Stretching is a common activity used by athletes, older adults, rehabilitation patients, and anyone participating in a fitness program. While the benefits of stretching are known, controversy remains about the best type of stretching for a particular goal or outcome. The purpose of this clinical commentary is to discuss the current concepts of muscle stretching interventions and summarize the evidence related to stretching as used in both exercise and rehabilitation.
Stretching may take a back seat to your exercise routine. The main concern is exercising, not stretching, right?
Not so fast. Stretching may help you:
Improve your joint range of motion
Improve your athletic performance
Decrease your risk of injury
Understand why stretching can help and how to stretch correctly.
Benefits of stretching
Concentrate your stretches on major muscle groups such as your calves, thighs, hips, lower back, neck and shoulders. Make sure that you stretch both sides.
Also stretch muscles and joints that you routinely use.
Don't bounce. Stretch in a smooth movement, without bouncing. Bouncing as you stretch can injure your muscle and actually contribute to muscle tightness.
Hold your stretch. Breathe normally and hold each stretch for about 30 seconds; in problem areas, you may need to hold for around 60 seconds.
Don't aim for pain. Expect to feel tension while you're stretching, not pain. If it hurts, you've pushed too far. Back off to the point where you don't feel any pain, then hold the stretch.
Make stretches sport specific. Some evidence suggests that it's helpful to do stretches involving the muscles used most in your sport or activity. If you play soccer, for instance, stretch your hamstrings as you're more vulnerable to hamstring strains. So opt for stretches that help your hamstrings.
Keep up with your stretching. Stretching can be time-consuming. But you can achieve the most benefits by stretching regularly, at least two to three times a
Witvrouw, E., Mahieu, N., Roosen, P., & McNair, P. (2007). The role of stretching in tendon injuries. British journal of Sports Medicine , 224-226.
Therapeutic stretches of the gastrocnemius and soleus muscles. If the ligament are weakened, cross fiber friction them to try to regain some of the integrity of the ankle back.
Using a foam roller sore muscles recovery exercise immediately after your workout or even the next day can help reduce the tightness and soreness.
3 Let your elbow bend, allowing your hand to fall slowly toward your chest. You should feel a gentle stretch along the back of your upper arm and elbow. Your health care provider may have you hold a __________ hand weight to increase the intensity of this stretch.
Lay on your stomach with your legs straight and a folded towel or small pillow under your left / right thigh, just above your
Ouch!! That maybe the sound of someone who has started a workout routine without properly stretching or because they just haven’t stretched at all and are in deep pain from just sitting around all-day. To become an elite athlete or even just a healthier person it is important that you do correct stretching techniques. Stretching is very important for the human body; stretching is a major part of people’s lives and they don’t even know it because they pay little attention to it. Stretching properly can make the lives of athletes and even nonathletic people a lot better. “Stretching should always be thought of as an exercise to be performed on a regular basis, scheduled at times other than directly before an exercise session, practice or game. Stretching can be performed after an exercise as part of your cool-down routine, or can be done at other times during the day that are unrelated to exercise or physical activity.”(Sherwood) The proper stretching tactics, it can help with your flexibility, your range of movement, and also the blood circulation.
The three main reason why stretching is so beneficial to a runners body is: it reduces the risk of injury, prevents muscle soreness after exercise, and it improves athletic performance. What is actually happening to the body during a stretch is very complex. Each muscle contains stretch receptors which attach themselves to the working part of the muscle called, muscle fibers. The stretch receptors measure the degree of the stretch, sending a message through the spinal cord to the nerves that control the contraction of the muscle where the receptors are. As the runner stretches more intensely the receptors begin to send out pulses harder and more rapidly. These pulses exceed a certain frequency, and the stretched muscle contracts and shortens, preventing overstretching.
** post workout will feature static stretches to increase flexibility and further reduce risks of injury.
Before you even start lifting weights, strength and conditioning coaches would advocate for players to do a dynamic warm ups instead of static stretches. Dynamic warm ups are series of sports specific movement preparing the body for maximum exertion of a workout allowing your joints and muscles to be limber as possible, while static stretching wants you to stretch out as far as you can and hold it for 15 seconds which is advocated at the end of each workout allowing the body to cool down. The reason why static stretching is advocated after your workout is because your muscles are already warmed up which allows your muscles and joints to stretch as far as possible without tearing. An example of a dynamic warm up and a static stretch is to take two rubber bands and stick one in the freezer; the rubber band in the freezer represents a static stretch and the other rubber band represents a dynamic warm up. When you take the rubber band out of the freezer and try to stretch it as far as possible it will break instantly because it is cold but the other rubber band which is warm would be super springy because it’s warm enough allowing you to keep stretching but return back to its normal state without tearing
Warm-up: Do 5 a minute walk or do 5 minutes of the movements of the following exercises without the weight and so light full-body stretches.
It can be stated that eccentric or concentric contractions can result in changes of a hamstring muscles length up to one third (Bennell et al., 1998). In sport discipline such as football hamstring injuries occur in a great degree during activities such as running or sprinting. This can be supported by the English FA which reported that in football movements such as running and sprinting stands for of 57% of all hamstring strains (Woods et al., 2004; Figure). During aforementioned activities the most common injury place is the bicep femoris along with the muscle tendon junction (Cross et al.,
First of all, what is Myofascial compression therapy (MCT) and does it have an immediate effect on the body? Lets start with a short breakdown of the word myofascia. Myo means Muscle and Fascia = everything else. According to Boston, 2007, fascia is defined as: ‘The soft tissue component of the connective tissue system. The fibrous connective tissue, aponeuroses, ligaments, tendons, retinacula, joint capsule, the epineurium, the meninges, periosteal and all the endomysial and intramuscular fibers of myofasia is grouped under this definition. Paoletti, 2006, state that “fascia functions as the body’s first line of defense against pathogenic agents and infection ” (pg.170). Movement restrictions originates within the soft tissue of the body. Travell and Simons, 1999, suggested that the body adapts by laying down myofacsial trigger points (MTrPs). ‘Myofacial trigger points have been found to decrease the range of motion because of pain’, Macdonald, 1980. The good news is that these trigger points can be relieved. If applying MCT techniques and its various approaches can help the body to release these trigger points to adapt and improve athletic performance, increase range of motion and alleviate pain as opposed to doing the regular static stretching, it might be worth exploring.
The body was designed to perform a variety of tasks while actively using muscles. Sustained muscle activity robs the muscles of life giving blood flow. It is very important to actively stretch during breaks to flush out toxins that build up in the muscles that were used for sustained posture.
"Flexibility Training... Stretching For Sport And Athletes." Phil Davies' Sports Fitness Advisor - Get Fit for Sport & Life. Web. 03 June 2010. .
Many people would tell you that they love to exercise and workout. This is true because exercising releases many stress-relieving endorphins that help in many ways. What they won’t tell you is that they feel the same way about stretching. It would be considered one of their least favorite things to do. Truth is, stretching is also stress relieving and relaxing, but not in quite the same ways as exercise. Although stretching doesn’t reduce bodily fat nor does it gain muscle; it does set a good foundation for you to perform the necessary activities that lead to good health. With proper flexibility, many functions that were previously not achievable can now be done. For instance, a tennis game can be fun for a little while. But as your muscle tense up, you risk probable sourness and cramping. With good flexibility, your muscles stay loose and relaxed and your attitude toward the tennis game and other exercises are improved.