After my professional football career I trained the same way I had for the past 20+ years, I warmed up for 5-8 min on a stationary bike or treadmill then I would do a static stretch similar to the stretches you use to do in high school gym class.

Do you remember those stretches? Dead men hang, hurdler stretch, static lunge, hip stretch, split leg stretch, sumo squat, etc. These stretches have value and I have nothing bad to say about performing these stretches, I even implement them in my training programming for my clients of all levels of abilities, and fitness levels, but in my professional opinion static stretching alone is not enough to get the full benefit from your training program.

Several years after I retired from professional sports I trained and worked to maintain a level of fitness that would allow be active and maintain my strength and mobility. I trained on and off of two and half years, due to nagging injuries that would not go away from the years of punishment I deal out and received over close to two decades of playing college and professional football. I had a issue with low back pain, I was recovering from my second knee scope within two years, and I had several other physical issues which limited my ability to function and improve my physical fitness level consistently. After years of battling my body and the numerous issues that I was having I decided that there was something I was doing wrong, but I had no idea of how to fix these issues, so I continued to stretch and workout like I always have. but with the same result; train for several weeks, stop due to injury for several weeks. This was a cycle that I went through for close to three years, until I discovered the proper way to not only prepare train but to try to correct the mobility and strength imbalance issues that were the main reasons of why I had these nagging physical issues that prevented me from maintain a consistent training regimen.

After years of enduring pain and loss of training time, I was going through my small library of health and training books (5 books) I ran across a book and DVD set that was given to me as a gift in 2007. I had not opened this set until then, it was still wrapped in plastic and was in great condition, it was Mark Verstegen's book Core Performance, This book changed my life and is the reason I decided to become a trainer, and it showed me that in order for you body to perform at its highest level it must be prepared to train.

The foundation with in the philosophy of movement preparation is to prepare the body to train not just to stretch or lengthen muscles and the connective tissue as in traditional static stretching, Movement preparation is also an effective way to gage a monitor your fitness level as you progress through your training, for example as you perform these movements and learn the patterns of these movement you will notice that they will become easier and I suggested to increase the amount of repetitions (by 2-4 reps)and intensity per movement (by increasing the tempo/speed of the movement) every two-three weeks.

The movement prep or dynamic stretch can also involve corrective exercises which focus on improving the strength imbalances, mobility, and stability issues discovered during the physical assessment. This helps with [possible] prevention of injury, increases stability, and mobility which in turn makes the training session more productive.

In conclusion, in my professional opinion a comprehensive movement prep or dynamic stretching program will improve the quality of training, and lead to greater gains, whether that be weight loss, strength, cardiovascular/stamina, mobility, or your physical well being.