Warming Up Stretches

Stretching and warming up before athletic exertion and exercise is very important. Netfit says "Your warm up is the key to unlocking tight muscles, which is the cause of injury." RunThePlanet says that a good warm up--including stretching--"should raise your body temperature by 1 or 2 degrees Celsius."

  1. Pre-Stretching Warm Up

    • "It is very important that you perform the general warm-up before you stretch," says RunThePlanet. Because the point of a warm-up is to loosen tight muscles so you don't hurt them during your athletic or exercise activities, warming your body before trying to stretch them out is very important. Leg-Exercises suggests performing "basic and "generic" exercises to help get the blood flowing, and RunThePlanet advises getting your joints moving. Some light aerobic activities such as jogging and rope jumping--with some joint-rotation from swinging the arms, rolling the hands and moving your joints in large loose circle--are suggested.

    Static Stretching

    • Static stretching involves moving one or more limbs to stretch out a set of muscles as far as you can stretch them. Stretch out slowly--your muscles are still in the process of warming up and may still feel tight in places. When the muscle starts to burn with the exertion, stop and hold the position for 10 to 20 seconds. Feel free to repeat the stretches if you wish, but keep it light.

    Sport-Specific Stretching

    • After your first stretch, spending some time on specific stretches tailored around the exercise or physical activity you plan to engage in is advisable. RossBoxing suggests boxers engage in agility drills such as lateral jumping before moving on to shadow boxing. Runners may benefit from sport-specific stretches such as heel raises, hip-joint flexion, hip-joint extension and lunges. Sport-specific stretches are important to ensuring a fully warmed-up body before engaging in athletic or exercise activities.

    Dynamic Stretching

    • To conclude your work out, carefully engage in some dynamic stretching. Dynamic stretching, unlike static stretching (which involves holding a position through the burn of a fully extended muscle for 10 to 20 seconds), dynamic stretching involves moving your limbs through their normal range of motion. RunningPlanet suggests doing three to five minutes of light jogging or running before engaging in dynamic exercises such as walking lunges, high knee lifts, high heel kicks and walking side lunge drills.