Wait, Now You Shouldn’t Stretch Before Exercising?

You have to love the internet, it seems like every other day there's a new random study that comes out explaining how everything you thought was bad for you is actually good. And the things you were lead to believe were good, are now somehow bad.

Well, here's comes another one.

Now there's a new study out from the University of Zagreb in Croatia that claims it's bad for you to stretch prior to exercising.

Huh? Supposedly it results in less power and performance from your muscles.

The study found your muscles lose about 5.5% of their strength if you stretch them for 90 seconds. Along with that, your explosiveness goes down almost 3%.

Somehow I think the entire fitness world, especially professional athletes and trainers might disagree with the researchers findings on this particular study.

Imagine a football player not stretching before a game, or a world-class Olympic sprinter not stretching before a big run. I could be the difference between winning a gold medal in sprinting or coming in last.

You should know the study found that stretching does help reduce your chance of an injury, but not all that significantly.

So what do they recommend you do instead? The researchers say the best thing a person can do to warm up before exercising is stuff like jumping jacks, high leg kicks or a little light jogging.

Bottom line, if you like stretching before exercising, go ahead. There is no denying it keeps you flexible, increases your body awareness, releases stress, and flat-out makes you feel  better after a good workout.