How do you stretch?

Being a coach I am always fascinated by the various ways that coaches warm-up their athletes. Particularly how they stretch. Much of our warm-ups these days for athletes has been influenced by the SAQ (speed agility quickness) programs that started to get popular in the mid to late 1990′s. All of the skipping and dynamic movements replaced the slow static stretching that used to be the norm. No longer was there an apparent need to take the time to truly lengthen a muscle. Instead athletes were taught that these more dynamic movements would increase their range of motion for them. 

I also notice that many individuals in the gym these days tend to do some basic stretching but they only hold them for a few seconds. In my opinion to truly lengthen a muscle requires more than a quick few seconds of holding a position. I remember the days of the bouncing stretch as well. I had to do these a lot in P.E. growing up, we would get into a stretch like the butterfly and then bounce our legs up and down. 

Im wondering what has happened to the lost of art of stretching? Right now everyone in Yoga is laughing to themselves and I agree with them. In the last post we talked about the different items that have really helped the fitness industry over the years. The key was something that was not a fad. Well Yoga is clearly not a fad. I would assume it has had its peaks and valleys of popularity but it has clearly stood the test of time. 

Lengthening of the muscles must be a top priority for all of us. To not lengthen our muscles each day is to allow for tightness to settle in and begin to impact our physical well being in a negative way. 

To lengthen muscles we at train2move know it takes 2 main components. First it takes time. Stretches need to be held for more than ten seconds to truly be effective. Second it takes a total activation of the antagonistic muscle group. For example to truly lengthen out the hamstrings, you need to not only get your body in a position to lengthen the muscles but also be able to attempt to fully contract your hip flexors and quadriceps. Here is an example of an exercise that will allow you to do both. We call it Supine Straight Leg Hold. 

The act of flexing the quadriceps and hip flexors pulls the pelvis into an anterior tilt. This causes the body to lengthen the hamstrings out by actually pulling on the origin of the muscle on the pelvis. Try this as a test, from a standing position, lean over and attempt to touch your toes. Now go ahead and do a basic hamstring stretch like putting your leg up on a table or chair and leaning over it for about ten seconds on each side. Then lean over to try to touch your toes again, was there much of a difference? 

Now do the exercise seen above and hold it for a minute, then once again repeat the test of leaning over to touch your toes. Was there a difference this time? If you repeat the act of holding stretches for long durations while contracting the antagonistic muscle group you will truly lengthen out your muscles which leads to a much more efficient lifestyle.