ten minutes a day static stretching inwarm-up, that is ten minutes that you are not making them betterathletically.There is plenty of research to show that pre exercisestretching does NOT prevent injury. Despite this knowledge you stillsee Football teams lying on the ground for ten minutes doing staticstretching ? what a waste. Don?t get me wrong there is a place foractive stretching in warm-up. In the later third of the warm-up whenthe body is well on it?s way to being warmed up. To see where it isplaced go to www.gambetta.com/resouces to see the active warm-up sequence. Watch Oregonfootball warm-up that is the way it should be done, active and dynamic.I have been told that Cal Berkeley Football is now warming up the sameway. I have been using an active warm-up with a minimum of staticstretching for thirty plus years. I think the results and lack ofinjuries bear out its efficacy. Thatis not to say that flexibility is not important, it certainly is. It iswhen you work on flexibility. It is separate and distinct trainingunity. It is best done post practice or after a good warm-up. More onflexibility in another post.
