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On 12/18/99, [log in to unmask] writes: <<The little evidence that does exist in this area suggests that there is no prophylactic effect of stretching or warming up. I am very interested to learn why the standard advice of the medical community is to warm up and stretch before exercise, it could even be harmful.>> ***An interesting true story was related about an amazing lifting feat carried out by Russian former world champion Olympic Weightlifter, Dave Rigert (90kg division) during the early 1970s. During the warmup session before his division, Rigert stood in his sweatsuit in front of the bar loaded with 170kg (current world record at the time) and began several minutes of autogenic preparation - no movement, just eyes closed and body being visualised into action. Spectators present in the warmup room noted his growing energy and perspiration, culminating in an explosive effort which propelled the bar overhead in one apparently effortless movement. While I was in Russia, I met his coach, Prof Medvedev and other scientists or coaches who knew Rigert and they confirmed that he had enormous powers of visualisation and concentration that enabled him to lift maximal loads without warming up. They did not discount the value of active warmup that comprises the actual sporting movements themselves, but regarded static and typical aerobics session stretching (a la Bob Andersen's book and yoga asanas) as being probably detrimental to performance and generally quite redundant before any event. Research by Iashvilii in particular showed that the greatest increases in functional ROM are produced by full range work with heavy loads (translations of this Russian work appear in our text: Siff & Verkhoshansky "Supertraining" 1999 Ch 3). Dr Mel C Siff Denver, USA [log in to unmask] %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%