"You should never stretch a tissue before performance."

These are the words of Abe Avender, a volleyball coach and licensed expert in health and performance.

"(Stretching before performance) makes you more susceptible to injury and decreases your performance," Avender says. "As an athlete, those two things are probably the worst things you could ever ask for."

Instead of pre-performance stretching, Avender says players should perform non-stretching movements like walking from the endline to the net while moving the arms. This gets blood flowing to the muscles, which prepares the body for the physical demands of practice or competition.

After a practice or a match, athletes can benefit from some gentle stretching and yoga-like movements, Avender says.

Avender also recommends adjusting warmups depending on the athlete's activity level. For instance, if a team is getting ready for a second or third match on the same day, the bench players need more warmups than starters who have just played an entire match.