Sports Medicine
Dr. Ken Kinakin
D.C., CSCS
Dr. Ken Kinakin is a sport medicine doctor, chiropractor, certified strength and conditioning specialist and personal trainer! He’s also the author of the book “Optimal Muscle Training” and has competed in bodybuilding and powerlifting for over 20 years. Dr. Kinakin lectures around the world to doctors and personal trainers on the areas of weight-training, rehabilitation and nutrition. He is also the clinic director for the AIM Health & Wellness clinic (see www.aimhealthgroup.com), with a rehabilitation and training centre in Mississauga, Ontario. Dr. Kinakin founded the Society of Weight-Training Injury Specialists (SWIS), an organization that educates and certifies doctors, therapists and personal trainers in the area of exercise muscle testing, rehabilitation and treatment of weight training injuries (see www.swis.ca).
Print
Should I Stretch Before Or After Training
Q. Is it true that stretching before training can reduce power? Charles Poliquin wrote about this, and it seems like bullshit because I’ve been warming up like this for years. Charles says to stretch at the end of a workout.
A. Being a close friend of Charles Poliquin and having taken a number of his seminars, I think it’s important to refine the discussion concerning the controversy that stretching before a workout can reduce power. First, I agree that static stretching may decrease power if there is a joint dysfunction where the joint is moving abnormally or if a specific muscle has scar tissue. But I know that Charles believes, as I do and as does every other high-level coach or practitioner, that dynamic stretching can be beneficial if needed. This can be moving your arm or leg though the exercise’s range of motion or using a broomstick or empty bar for a number of sets to neurologically prepare the body for the exercise. Static stretching after the workout can help with abnormal tissue tension patterns. So use dynamic stretching to prepare the body for the workout and various forms of static stretching at the end of the workout to restore muscle and fascial tissue to its normal tone, tension, and length.
PHOTO: MARTIN PILLMAJER
Categories: