I think I've made a begginers mistake...

[Atty]

Well I've been working out with weights for about four months now and have noticed huge gains, just this week I benched 225 for the first time, I started benching with my max at 145.

A few of my buddies were talking about stretching and I realized, I never stretch. When I come into a work out I warm up the body parts I plan to do with a few light work outs, none of which tire me out, but just get me ready to move into heavy weights, but I never stretch. Should I be stretching? Is it beneficial? I feel like I've lost a bit of flexability.

So what I'm asking here is, should I be stretching? Before work outs? When? It is it beneficial?

 

[dakels]

There must be a ton of literature about the benefits are stretching. Needless to say its often very beneficial in most workouts and critical to others like me who do strength training to support sports where flexibility is key like tennis and volleyball.

 

[jaynonymous]

When I was working out regularly, I would stretch before and after a work out. As you've found out, if you don't stretch, your muscles get tighter and you lose flexibility. Furthermore, as you start dealing with more and more weight, you want your muscles to be as flexible as possible to help avoid injury.

 

[brikis98]

Yes, you should stretch. There are countless benefits to it, although when it comes to weight lifting, the biggest one is injury prevention. In general, do dynamic stretching before workout and static stretching after.

 

[GenHoth]

Originally posted by: brikis98
In general, do dynamic stretching before workout and static stretching after.

QFT