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The temptation, when you really get into exercising your body and enjoying the feel of the blood rushing to your muscles, is not to warm up properly for at least 5 or 10 minutes before you start.  Look, if you are over 50, or even over 30, you have to take it easy when you are starting your exercise routine.  When your muscles are cold, and you begin full force, this is exactly about the time when injuries begin to happen.  In this article, I will show you the 4 major reasons why you should always stretch before you lift weights or practically any type of vigorous exercises exerting the muscles and the joints.

The 4 Reasons Why You Should Always Stretch Before Lifting Weights

Reason Number #1 – To Avoid Muscle Tears – When your muscles are cold and you haven’t stretched them properly, you open yourself to muscle tears.  This can happen in the middle of an exercise such as a barbell leg squat or a heavy bench press.  This is very hazardous and dangerous to your health.

Reason Number #2- To Avoid Pulling Tendons – Even if you get away with not pulling or tearing a muscle, pulling a muscle tendon, the connecting cables of the muscles to the bones, will leave you limping or unable to move your arms or shoulders for days.

Reason Number #3- To Avoid Muscle Cramps – Probably not as damaging, but certainly just as dangerous is to get a muscle cramp in the middle of a heavy exercise.  The last thing that you need is a barbell that you can no longer hold above your head to come crashing down onto your chest.

Reason Number #4- To Avoid Lower Back Injuries – I would like to put this injury in a special category of its own.  One day while rushing to finish a bent-over barbell row for the back, because I was late for work, early in the morning and outside in the cold in my garden, I accidentally jerked upward in the wrong way with my lower back and pulled the bottom part of my spine and pinched a nerve!  Long story short.  I was living in 24-hour excruciating pain and walking in the day with a cane – for over 4 weeks! Believe me, I wouldn’t want this to happen to anybody.

The Primary Types of Stretching That You Should Do Before Working Out

The general stretching movements are similar to those that a smart jogger will do before running.  You should hold your stretching movement for at least a slow count of 20.  There should be a stretching movement for the arms and shoulder joints, for the back muscles, for the front of the thigh, for the back of the thigh (the hamstrings) and for the calf muscles (the lower legs) as well.  Workout well, but be safe by stretching first.

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From Charles Prosper – The 12-Week Fitness Guru