Why do we need to stretch our muscles? In the wild we wouldn’t have time to stretch before running from danger so shouldn’t our bodies be ready to move optimally whenever needed?
In: Biology
Other’s have included good information; I’ll see if I can’t add a bit more for clarity. (disclaimer: not an expert at all but have casually done sports alongside more experts for a while)
Two things worth considering are 1: We are warm blooded animals, so our movement/muscle use helps provide useful warmth to our bodies. 2: Humans have a Lymphatic System, that mainly is used to flush trash out of our system, which has no pumping like blood; it requires us to move function properly.
Also, people recommend Dynamic Stretching before workouts, like lunges, limb rotations, etc. anything to get joints moving, not particularly pushing for end range of motion. Save the Static Stretches like Toe-Touch and Butterfly for after the workout (doing it before can increase injury risk!)
In the wild, we’d move a lot more; most anything would involve muscle movement along with walking/running/climbing, so we would naturally have this “warmed-up” status at all times. Because this movement was so standard, there wasn’t enough evolutionary pressure to develop a “always ready” status even without movement before.
Nowadays, we often have our workouts in a short time frame; we go from little movement to a lot of movement when we work in an office, then drive to a gym and doing an hour of High Intensity workout/swimming/running. Our survival evolution doesn’t support this fast switch, but by the time the fast switch became common, we didn’t exactly need to worry about being eaten by animals anymore.
As other mentioned, it’s often recommended to do these dynamic stretches or go for a walk when at a desk for long periods of time. It helps assist the Lymphatic System, and not using your muscles for 8 hour periods can be quite detrimental to your health.
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