I wrote the following article for the Charlotte Observer and The News & Observer in Raleigh; it appeared in both papers on May 15. It appears here in expanded form, with links.

OK, time for your daily workout. Put on the sweats, lace up the sneakers and now to get limbered up with some long, deep stretches … .

Not so fast there, Jane Fonda.

It wasn’t long ago that most people began their workouts – be it an aerobics class at the gym or a 5-mile run – with a series of stretches. Toe touches, lacing your fingers behind your head to stretch your upper back muscles, and other so-called “static stretches” were once considered the proper way to prepare your body for a workout.

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I was talking to Steven Wheelock, a wellness instructor at Rex Wellness in Raleigh, about stretching for a story coming soon to a McClatchy Newspaper (Charlotte Observer/News & Observer) near you when he sought to put the practice in perspective by anatomizing the four phases of the workout: 1. Stretching/warmup, 2. Evaluation period, 3. The workout itself, 4. Cool down.

1, 3 and 4, I was familiar with but 2 was a new one. “Evaluation period?” I said. “What’s that?”

“That’s where you see where your body is in relation to your workout,” Wheelock began.     Basically, a quick personal assessment of where you are and what’s best for you on this particular occasion. “Say you feel you’re at 85 percent and the instructor tells you to give 100 percent. Well, you give 100 percent of that 85 percent.”

As the math sunk in a smile spread across my face. “So I’m back in high school, at football practice, we’ve just warmed up, I go through my ‘evaluation period’ and tell the coach, ‘Coach, I’m just not feelin’ it today. I’m gonna slack off.’ I’m having trouble picturing that.”

Wheelock, who played college football in the late 1980s, returned the smile. Then he shared some common sense.

“Our bodies don’t like to be shocked,” he explained. Say you warm up and your body is feeling sluggish and blah. Maybe your muscles are tight. Maybe your joints are a little creakier than usual. Maybe you had a hard workout the day before your body is telling you to cut back. Listen to it, Wheelock urges. A hard workout may not benefit you and may actually cause harm in the form of a muscle strain, a tear, or some other injury. Going out and pushing it could be the worst thing you could do. Honest, coach!

Made sense, I agreed. But what’s to keep you from giving yourself a slack evaluation day after day?

“At Rex we administer a test called Microfit,” Wheelock said. “We test for your body mass, the circumference of your measurements, your blood pressure, your height and weight, we have you sit and reach [to assess flexibility], we have a bicep curl test. You do the test, then you do it again in six months. The proof is in the pudding.”

The bottom line is, figuratively and literally, the bottom line. if you give yourself too many lenient evaluations, you’ll shortchange your workouts and you won’t see the results you want, whether you’re taking a TRX class in the gym or training for a marathon.

Trying to weasel your way out of your workouts could be indicative of something else, suggests Wheelock. A critical element may be missing.

“You need to be having fun,”  says Wheelock. If you’re not, you need to reevaluate, ask why you’re doing this particular activity and if you don’t come up with a good answer, perhaps move on to something else. Something you do enjoy that you won’t be inclined to shy away from.

Alas, there is no set checklist for the evaluation portion of your workout, no formula to tell you whether you’re at 85 percent or 72 percent or 58 percent. “It’s an entirely different thing for each person,” says Wheelock. “You need to give yourself permission about what’s possible.”

In short, you’re on the honor system. Evaluate consciously.

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In my youth — this would cover my first half century — I rarely stretched or warmed up. I’d show up for a bike ride with a minute to spare, hop on the bike and be off. I’d stand around kibitzing before a run while others stretched, then go from 0 to an 8-minute pace. Pickup basketball, tennis, whatever: Who had time to stretch? A young body and luck helped me pull it off.

Today, at 54, I stretch a lot. I have to.

I converted to stretching when I realized two things: It could, as I’d heard over the years, reduce my chances of getting injured. And investing as little as five minutes before a workout and 10 minutes after did improve my performance. On the latter count, stretching has proved invaluable in waking/warming/loosening up joints and muscles that become increasingly slow to come to life as the years pass. Stretching, as I discovered Saturday morning, also is invaluable in the recovery process. Let’s see, back’s stiff: a little downward-facing dog and warrior pose (classic yoga stretches) should clear that up. Calf and quad stretches helped counteract all the quick starts after fly balls. Shoulder stretches allowed me to simply move my arms after a day of believing I could still throw a runner out at the plate from right field. Twenty minutes or so of stretching and I wasn’t good as new, but I was able to function for the rest of the day.

Taking time to stretch is especially important as spring approaches, Daylight Savings Time knocks (it starts this Sunday, March 13), the days warm and your urge to emerge from winter hibernation kicks in. As I found Saturday, the stretches that helped me recover from playing softball with my daughter were different from the ones that help me prepare and wind down from a run or a ride. Knowing the right stretches for your activity of choice makes them all-the-more effective.

Here’s a look at activities you may be engaging in as the days warm, and Web sites where you can find appropriate stretches:

Basic stretching A jack-of-all-pursuits? The Mayo Clinic offers 10 basic stretches to cover a range of activities.

Cycling It’s not just the pedaling, it’s the time in the saddle and the toll it takes on your neck, your shoulders, your back. Deal with it here.

Gardening Laugh if you will at the prospect of warming up to weed — then spend the first 70-degree day of spring in the yard and see if you’re still in such a jolly mood the next morning. These 12 exercises from “Stretching,” by Bob and Jean Anderson should help your chances for working in the yard Saturday AND Sunday.

Golf Talk about a sport that can mess up an unprepared body quick! The Mayo Clinic offers a variety of stretches to prepare your body for the potentially torq-turous backlash of a 300-yard drive.

Paddling A good paddle stroke may be about technique over power, but it can still take its toll. Minimize the impact while maximizing your time on the water with these stretches from The Stretching Institute.

Softball This routine includes 20 stretches and takes 11 minutes, a reasonable investment in return for making it to work the next morning.

Swimming Even if you aren’t swimming competitively, it’s good to be limber before hitting the water.

Tennis The Stretching Institute offers three  exercises to “ improve your performance and do away with tennis injuries for good.

Walking Starting a walking program? This pamphlet of appropriate stretches from the American Heart Association should help.

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