The Importance of Stretching…or is it really that important?

Specialists are always talking about how important it is to stretch before you work out, but new studies are suggesting that it may hurt you instead.

Static stretching’s reputation is taking a dive. While all your high school gym coaches had you standing in the gym doing those weird arm circle exercises or bending over to touch your toes, they may have been building bad habits for you.

Turns out, static stretching is a bad practice before an intense workout or before playing a sport. Most likely, a lot of you will have a hard time believing this but set those traditional exercise beliefs aside for a moment.

When you stretch before exercising, your body may think that it’s at a risk of being overstretched. It compensates by becoming more tense. This usually means that you’re not able to move as fast or freely. This also means you’re more prone to injury.