Alright everyone, today is the day we finally wrap up our long series on improving mobility...targeting the golfer! It's been a long series, but if you have been following it, you have most certainly learned at least a little something. If not...then you already knew it.
So let's get this show on the road!
In my last post, no not the one about rest and relaxation. This one..."Take Care of Your Hamstrings and They Will Take Care of You"...we discussed SMR techniques for your posterior leg muscles, beginning at the feet.
Self Myo-Fascial Release techniques provide a number of benefits including improving blood flow, flushing toxins from the body, breaking up adhesions, and relaxing skeletal muscle tissue. Those of you who have followed along, and tried out some of these techniques have surely felt the difference that SMR techniques can make...but now it's time to take those benefits one step further.
Many of you may have already tuned me out the moment you noticed the title of this post "Let's Stretch!" Why? Because current research into human performance has revealed that certain types of stretching may not be so beneficial after all.
In fact, articles have appeared in highly acclaimed publications such as the New York Times, proclaiming the dangers of stretching. Yet here I am, preparing you to engage in some form of stretching...and not just any type of stretching - static stretching.
Yep, that's right...static stretching, those stretches where we hold a specific position for 20-30 seconds. The type of stretching that many 'authors' consider the most dangerous form of stretching. A stretching discipline that can actually decrease performance levels, and hurt you!
What in the world am I doing to you?!
I am helping you. Remember, I have pledged to provide you with evidence-based information...not some recent fad-based concept that has no research to support it.
Am I saying that everyone who writes about the shortcomings of static stretching is wrong?
Nope.
I am saying however, that the general public is only getting part of the truth, and that there is certainly a place for static stretching in not only an athlete's regimen, but the non-athletes' as well.
Researchers have found static stretching to have a negative effect on the ability of skeletal muscle to generate power. This means that if an athlete performs static stretching techniques just prior to a sporting event, he or she may decrease their level of performance - assuming that the athlete in question requires power production within their chosen sport.
Research has also revealed that static stretching prior to an athletic event does not decrease the potential for injury - therefore, static stretching is not beneficial as a warm-up prior to athletic events.
Well then, if static stretching is not a good way to warm-up, then what is? That is a topic for a future post...and it's already being written!
"So where does static stretching fit in" you ask?
There are a couple of places where we can insert static stretching, where it will provide a great deal of benefit for you.
The first is within a progressive corrective exercise program. Remember...to move properly once again, we need to correct those muscle imbalances that are creating the movement dysfunction...right?
Current research in human performance has shown static stretching techniques are effective at re-lengthening muscle tissue...basically getting it back to its normal resting length. I have read articles stating that static stretching does not help to lengthen muscle tissue...and in part that is correct. Skeletal muscle tissue can only be 'stretched' so far due to it's physiological makeup. So, yes...the author was partly correct in his statement about the inability of stretching to lengthen muscle tissue...but we are simply trying to return overactive, adaptively-shortened muscles to their normal resting length...that's it.
This past weekend I attended a training workshop on the Trigger Point Therapy products that I recommend so often.
You have purchased yours...right?
Anyway, one topic of discussion involved stretching...which commonly occurs when you put two or more fitness professionals in the same room together. You know it's going to happen...it's just a matter of when.
Our instructor, who by the way is a very knowledgeable guy, and also teaches for TRX, eluded to stretching as something that should never be done...ever again. He mentioned that stretching cannot lengthen bone - and what I think he meant by that was that stretching can only do so much for a muscle...and I agree with him. We all have a genetic, normal resting length for each muscle in our body. As I have shared with you, repetitive actions, overuse, and poor muscle-maintenance can result in over-active, shortened muscles. These muscles are in a minor state of contraction...all the time. This results in altered length-tension relationships, which often result in postural deviations...which tend to result in movement dysfunction...whew! The levers (bones) which our muscles pull on, are genetically limited in their length as well. We can't make them longer unless we break them, and insert additional bone tissue.
What does all this mean? It means that our instructor was absolutely correct. While we cannot lengthen our bones, we can return muscles to their normal resting length, thereby restoring altered bio mechanics due to length-tension relationship alterations...and all that other mumbo-jumbo I mentioned above. Are there other means by which we can do this? Possibly, but that doesn't mean we should simply discard the evidence-based benefits of proper stretching...not yet anyway.
Where I disagree is when we decide to dismiss stretching as a whole...because there is still value in it...at least in my opinion - and certainly that of those who have conducted research on the benefits of various types of stretching for specific circumstances.
That last sentence really says it all. "...for specific circumstances."
I view stretching the same way I do other forms of health and fitness training...progressively. That means that while I might have one of my clients or athletes engage in static stretching, they won't do it forever, and it will only be performed at specific times during their training cycle. Oh yeah...and it will be done correctly!
You might be thinking "How do I stretch correctly?" and you are not alone. Few people truly know how to stretch. I know that sounds a little strange, but it is completely true. We have been stretching since we were kids, yet how many of you were ever instructed how to do it properly...taking into account spinal alignment, pre- or post-exercise, bounce or no bounce? There are so many variables to the science of stretching, and I will help bring some clarity to this topic.
