Krytykowanie Michaila jest ostatnią rzeczą, do której czuję się upoważniony, jednak w tej kwestii rzeczywiście trochę się pozmieniało. Tu jest fragment artykułu
http://www.handymanletter.com/20040901.shtm (z września 2004):
"A few months ago, an article in US News and World Report caught my attention. It was about stretching... the slow bending and twisting motions that are supposed to make us more flexible and healthy. I'm no stranger to stretching, having studied Tang Soo Do Korean karate for a number of years. Yep, I used to do a great imitation of a pretzel... without the salt!
Entire books, careers and fortunes have been made around the stretching-for-health mystique. We have been told for over 25 years that stretching before exercise is essential for muscle, joint and tendon health and protects us from athletic and training injuries. In common language, if you didn't stretch before exercise you were a self-destructive jerk!
Apparently not. More and more exercise specialists... not "trainers" but doctors and physiologists... are backing away from cold stretching as a "must-do" for both fitness buffs and athletes. According to recent studies, it appears that stretching may offer little protective value and in fact may help lead to injuries. As any women's basketball fan knows, knee injuries plague these athletes, and stretching may be causing already loose knees to become dangerously unstable. Marathon runners of all sexes who stretch prior to races have more injuries than those who don't.
Furthermore, stretching before exercise may actually decrease performance. Stretching causes tiny tears in the muscle, so a stretched muscle produces less force. Bodybuilders for years have known that stretching before weight lifting may be counterproductive.
Not to throw the baby out with the bathwater, the author concludes that stretching does have a place as part of an active "warm-up" to help the athlete attain the range of motion necessary for the sport. For example, light swings with a golf club or baseball bat warm muscles for the explosive movements of the sport. Also, stretching after exercise when the body is thoroughly warm is less damaging since it will not contribute to injury during exercise. (...)"
Ja osobiście stosuję rozgrzewkę przed siłowym oraz rozgrzewkę + lekkie rozciąganie przed aerobami.
