Best stretches before weight training
I have a set of stretches I generally do; not sure where I got them from, but they seem to work for me. (I use them for general stretching, not strength training).
Now that I'm starting weight training, using Starting Strength, is there a specific stretch program I should do? Or should I just do my regular routine?
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The best stretches to do before any exercise is no stretches at all. Stretching before exercise weakens your muscles and increases risk of injury. Any stretching you do should be after the exercise as part of a cooldown.
The best warmup to do for weight lifting is appropriately called warmup sets. Do 3 sets of whatever lift you'll be doing with much lighter weights than your target weight for that day. So if you're going to be deadlifting 135lbs that day, you would do a warmup set with just the bar and bumper plates (~50lbs), then another set at 65lbs and a third set at 85lbs. You can adjust the weights according to however you feel. Obviously if it doesn't feel good, go lighter and throw in an extra set.
Doing warmup sets is also a good way to figure out if something is off that day. If what you expected to just be your second warmup set feels unusually heavy, that's a good sign that you may have overtrained or haven't taken enough time to recover.
Starting Strength prescribes only a few stretches specific to particular lifts, and a stretching program is not part of SS.
Here are the four references to stretching that I could find in SS, Third Edition:
Sitting down into a bodyweight squat, using your elbows to push your knees out.
Wrist stretches for the power clean rack position (See Figure 6-44).
Warm-up sets using the empty bar.
If you can't get your back into proper extension with feet on the floor for the bench press, Rippetoe mentions that stretching could be useful.
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