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definitely focus on stretching before work out. I have seen so many of my friends screw up their shoulder because they didn't focus on stretching.

• gaius 10y ago
  Stretching cold muscles will do nothing at best or injure you at worst - stretch after your workout. Warmup with light exercises first. E.g. if you are planning barbell squats, start with air squats.
  • parthdesai 10y ago
    i usually run for 15-20 mins before proceeding to stretching and then working out.
  • jmartinpetersen 10y ago
    "Another warmup type that provides no performance benefit is doing a light starting set before lifting your normal weights (study). " This advice worries me. You do not warm up to increase performance in each session, you warm up so that you can keep doing sessions (hint: you can't work out when you're injured).
    • gaius 10y ago
      Absolutely. Air squats before real squats get blood flowing into the muscle, you "rehearse" the move a few times to remind yourself of the form, etc. That's what reduces the possibility of injury. If you think about it from an evolutionary perspective, a warmup to increase performance makes no sense - you wouldn't have time to stretch first if you were about to be eaten by a hungry mammoth - the body would want to jump straight to peak power and if you get injured it's better than being dead...