Should You Do Dynamic or Static?

“OK team practice is starting, reach down and touch your toes and hold,” said the old school coach that clearly has not been keeping up to date on how to coach his girls properly. You see, a growing body of evidence has shown that performing static stretches (meaning stretches you hold for 20 to 60 seconds) before a workout when your muscles and joints are not warmed up is basically like stretching a frozen rubber band. Doing so can pull apart and weaken the fibers. That’s clearly not what you want before you’re getting ready to get it done.

So, long story short, the best type of stretching before a workout is dynamic stretching. Dynamic stretching is basically when you repeatedly move your muscles through a full range of motion, like when you do butt-kickers, for example. With butt-kickers you’re warming up the legs and glutes with a quick, light repeated movement. This will increase your heart rate and body temperature, and prepare your muscles for the activity you’re about to do. For more information on the whole dynamic warm-up topic, check out this blog/vlog: https://www.studiosweatondemand.com/trainer-tip-videos/what-are-the-best-workout-warm-ups-avoiding-injury/

After your workout though, getting your static stretch on is where all studies are pointing. Those static stretches will help ensure you’re properly cooling that body down (just like a car needs to be cooled down, so do our bodies), it will reduce the chance of injury, decrease muscle tension and soreness, and increase gains as you stretch the fascia (think of this as the skin surrounding the muscle) and allow the muscle to heal. To see our Top 5 Post Cycling Stretches, visit this page: https://www.studiosweatondemand.com/trainer-tip-videos/5-best-post-spin-stretches-our-fave-5/

In the end, when it comes to the type of stretch that is best for you after your workout, the answer is, whatever one you’ll do. Static is probably better for you, but dynamic stretching post-workout is definitely better than not stretching at all. They both feel grrrrrrreat!

Studio SWEAT onDemand has the best post-workout stretching routines by the way! Check them out here: https://www.studiosweatondemand.com/classes/stretch-restore-workouts/