Should I Stretch or Not?
Q:
I've always heard you should
stretch before your workouts.
How much should I do?
A:
That theory is not necessarily true,
simply due to the fact that your
muscles are cold and tight before a
workout, and injury can occur if you
are not careful.
One way to reduce the risk of injury is
by simply doing a 5- to 10-minute warm-
up to increase body temperature and get
your blood moving. Exercise bikes or
light jogging are good for warm-ups. But
even after warming up, I wouldn’t jump
right into an intense stretching session.
To really be on the safe side, I would
recommend doing a regular weight
workout first, always making sure to
start with a lighter weight performed
with a complete range of motion to be
sure you supply your muscles with plenty
of blood. This also prepares your joints
for heavier sets to come. Feel free to
include a few lighter stretches between
your sets, but save the deeper, more
intense stretches for the end of your
workout. Just make sure that you are not
being too forceful, and avoid bouncing
or jerking while you’re stretching. Hold
the different stretches for anywhere
from 15–30 seconds.
I’ve been training for a long time,
but lately I haven’t made any
strength improvements on the
bench press. What’s a good
technique to use to
increase the amount of
weight I can bench?
A: Even though there are
several techniques for
bringing up your bench
weight, one that has worked
well for my own clients is to
strengthen complementary
muscles using unilateral exercises. For
the bench press, I recommend doing
single-arm dumbbell presses. Start with
your arms extended, palms forward. In
an alternating fashion, bend one arm,
lowering the weight toward your front
deltoid/chest, while keeping the opposite arm extended but not locked out.
Continue to press the weight back up to
the starting position, then switch to the
other arm. It is important to move
at a slow, controlled pace in order to
maintain good balance on the bench.
This unilateral press technique will
help to strengthen all the stabilizers that
are used to extend a typical bench press.
These stabilizing muscles will help a
great deal with your regular bench, but
they don’t get trained in a typical bench-
press workout.
Also, feel free to play with different
angles with unilateral dumbbell presses,
from flat to incline, and even steep
incline. These variations will stimulate
muscle growth, and I guarantee that you
will see a difference after a while.
expert tip
:: Weight training can actually will help you cut more body fat, since the more lean
muscle that you carry, the more calories you will burn — even in your resting phase.
Matt Malotki, ACE, NASM, is a trainer based in Woodland Hills, California. His clients
include championship boxer James Toney and Chris Rose, host of Fox Sports Net's
the "Best Damn Sports Show."
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