Reply With QuoteStarting Strength in the Real World, warm up Sept 22 2016 by Mark RippetoeOriginally Posted by Steven Kalin
"Squats require that you do some position stretching for the bottom of the movement, a few light squats, and an appropriate progression in weight from the empty bar up to the work sets using proper technique. And that is all. No jumping around in the floor, no 100 air squats, no goofy walking, no stretching other than assuming the bottom position a couple of times. Just get warm under the bar, add weight, and squat.
There is no evidence, in either The Literature or in the objectively evaluated experience of coaches or lifters, that 30 minutes of stretching before a barbell workout is anything other than a detrimental waste of time. We have demonstrated for the past 10 years that a below-parallel squat is not dependent on flexibility, but rather correct positioning of the stance, knees, and back angle. The bottom position stretch I mentioned is not really a stretch in the sense that the Mobility People use the term, but a practice of the position to be assumed at the bottom before you start squatting.
In fact, the vast majority of the studies on the subject show a decrease in power development if stretching is performed prior to the movement being tested. Stretching does not prevent injuries, and it doesn't increase performance. The full-ROM barbell exercises constitute their own stretch, and if you are already flexible enough to execute the barbell movements over their full and effective range of motion – and if you are not engaged in a sport that challenges your existing ROM during the movement patterns used in the sport – then you are sufficiently flexible to train without stretching. Stretching need not, and in fact should not be a part of the warmup, because it's a waste of your time.
Training time is valuable. Paying for a coach to supervise an unnecessary half-hour of pointless warmup is one of the more obvious examples, but so is personal time spent away from work or family in the gym or on the track. Wasting that time is costly, and doing so simply because you have heard it is important reflects badly on your credulity".
That was one of many articles I could find regarding stretching from starting strength. Now contrast that with the fact I had failed lifts 3 times, telling a coach that stretching was the problem, I end up drenched in sweat before I begin to lift and on the 4th time I refuse to stretch before being convinced to not only stretch which makes me weaker but to also increase the weight by 20lbs. But what you think is that I the lifter jumped the gun? Your wrong, he did not know what he was doing (in regard to stretching, other then this aspect I was the most impressed I have ever been in a personal training) but you don't know what your talking about either. As a matter of fact you both have the same problem you are not listening to what the problem is. Surely by now I have communicated what I believe the problem is. So tell me I'm wrong, tell me rips information is wrong and tell me how. Or better yet tell how I can prove it to you? Fail 4 times in a row with a coach and then not failing after without stretching I thought was evidence enough.
