Static stretching is a process of stretching in which you lengthen your muscles before exercise. Most fitness professionals would agree that the practice of static stretching before exercise is not the best way to warm up fitness session. Over the years fitness professionals have conducted plenty of research into the benefits of static stretching before and after exercise finding what benefits and rewards can be gained from stretching. Unfortunately we are still awaiting the answer to this question, nothing has been set in stone to garuantee this form of stretching prevents injury.
Static stretching normally allows the muscles to cooling down whilst performing the stretch before you workout, this is not great especially when your training outside as you can find this can leave yourself felling demotivated after completing a 10 second stretch on 15 different muscles. The best way to warm has to be Dynamic or ballistic stretching, these stretches are incorporated into the exercise movement. For example, if you needed to stretch your shoulders then you would do an arm circle exercise to ease and release the tension, its important to start small and slow and graduanlly increase movement and speed after completing 10 reps of any exercise. During the period of static stretching the body will aim to return to normal resting rate, this will lose all the benefits from the warm up session. If you use static stretching in cold weather you risk injuring yourself. Try to keep it active and its important that you maintain motivation to exercise and keep the body warm this will prevent injuries from occurring in the future.
