WHEN DUANE KNUDSON, a professor of kinesiology at California State University, Chico, looks around campus at athletes warming up before practice, he sees one dangerous mistake after another. “They’re stretching, touching their toes. . . . ” He sighs. “It’s discouraging.” 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. In a recent study conducted at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, athletes generated less force from their leg muscles after static stretching than they did after not stretching at all. Other studies have found that this stretching decreases muscle strength by …

Hyperextended Knee Many yoga students are quite surprised to learn that joints can become too flexible. But in many joints, ligaments and tendons play a major role in preventing excessive motion; if those tissues become too loose, the joint can move in ways that cause damage or set the stage for injury. A joint with such laxity is said to be hypermobile, and the knee is particularly vulnerable to this problem. In fact, this joint is more or less just one long bone (the femur, or thighbone) stacked on top of another long bone (the tibia, or shinbone). Ligaments and tendons are all that holds these bones together. Most people are all too aware of how easily and dramatically the knee’s connective tissues can be injured by twisting. But fewer people are aware that knee hyperextension—too much opening at the back of the knee—also creates misalignment and bad movement habits that can pave the way for arthritis and more serious knee injuries. Do You Hyperextend? Wearing minimal or tight-fitting clothes so you can clearly discern …

by: Stephen Ewashkiw As a travelling yoga teacher I like to make an attempt at teaching part of my class in the local language, even if it’s just a few words. It’s always good for a laugh, and people appreciate my attempt at taking part in the local culture. I have been teaching regularly in China for the past couple of years, but one of the few phrases I have learned to say in Mandarin (a notoriously difficult language) is: I do not want hyperextension of the elbow. I do not want hyperextension of the knee. In Mandarin that’s 不要 手肘超伸. 不要 膝盖超伸. (Bùyào shǒu zhǒu chāo shēn. Bùyào xigai chāo shēn.), in case you’re interested. Most of my Chinese students have long, thin bones, covered in long, lean muscles. This body shape, but not only this body shape, lends itself to the tendency to hyperextend elbows and knees. Most of these students don’t know they hyperextend, they don’t know they shouldn’t hyperextend, and they don’t know how to not hyperextend. Though it’s possible to hyperextend …