How important is stretching when weight lifting?!

Actually, research has shown that it's more beneficial to stretch AFTER an exercise, and not BEFORE. Stretching after helps form the tears in the muscles. I still recommend stretching both before and after though, just for your muscles to warm up. I found some nice info for you:
http://www.bodybuildingforyou.com/articl...Health Question & Answer

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I've been told it's pretty important to avoid injury, so yeah , that's probably what happened with you. I usually take a minute or two between reps myself when lifting free weights. I recently ran into a problem much like that myself and I basically just took it easy for a week and half. It sucks when you're used to a routine, but further stress will only make it worse! My advice is do everything you can to avoid using the muscle and wait a week or two to see if it gets better.Health Question & Answer

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For me, all I do is some cardio before weight lifting with maybe some simple stretches. What is sounds like to me is that you are trying to lift too heavy of a weight stressing your left shoulder and elbow joint. What I would suggest is to cut your weight down a little and for your shoulder do rotator cuff activities to strengthen it.Health Question & Answer

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your not warming up enough
do some lighter sets before hand and maybe walk on a treadmill for 5 minutes if you really want to
stretching before is detrimental to gains if you do it and could lead to easy because you might be a bit to loose
just sayin i would do it after but you REALLY dont have toHealth Question & Answer

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