So check back in soon, as I plan to cover static stretching techniques in another post.
Yours in Health and Performance!
So let's get this show on the road!
In my last post, no not the one about rest and relaxation. This one..."Take Care of Your Hamstrings and They Will Take Care of You"...we discussed SMR techniques for your posterior leg muscles, beginning at the feet.
Self Myo-Fascial Release techniques provide a number of benefits including improving blood flow, flushing toxins from the body, breaking up adhesions, and relaxing skeletal muscle tissue. Those of you who have followed along, and tried out some of these techniques have surely felt the difference that SMR techniques can make...but now it's time to take those benefits one step further.
Many of you may have already tuned me out the moment you noticed the title of this post "Let's Stretch!" Why? Because current research into human performance has revealed that certain types of stretching may not be so beneficial after all.
In fact, articles have appeared in highly acclaimed publications such as the New York Times, proclaiming the dangers of stretching. Yet here I am, preparing you to engage in some form of stretching...and not just any type of stretching - static stretching.
Yep, that's right...static stretching, those stretches where we hold a specific position for 20-30 seconds. The type of stretching that many 'authors' consider the most dangerous form of stretching. A stretching discipline that can actually decrease performance levels, and hurt you!
What in the world am I doing to you?!
I am helping you. Remember, I have pledged to provide you with evidence-based information...not some recent fad-based concept that has no research to support it.
Am I saying that everyone who writes about the shortcomings of static stretching is wrong?
Nope.
I am saying however, that the general public is only getting part of the truth, and that there is certainly a place for static stretching in not only an athlete's regimen, but the non-athletes' as well.
Researchers have found static stretching to have a negative effect on the ability of skeletal muscle to generate power. This means that if an athlete performs static stretching techniques just prior to a sporting event, he or she may decrease their level of performance - assuming that the athlete in question requires power production within their chosen sport.
Research has also revealed that static stretching prior to an athletic event does not decrease the potential for injury - therefore, static stretching is not beneficial as a warm-up prior to athletic events.
Well then, if static stretching is not a good way to warm-up, then what is? That is a topic for a future post...and it's already being written!
"So where does static stretching fit in" you ask?
There are a couple of places where we can insert static stretching, where it will provide a great deal of benefit for you.
The first is within a progressive corrective exercise program. Remember...to move properly once again, we need to correct those muscle imbalances that are creating the movement dysfunction...right?
Current research in human performance has shown static stretching techniques are effective at re-lengthening muscle tissue...basically getting it back to its normal resting length. I have read articles stating that static stretching does not help to lengthen muscle tissue...and in part that is correct. Skeletal muscle tissue can only be 'stretched' so far due to it's physiological makeup. So, yes...the author was partly correct in his statement about the inability of stretching to lengthen muscle tissue...but we are simply trying to return overactive, adaptively-shortened muscles to their normal resting length...that's it.
This past weekend I attended a training workshop on the Trigger Point Therapy products that I recommend so often.
You have purchased yours...right?
Anyway, one topic of discussion involved stretching...which commonly occurs when you put two or more fitness professionals in the same room together. You know it's going to happen...it's just a matter of when.
Our instructor, who by the way is a very knowledgeable guy, and also teaches for TRX, eluded to stretching as something that should never be done...ever again. He mentioned that stretching cannot lengthen bone - and what I think he meant by that was that stretching can only do so much for a muscle...and I agree with him. We all have a genetic, normal resting length for each muscle in our body. As I have shared with you, repetitive actions, overuse, and poor muscle-maintenance can result in over-active, shortened muscles. These muscles are in a minor state of contraction...all the time. This results in altered length-tension relationships, which often result in postural deviations...which tend to result in movement dysfunction...whew! The levers (bones) which our muscles pull on, are genetically limited in their length as well. We can't make them longer unless we break them, and insert additional bone tissue.
What does all this mean? It means that our instructor was absolutely correct. While we cannot lengthen our bones, we can return muscles to their normal resting length, thereby restoring altered bio mechanics due to length-tension relationship alterations...and all that other mumbo-jumbo I mentioned above. Are there other means by which we can do this? Possibly, but that doesn't mean we should simply discard the evidence-based benefits of proper stretching...not yet anyway.
Where I disagree is when we decide to dismiss stretching as a whole...because there is still value in it...at least in my opinion - and certainly that of those who have conducted research on the benefits of various types of stretching for specific circumstances.
That last sentence really says it all. "...for specific circumstances."
I view stretching the same way I do other forms of health and fitness training...progressively. That means that while I might have one of my clients or athletes engage in static stretching, they won't do it forever, and it will only be performed at specific times during their training cycle. Oh yeah...and it will be done correctly!
You might be thinking "How do I stretch correctly?" and you are not alone. Few people truly know how to stretch. I know that sounds a little strange, but it is completely true. We have been stretching since we were kids, yet how many of you were ever instructed how to do it properly...taking into account spinal alignment, pre- or post-exercise, bounce or no bounce? There are so many variables to the science of stretching, and I will help bring some clarity to this topic.
So check back in soon, as I plan to cover static stretching techniques in another post.
Yours in Health and Performance!
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