Whether your poison is calisthenics or weights, you still have to stretch

True story.

Overly worked muscles can lead to injury and can even be the difference between life and death.

It should really be common sense, but apparently its not.

Whether your doing a leg press on the smith machine or doing hindu squats, you're still causing the muscles to tense up and contract.

To make a long story short, anytime a muscle contracts, it goes from lengthened to shortened.

This shortening process is crucial for generating tension, which helps us display strength.

Anywhoo...

A muscle that is already tightened(shortened) cannot generate the proper tension to generate muscular force.

Why is this important?

Its important because you might go to bench 300 pounds like you normally do, and you might not be able to get the weight up because your chesticles are overly contracted and already tightened.