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Pet Dogs Bring Both Joy and Worry to Displaced Gaza Teenager 

Displaced Palestinian teenager Hassan Abu Saman holds his dog on a beach, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, February 20, 2024. (Reuters)
Displaced Palestinian teenager Hassan Abu Saman holds his dog on a beach, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, February 20, 2024. (Reuters)
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Pet Dogs Bring Both Joy and Worry to Displaced Gaza Teenager 

Displaced Palestinian teenager Hassan Abu Saman holds his dog on a beach, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, February 20, 2024. (Reuters)
Displaced Palestinian teenager Hassan Abu Saman holds his dog on a beach, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, February 20, 2024. (Reuters)

Keeping three dogs while living in a tent on a beach in Gaza complicates an already difficult situation, but the smile on teenager Hassan Abu Saman's face when he pets the animals shows that it's worth the trouble for him.

A passionate dog lover since childhood, he had 16 of them before the Israel-Hamas war that has devastated the Gaza Strip, but managed to take just three of them, Mofaz, Lucy and Dahab, when he fled his home in Al-Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.

"When things settled, I was able to secure a car to go and get the rest, but when I got back, I did not find any of them, they were lost. I went back a second time to look for them and found the house bombed," said Abu Saman, 17.

He is one of the estimated 1.5 million Palestinians crammed into Rafah in southern Gaza, close to the boundary with Egypt, to escape from Israel's military onslaught -- although Israel has said it was planning a ground offensive there too.

Abu Saman is living in a sprawling tent camp in a beach area on the outskirts of Rafah, along with family members and the three dogs, who follow him everywhere he goes. They are popular with camp children who take turns stroking them.

Abu Saman referred to the dogs as "my friends from another kind" and spoke about them as he would about people.

"He has been feeling so down because of the war," he said of Mofaz, the largest of the three.

Finding enough food was a problem for dogs as well as humans, and Abu Saman said Lucy and Dahab had lost weight because they usually ate a special kind of dog food that was no longer available.

The future was uncertain for the teenager, his family and his beloved pets.

"If we were to return, the house is flattened. He does not have a house or anything," he said, referring to Mofaz, who he was stroking while talking.

The war was triggered by Hamas militants who attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and taking 253 hostage, according to Israel.

Vowing to destroy Hamas, Israel has responded with an air and ground assault on Gaza that has killed more than 29,000 people, according to local health officials. It has also displaced most of the population of 2.3 million, caused widespread hunger and reduced much of the territory to rubble.

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Should You Stretch before Exercise? After? Never? Here’s What to Know

Philadelphia Eagles stretch as they get ready during practice at NFL football training camp, Thursday, July 25, 2024, in Philadelphia. (AP)
Philadelphia Eagles stretch as they get ready during practice at NFL football training camp, Thursday, July 25, 2024, in Philadelphia. (AP)
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Should You Stretch before Exercise? After? Never? Here’s What to Know

Philadelphia Eagles stretch as they get ready during practice at NFL football training camp, Thursday, July 25, 2024, in Philadelphia. (AP)
Philadelphia Eagles stretch as they get ready during practice at NFL football training camp, Thursday, July 25, 2024, in Philadelphia. (AP)

For many people of a certain age, high school gym class began with reaching for their toes. Then, over the years, we were told it was better to stretch after exercise.

It turns out, both those things can be true, but the differing advice has created some confusion.

Stretching can help make you more flexible, improve range of motion in your joints — and feel good. David Behm, who researches human kinetics at Memorial University of Newfoundland in St. John’s, Canada, offers this advice on when to stretch and how to do it safely:

Warm up first

It’s almost always good to stretch, but it’s better if you warm up first, said Behm, author of "The Science and Physiology of Flexibility and Stretching." He recommends a light aerobic activity such as jogging, walking or cycling for five or 10 minutes.

Follow that with some static stretching, the traditional way of reaching and holding a position (think back to that gym class). You can then do activity-specific dynamic stretching, in which you warm up the muscles with repetitive movements like leg lifts.

Behm says one minute is "the magic number" for how long to do static stretching per muscle group without fatigue.

Expand your definition of 'stretching'

Should you always stretch before exercising? If it's traditional stretching, not necessarily.

The better question, Behm says, is, "Should people increase their range of motion? Should people have better flexibility? And that is yes, because it helps prevent injuries. It helps with health. But you don’t have to stretch to achieve that."

Resistance training, for instance, can be an effective form of stretching, he said. Doing a chest press increases range of motion in your deltoids and pecs, whether with barbells, dumbbells or machines, so there is no need to stretch beforehand. Just make sure to start with a small amount of weight to warm up and then add more to train.

"You probably don’t have to do extra stretching unless you’re a gymnast, a figure skater, or even a golfer who needs a great range of motion through that swing," Behm said.

Nor do you need to stretch first if you’re going for a leisurely run. Simply start with a slow jog to warm up and then increase the pace.

Don't do it if it hurts

After exercise, "light stretching is OK, as long as you don't reach a point where you're feeling pain," Behm said. Since your muscles will be warm by that point, overdoing it makes you more likely to injure yourself.

Foam rollers can help with muscle recovery and have been shown to increase range of motion as well as stretching.

Do some static stretching before sports

If you’re playing a sport, Behm said, static stretching beforehand helps reduce muscle and tendon injury.

"If you’re going to do an explosive movement, change of direction, agility, sprint, any of these explosive activities that involve your muscles and tendons," he said, "you’re going to be stronger if you do static stretching."

People can especially get in trouble when they go back to a sport they used to play, whether it's tennis, surfing or any sort of team activity.

Also, stretch both sides equally. Lacking flexibility on one side also can lead to injury.

Sounds simple. Why all the confusion? Different studies over the years have either encouraged or discouraged stretching before exercise. Behm says that partly because some studies didn't reflect real-life conditions, or were designed with elite athletes in mind, not regular people.

"If you’re Usain Bolt, it makes a difference," said Behm. Not so much for the rest of us.