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StretchingRe:Importance of warm-up (Score:5, Informative) [snip] Anyway, my recommendation is that athletes ignore this report entirely; stretching significantly increases your range of motion, particularly in your ankles, legs, groin, waist, wrists, fingers, back, neck and shoulders, and to the degree that your sport requires (or risks) large range of motion and easy movement, you should include gentle and comprehensive stretching regularly interspersed by minor warming of the muscles as part of your regimen any time you start cold, or become cold (where "cold" means not warmed up in the muscular sense.) This will help reduce injuries, increase general flexibility, and it helps relax the antagonist muscles to reduce wasted energy. To the extent that it reduces power, the trade off is well worth it, in my estimation. Injuries, in a word, suck. |