Make time to stretch: adding just a few minutes of stretching to your cardio routine will increase your flexibility and keep you off the disabled list - Cardio Clinic

Weightlifting and cardio exercise are the steak and potatoes of training, and any workout program worth its salt dishes up healthy servings of both. You don't need a $100-an-hour trainer to know that whenever you hoist free weights or hop onto a treadmill, you'll build muscle and burn calories.

But man does not live by meat and starch alone--you need to throw some cruciferous vegetables onto your plate. That's where stretching--the steamed broccoli of training--comes in. You may not like it, maybe it even made you grimace when you were a kid, but deep down you know it's good for you. You know that a routine that makes you pliable also makes your muscles function better, behave "younger" and become more injury-resistant. Stretching also helps you get better (read: quicker) results from weight training. All that and it takes only a few minutes, requires no equipment, has no harmful side effects, and doesn't cost a dime.

Here's the best of what stretching has to offer, according to triathlon coach Joe Friel, president of Ultrafit Associates (www.ultrafit.com) and the author of five books, including The Mountain Biker's Training Bible and The Triathlete's Training Bible.

* It can result in physical performance improvements, especially in sprint-oriented team sports and any activity that involves a full range of motion, like throwing a baseball, hitting a tennis or golf ball, and executing a lat pull-down and bench press in the gym. The wider the range of motion you're able to achieve with a muscle, the more force you're able to generate.

* It keeps your muscles "younger." There's a reason you don't see many 40-year-old Olympic gymnasts. "Muscles and connective tissue become less pliant as you age," Friel explains. "This is primarily due to physiological changes, but for most of us, it's also because we become less physically active over the years."

* It enhances recovery from workouts and helps prevent sports injuries. "All sports shorten the muscles you use, and that leads to injuries. Stretching keeps those muscles long and supple," says Friel. Also, recent study findings suggest that stretching accelerates protein synthesis--the body's mechanism for repairing damaged muscle cells--which allows you to recover faster from workouts.

THE BEST TIME TO STRETCH

For outdoor sports, there's only one practical time to stretch: at the end of a workout. Before? The old notion of stretching first, when your muscles are cold, was deep-sixed long ago. During? Who wants to stop in the middle of a run, ride, swim, match or game?

It's a different story in the gym. The segmentation of gym workouts allows you to sneak in a few stretches at almost any time. Here are four ways to do just that.

* Just after a cardio warm-up (five to 10 low-intensity minutes on your favorite cardio apparatus to raise core temperature prior to a workout). Do apparatus-specific stretches, such as those shown on pages 42, 44 and 45. Three stretches with no reps will take only a minute or two; stretching any longer than that will cause the warm-up effect to erode. Your warm and limber muscles will now be ready for any high-intensity cardio effort you wish to attempt.

* At midworkout, between lifting and cardio. This is your best opportunity to spend several minutes stretching. Do the apparatus-specific stretches, and if you have time, several more stretches for the body's other major muscle groups. Do any of the stretches we've selected or any others that you prefer. At the end of any workout. This is when all your muscles are warm. Relaxing them by stretching may help alleviate any stiffness. How many stretches you do, and which ones, depends on which muscles are tightest and whether you're in a rush to hit the shower.

* Intermittently throughout the workout. "This is what I have my athletes do," says Friel. "You probably take a break to recover between lifts and exercises anyway, and it's a better use of your time to fit in stretches than to just stand around. So stretch the muscle you just strengthened for a minute or two. But I'd advise against frequent stretching breaks in the middle of the cardio portion of a workout because your muscles will cool off, forcing you to warm up all over again.

"Stretching at any of these times, or at all four, is safe and effective, because your muscles are warm and loose," says Friel. He notes that muscles are like taffy (think Big Hunk bars): brittle when cold, pliable when warm. "It's better to stretch a little bit, but frequently, than to do a long stretching session once in a while. Besides, doing several repetitions of a lot of stretches all at once is boring."

THE BEST WAY TO STRETCH

Ease into each stretch slowly (don't "bounce") and only to the point of resistance (not pain), then hold it and wait for the muscle to relax.

"There is no ideal period of time to hold a stretch," says Friel. "Ten to 20 seconds is typical, but it can take anywhere from six to 60 seconds for a muscle to relax. Once it does relax, releasing the tension in the muscle, hold the stretch position for a few more seconds, because that's when the benefit of the stretch occurs,"