Quote:
|
work at a desk job all day and so I find it necessary to stretch prior to my workout just to get some blood flowin through my body..
|
Static or passive stretching actually REDUCES blood flow to the muscles
Yep, basically what you said. If you do feel "tight" like I said you can do the dynamics. You'll have to teach youself about that and I can tell you a lot. Also you can do joint rotations and different kinds of mobility stuff before if it is necessary. And all that would generally be a good idea. There are many different kinds of stretching and flexibility and they all have their proper place.
But yes you should have a stretching routine that you do after each type of workout.
Like I said before if you have a chronically tight 'opposite' muscle then passively stretching it before would be a good idea. An example of this might be if your pecs were very tight and overactive and you were about to do a row of some type. Obviously the tight pecs could limit you range of motion. Also they could inhibit you ability through something known as reciprical inhibition. So stretching them in a case like that could help a lot because it would sort of de-excite the motor neurons if that makes sense. Remember that flexibility is a function of the nervous system.
On the cardio what I have found to be the best is something that gives you a good range of motion. Lots of people just get on the treadmill for a light warmup but I prefer something like a rower or anything that moves the legs and arms through a larger range of motion. It "gets the blood flowing" much better and it more similar to what you will be doing in the weight workout. Of course the cardio cannot be enough to be taxing to you in any way.
When you do the dynamic stretching prior, however, which I do qutie a bit, that's actually stretching and a warmup all in one
not counting the weight warmup of course.