Secrets of Stretching

I read, in awe, this article on the New York Times website today. Here's a tidbit from the story:

If you’re like most of us, you were taught the importance of warm-up exercises back in grade school, and you’ve likely continued with pretty much the same routine ever since. Science, however, has moved on. Researchers now believe that some of the more entrenched elements of many athletes’ warm-up regimens are not only a waste of time but actually bad for you. The old presumption that holding a stretch for 20 to 30 seconds — known as static stretching — primes muscles for a workout is dead wrong. It actually weakens them.

Seriously? I vividly remember our high school field hockey stretching routine. We'd run a lap and all sit down facing the goal and stretch. Our arms, our legs, our butts, everything! Same goes for every other sport I ever played.

I have recently been going back to the gym. Winters in New England are notoriously long. When the sun sets at 4:30 pm my mamalian body says it's time to go to bed. Exercising literally keeps me awake. I guess I'll only be stretching after my workout from now on.