There was a program on Discovery yesterday that contained some information about Monash University in Australia. Seems they're doing research on hamstring injuries to football players.

They coined the term "length not strength". What this means is that the rate of injury to hamstrings declined significantly when the players (through stretching and training) lengthened thier hamstrings to full elongation. It did not matter how strong the hamstring was...strength made no impact on a decline in injury rate. But when the muscle was trained to reach maximum length then the rate declined.

Now in weightlifting the general rule is NOT to stretch before a workout.
Yet the Ozzie football players were doing exactly the opposite.

Can't help but wonder if maybe the rule should be changed for lifting as people get muscle injuries galore it seems in resistance training.

Maybe the initial length of a muscle has something to do with it. I know lots of folks warm up before lifting. But in many cases warming up is not stretching.

And anyway....why the pre-workout stretch paranoia for iron?

Certain movements in lifting will no doubt elongate a muscle and increase flexibility. But 48 hours later you've lost a good percentage of that.