Post by Dackpt on Sept 1, 2004 22:29:45 GMT
Stretching
First things first, whatever that P.E. teacher with the 70’s track suit top and a porn star tash told you about stretching, forget it. It’s not wrong, but there are better, more specific and affective methods of achieving the desired result. The reason we’re taught this at school is because it’s water-tight safe and it can’t be misconstrued, which is what you would expect when they are working with children.
The method of stretching we are normally taught is ‘Static Stretching’ which can be used for all stretching needs. For example, pre and post exercise stretching. This article explains the basic principles of stretching and pictures will follow.
Stretching isn’t Stretching
Our muscles are elastic, but this is not the property we use to lengthen our muscles.
Imagine you have a twin who is dramatically more flexible that you, their muscles will be almost exactly the same length as yours. If you have poor flexibility in a muscle, it’s because it is slightly contracted. When we stretch a muscle, the muscle gradually, releases the contraction, effectively lengthening the muscle.
This can make us stronger because, if our hamstrings are tight (slightly contracted) and our quads try to work, the hamstring act as a brake, bringing the net force produced by the quads down. With this in mind, you can see how somebody can get significant strength gains without even touching a weight.
How’s it Done?
The two methods I will be concentrating on are Dynamic and PNF stretching.
- Dynamic Stretching
This method is mainly used for pre exercise stretching, straight after warm up. To understand this method, you must first understand the meaning of Agonist and Antagonist when referring to muscles. Take the arm for example. If I chose a muscle in the arm, say the biceps, and call this the Agonist. As you see when people are doing bicep curls in the gym, the bicep bends (Flexes) the arm at the elbow joint. So to work out what the Antagonist is, we must determine which muscle does the opposite action, straighten (extend) the elbow joint. That muscle being the triceps on the other side of the arm. Hence, the antagonist is the triceps. For another example, I will select the quads (Front thigh muscles) to be the agonist. This group of muscles straightens (extends) the leg at the knee. So again, to get the Antagonist, we look at the muscle which does the opposite action; Bends (flexes) the leg at the knee, which is the hamstring.
With two or more muscles opposing each other, you can see that for the agonist to tense and move a joint, the antagonist must relax. Imagine a tug of war. For the rope to move one way, one team (agonist) must pull and the other team (antagonist) must relax. If both teams pull at the same time, the rope won’t move anywhere.
When you bend your arm, you use your biceps but your body automatically relaxes your triceps, hence, movement.
Now we must understand Ballistic (Wrong) stretching. This is the classic touch the toes stretch, where people bend over to try to touch their toes but bounce to gain a little more stretch. This is mainly using gravity to create the bounce. But in the first article when I described the ‘Stretch Reflex’, its easy to see that this ballistic action can trigger the stretch reflex, firing the muscles (in this case, the hamstrings) and possibly tearing them. This can eventually lengthen the muscle by adding areas of scar tissue so it would seem that that person is more flexible. However, this is like trying to keep an elastic band lengthened by super gluing it into position; you’re just left with a stick.
Dynamic stretching is very similar to Ballistic stretching but with a crucial difference. Dynamic stretching uses the antagonist to stretch the agonist. One common example that you often see on the football pitch is leg swings, swinging your foot forwards and backwards like kicking a ball. This example uses the quads to stretch the hamstrings. The reason that the stretch reflex isn’t initiated, damaging your hamstrings, is that the hamstrings have been told to relax as the quad is working (agonist relaxing as the antagonist is working) which overrides the reflex. However, if the footballer swings his leg up too fast, when the quads stop working as his foot reaches the top, the momentum will carry the leg further. Because the quads are not working at this point, the stretch reflex in the hamstring is allowed to react, turning it into a ballistic stretch.
The major benefit of this type of stretching is that it keeps the muscles warm. With static stretching, the benefit of the stretch is lost as the muscles cool down.
- PNF Stretching
PNF (Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation) Stretching is a very effective stretch for improving long term flexibility, and is known as a developmental stretch. This method is vary similar to static stretching but tries to fool the muscles into stretching further. The principle takes advantage of the post isometric relaxation of muscles. In simple terms, this means that when a muscle contracts but the joint doesn’t move (like trying to push a house), immediately after, the muscle relaxes.
So knowing this, if we stretch a muscle to its limit, ease off fractionally, contract the muscle for a moment, relax it then stretch the muscle again, it should stretch a little further. This method is repeated until the muscle won’t stretch any further (usually three to four times). This stretching can be done anytime, after exercise at the gym or at home in front of the box.
