How to Stretch BEFORE Working Out (QUADS and LEGS)

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Not since Kim and Kanye has one single picture been talked about more in a 1 week period than this one right here. Guys, I’m going to tell you exactly what’s going on in this picture, and more importantly, why you need to know what’s going on. What’s up, guys? Jeff Cavaliere, ATHLEANX. COM.

Welcome to poster gate right here this one picture probably worth more money this week than a picture of Kim and Kanye’s baby Northwest because of the controversy that it sparked in just a short week since the last time I did a video on static stretching and static stretching of the quads. And then basically people say, ‘But Jeff, what are you doing here in this picture? ’ Good point. That’s a good point. That’s a good question.

Guys, it’s the difference between static and dynamic stretching. Now, I’ve covered a lot of different videos on the topic. And we’re going to have a series of ones that I want you to watch. And I’m telling you, it’s going to be worth your while to watch them all. So, when I link one of these videos, see if you can watch each part of it because it will really explain what we’re talking about.

But basically, there’s a major difference between a static stretch of a muscle and a dynamic stretch. For those that are kind of new to this, a static stretch is when you’re going to hold a stretch with the effect of trying to increase the length of that muscle over time. Static stretching, guys, because of that, you’re going to want to do at night before you go to bed when most muscle shortening and healing occurs because you want to have an impact on that muscle shortening before it can actually set in. And you want to be able to do that each and every night because static stretching is most beneficial when it’s done recurrently. So, here, we’re not talking about that.

We’re talking about a dynamic stretch. When you’re getting ready to play a sport, or if you’re not even a competitive athlete, guys, when you’re getting ready to step into the weight room, you’ve got to start focusing on dynamic stretching of whatever the areas that you’re going to impact in that session are. If it’s a game, you pretty much better be flexible upper and lower body because you’re going to be doing a lot of running, a lot hitting, if it’s baseball. And if it’s in the weight room, and you’re working on your legs, or you’re working on your upper body, you can sort of favorably choose one half or the other. But you should be dynamically warming it up.

With dynamic exercises, guys, it’s built right into the name. Dynamic means movement. You want to be moving into and out of your stretches quickly and not statically or longly holding on to any stretch that you do. Right here, what Damion Easly’s doing, and this is our All Star second baseman who basically was recovering from a pretty severe ankle sprain in 2007 to come back in 2008. He’s doing a lot of things here, and I want to show that to you again.

We covered a video about the importance of dynamic stretching in leg swings for the down leg and not just the up leg. So, watch what we’re seeing here, and I’ll show you what we’re doing. Basically, I don’t have a ‘Me’ in here to hold on to here, so I’ll take a stick. So the stick is me, basically I’m holding on to it. What you’re going to see is, you get a dynamic hamstring stretch by kicking your leg forward and then you grab onto the quad here for a second.

Forward. Grab and stretch for a second. Forward. Grab and stretch for a second. Forward.

So, you get this dynamic, never holding in any one position, pattern of movement. You move into your, which are not shown here, both hands onto, my shoulders at this point, and you’re going to be doing your cross the body Leg Swings. Ok. Back and forth, and then you’ll see, guys, that opens up the hips and closes down the hips. Again, an entire video I made on that, you can watch it right here.

Make sure you do if you haven’t see it because it’s a very helpful video I think when it comes to dynamic stretching of the lower body. But what’s more important is, it’s not just the quad that’s getting the work here. It’s that down leg, and that’s what we cover in that video. How that ankle that has to handle all those forward and backward movements in a quick, you know, a quick pattern. That has the effect of mobilizing that down ankle.

So again, everything is about mobilizing and sort of getting this entire lower body ready to play. So, what about the substitution patterns that I talked about that we wanted to avoid in static stretching. If you’re going for a length change of a muscle, and you’re doing it in a static way, great. That’s exactly what you should be doing. You don’t want to have substitutions.

If you’re trying to target the quad, then target the quad and remove the compensations that we make. There, you’re going to want to get on the ground. If you haven’t seen the video, guys, by the way, anyway, it’s only been a week, but if you haven’t seen it, make sure you watch it. I’ll put that here, too. You get down on the ground to do our quad stretch because we can pull our other leg up and eliminate that tendency for our lumbar spine to contribute and substitute.

Guess what’s going to happen when you step under a squat bar with 300 pounds on the bar, or Damion steps up to the plate to get ready to hit a 95-mph fastball. Guess what’s going to happen as soon as his body needs to make sure that he can rotate and get through the ball so he can try to get a hit. Or, if you need to execute that one last rep. You’re going to compensate. You’re going to absolutely compensate.

In order to make sure that you’re prepared to do that, your dynamic stretching does not have to worry so much about compensations. As a matter of fact, for it to be mostly effective, it’s going to incorporate the compensations that you’ve built into it over time. Remember, it’s not about statically increasing the length, it’s about mobilizing and getting your body prepared and ready to play or perform in the gym realizing that those compensations are there and you have to make sure that you’re ready to handle them. So, again, dynamically, make sure that whatever it is that you’re mobilizing, upper body same thing. You’re doing arm circles.

Maybe you have some compensations up here because of a bad shoulder and you’re not necessarily going all the way across your body. Ok. You’ve just got to get that thing mobilized and moving because when you get ready to do that forward press here, or when you get ready to do Push Ups, you’ve got to have that shoulder ready to handle those stresses with compensations in place. But you better damn make sure that you go back at night and work on those static limitations. Static stretching without dynamic, no good.

Dynamic stretching without static, useless. Alright. So, guys big difference. Hopefully Postergate has now been resolved and you guys understand that. Again, I’ve linked a few videos up in this video for you because I think you’re going to find them to be very helpful.

But the fact of the matter is, guys, when you want to train, you’ve got to train with a purpose. You’ve got to train like an athlete. Everything matters. There’s a big difference between, there’s no such thing as stretching. There’s a separation of dynamic and static.

There’s no such thing as lifting. There’s a separation of the tempo, the weights you’re using. We’ve talked about it before, heavy or light. Everything matters. Everything matters when you’re training.

If you’re just working out, go do whatever the hell you want to do. But if you want to train, then everything matters. These guys right here, by the way, 5 guys that I also worked with on that team, Carlos Beltran, David Wright, Paul Lo Duca, Carlos Del Duca, and Jose Rice. All All Stars, and they’re All Stars because they don’t just train like athletes, the