Stretching Before or After Running?

There's an article out since yesterday says that stretching before running doesn't prevent injury.

They're a little slow to report this. Runner's World has been reporting this for years. You should do light, easy exercise for 5 to 10 minutes to warm up, then stretch after you're done jogging or exercising.

Never stretch cold muscles!

That's the current advice.

The article mentioned above tells us that a trainer has developed an alternative way of stretching that involves stretching for just 2 to 3 seconds, then releasing. You do this multiple times rather than holding a stretch for 20 to 30 seconds or even longer.

Again, that's not new.

If you've ever been in a public school P.E. class, then you've been told, "Don't bounce when you stretch."

Someone finally decided to actually test whether that was good advice a few years ago. Finally!

It's not.

Apparently, after about 2 seconds our muscles start to fight the stretch they're feeling. They tense up involuntarily, and for this reason those who hold their stretches are more prone to injury than those who bounce.

The problem with bouncing, of course, is that if you do it too violently, you can hurt yourself.

So the stretching that this trainer is suggesting in the article is gentle stretches held for 2 or 3 seconds, before the muscle reacts to the stretch, then repeated.

That may be a great way to stretch, but the best, most reliable advice out now is don't stretch cold muscles!

Instead, if you're going jogging, jog or walk very slowly for the first 5 to 10 minutes. (Being impatient, I always opt for 5.)

Then, stretch after you run.

I can tell you that of the 10 to 20 people I've advised to stretch after they run, every one of them reports less soreness the next day if they do so. For me personally, the difference is tremendous. Stretching after I run is the best way to prevent soreness the following day.

Disqualifying Myself as an Unmotivated Person?

Okay, I finished moving out to Sacramento—temporarily!—and I can get back to writing on this blog and working on our site.

In the meantime, I've had a physical, possibly the first one since I left the military in 1986.

The doctor told me I'm healthy ...

but not at this weight.

He told me I needed to lose 30 pounds in the next 3 to 6 months or he'd put me on blood pressure medication.

I don't trust doctors or their medication, though I follow their advice and take their medication unless I have good reason to trust alternative advice. This is a good attitude for you to take as well. Last month's Discover magazine—a mainstream, popular science-related publication—reported that over 50% of treatments prescribed by doctors are untested.

So I have no intention of taking any blood pressure medication unless the situation is imminently life-threatening.

No Longer Unmotivated!

My blood pressure is barely high. It gets measured at 150 over 95 at the highest. Other days it's more like 135 over 80.

I don't know what you do when you get diagnoses like that, but I take them very seriously.

The first time I got a reading of 150 over 83, I got on the internet to find out why my systolic reading would be high while the diastolic was low. I've never had that sort of blood pressure reading before.

As it turns out, the systolic reading (the high number) tends to migrate upwards as we age. Apparently, our aortas get less flexible, and it's the aorta that drives the systolic reading upward.

Exercise, diet, and quitting smoking are the natural treatments that work according to the National Institutes of Health (nih.gov), my reference site of choice. I added less caffeine as a treatment. Since I drink between 3 and 7 cups of coffee a day, I'm sure that affects my blood pressure.

Anyway, as I said, I take diagnoses like high blood pressure seriously. I had the physical on Sept. 22, and I've lost 13 pounds since then.

Not Disqualifying Myself

I'm not disqualifying myself as among the unmotivated, however.

Once my blood pressure is down—it appears to be down a little already—I have to have a plan in place to continue at a proper weight with proper nutrition and sufficient exercise. I want to be one of those active, useful 75-year-olds, assuming no one kills me for preaching the Gospel before then.

I had to mention that. Being killed for preaching the Gospel—without being an offensive jerk—is one of my major goals in life.

Losing Weight Without Being Hungry

My doctor gave me one piece of advice that has made losing weight super easy once it was combined with all the other things that I know about losing weight.

Since I already wrote a web page on it, which I haven't had time to upload while I was moving, let me upload that page so you can read it.

This isn't a trick, and I won't send you from page to page or charge you anything.

Here's how to lose weight for free easily and effectively.