Making stretching a part of your warm-up

Like a good play or movie, a good warm-up has three acts or phases. These three phases are important because, first, they mimic the movements you’ll be doing in a slower, less vigorous fashion to help prevent injury. Second, the dynamic moves allow you to increase your range of motion. And finally, the static stretching phase helps you increase muscle length, which results in increased flexibility.
In this case, the three acts are as follows:

1. The rehearsal phase: In this phase, you should perform moves that mimic what your workout will be. For example:
• If you’re going jogging, start with a very light trot or walk.
• If you’re going to play tennis, spend a few minutes volleying the ball back and forth.
• If you’re taking an aerobics class, spend a few minutes doing light choreography.
2. The dynamic stretching phase: This phase refers to general, full-body moves that aren’t directly related to your intended activity. Such moves should be large range-of motion moves, traveling through all three planes of motion. They should be dynamic in nature, fluid, and rhythmic.
3. The multijoint static stretching phase: After a few minutes of mimicking your workout, and then going through some integrated, dynamic stretches, your body will be warm enough to perform a few multimuscle static stretches to introduce length to the muscles and mobility to the joints.

Never start your warm-up with static stretches. Always take a few minutes to perform the rehearsal moves and the general dynamic stretches before moving into the final static Keep in mind that the goal of stretching in the warm-up isn’t specifically to increase flexibility — it’s to generally warm up the body and introduce the range of motion that the upcoming workout requires of your muscles. Therefore, don’t hold the stretches in the warm-up for as long as you do in the cool-down, and never leave your comfort zone.