N.B. If you have any questions regarding this article, feel free to start a new thread or personal mail me.
First things first, whatever that P.E. teacher with the 70’s track suit top and a porn star tash told you about stretching, forget it. It’s not wrong, but there are better, more specific and affective methods of achieving the desired result. The reason we’re taught this at school is because it’s water-tight safe and it can’t be misconstrued, which is what you would expect when they are working with children.
The method of stretching we are normally taught is ‘Static Stretching’ which can be used for all stretching needs. For example, pre and post exercise stretching. This article explains the basic principles of stretching and pictures will follow.
Stretching isn’t Stretching
Our muscles are elastic, but this is not the property we use to lengthen our muscles.
Imagine you have a twin who is dramatically more flexible that you, their muscles will be almost exactly the same length as yours. If you have poor flexibility in a muscle, it’s because it is slightly contracted. When we stretch a muscle, the muscle gradually, releases the contraction, effectively lengthening the muscle.
This can make us stronger because, if our hamstrings are tight (slightly contracted) and our quads try to work, the hamstring act as a brake, bringing the net force produced by the quads down. With this in mind, you can see how somebody can get significant strength gains without even touching a weight.
How’s it Done?
The two methods I will be concentrating on are Dynamic and PNF stretching.
- Dynamic Stretching
This method is mainly used for pre exercise stretching, straight after warm up. To understand this method, you must first understand the meaning of Agonist and Antagonist when referring to muscles. Take the arm for example. If I chose a muscle in the arm, say the biceps, and call this the Agonist. As you see when people are doing bicep curls in the gym, the bicep bends (Flexes) the arm at the elbow joint. So to work out what the Antagonist is, we must determine which muscle does the opposite action, straighten (extend) the elbow joint. That muscle being the triceps on the other side of the arm. Hence, the antagonist is the triceps. For another example, I will select the quads (Front thigh muscles) to be the agonist. This group of muscles straightens (extends) the leg at the knee. So again, to get the Antagonist, we look at the muscle which does the opposite action; Bends (flexes) the leg at the knee, which is the hamstring.
With two or more muscles opposing each other, you can see that for the agonist to tense and move a joint, the antagonist must relax. Imagine a tug of war. For the rope to move one way, one team (agonist) must pull and the other team (antagonist) must relax. If both teams pull at the same time, the rope won’t move anywhere.
When you bend your arm, you use your biceps but your body automatically relaxes your triceps, hence, movement.
Now we must understand Ballistic (Wrong) stretching. This is the classic touch the toes stretch, where people bend over to try to touch their toes but bounce to gain a little more stretch. This is mainly using gravity to create the bounce. But in the first article when I described the ‘Stretch Reflex’, its easy to see that this ballistic action can trigger the stretch reflex, firing the muscles (in this case, the hamstrings) and possibly tearing them. This can eventually lengthen the muscle by adding areas of scar tissue so it would seem that that person is more flexible. However, this is like trying to keep an elastic band lengthened by super gluing it into position; you’re just left with a stick.
Dynamic stretching is very similar to Ballistic stretching but with a crucial difference. Dynamic stretching uses the antagonist to stretch the agonist. One common example that you often see on the football pitch is leg swings, swinging your foot forwards and backwards like kicking a ball. This example uses the quads to stretch the hamstrings. The reason that the stretch reflex isn’t initiated, damaging your hamstrings, is that the hamstrings have been told to relax as the quad is working (agonist relaxing as the antagonist is working) which overrides the reflex. However, if the footballer swings his leg up too fast, when the quads stop working as his foot reaches the top, the momentum will carry the leg further. Because the quads are not working at this point, the stretch reflex in the hamstring is allowed to react, turning it into a ballistic stretch.
The major benefit of this type of stretching is that it keeps the muscles warm. With static stretching, the benefit of the stretch is lost as the muscles cool down.
- PNF Stretching
PNF (Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation) Stretching is a very effective stretch for improving long term flexibility, and is known as a developmental stretch. This method is vary similar to static stretching but tries to fool the muscles into stretching further. The principle takes advantage of the post isometric relaxation of muscles. In simple terms, this means that when a muscle contracts but the joint doesn’t move (like trying to push a house), immediately after, the muscle relaxes.
So knowing this, if we stretch a muscle to its limit, ease off fractionally, contract the muscle for a moment, relax it then stretch the muscle again, it should stretch a little further. This method is repeated until the muscle won’t stretch any further (usually three to four times). This stretching can be done anytime, after exercise at the gym or at home in front of the box.
N.B. If you have any questions regarding this article, feel free to start a new thread or personal mail me.