Originally Posted 6/3/2007
In my experience with organized sports dating back to when I was in grade school I remember learning how to stretch by assuming various postures that isolated each major muscle group. I knew that this was the accepted ritual both before and after activity and that doing so would “get me loose for the game” and “keep me from getting hurt” or so my coaches said. As time went on and I had played under increasing numbers of coaches and trainers I began to see that there was definitely some variation in the theory behind stretching and muscular flexibility in general. Some of my coaches said I should get my muscles warm by jogging a half mile or so before I stretched. Others said I should only stretch after practice or competition. Still others did not even emphasize stretching at all and left me and my teammates to our own devices when it came to flexibility training.
During this time of my formative sporting years I began to develop my own theories on stretcihng and used myself as a guinea pig of sorts to test my hypotheses. I tried everything from not stretching at all to stretching cold to stretching warm to stretching during competition to stretching after competition to just imagining myself stretching and more. You would think that I really enjoyed stretching from the sound of this but I can tell you that for me stretching was never a walk in the park. When I had to perform the sit-and-reach during the “Presidential Physical Fitness” testing in school I always scowled thinking to myself that this test had nothing to do with how fit I was. The real reason that I held a certain amount of distaste for sit-and-reach was due to the fact that I was extremely inflexible and found it almost impossible (and quite painful) to even reach the nominal “passing” grade of the 25th percentile. This is when I really began to test my theories however and the testing hasn’t stopped since.
With an undergraduate degree in biomechanical engineering and a doctorate in physical therapy I have studied musculoskeletal anatomy neuro-anatomy and the biomechanics of human movement quite extensively over the last 12 years. I have certainly learned a great deal with respect to both active (read muscular) and passive (read ligamentous/fascial) connective tissues. What I have discovered is that although most of us come out of the box with ample flexibility (babies are pretty floppy until their muscles begin to develop) everything changes from there. Some people are able to sustain and even improve on their good flexibility while others struggle just to maintain the ability to bend down and touch their toes (or sit-and-reach and attain the meager 25th percentile mark). So why the variation as time goes on? And is flexibility really that important anyway?
When I was in kindergarten and the teacher sent us to the big red shag carpet square to sit for story time I sat “pretzel-style” with my legs folded in front of me. My best friend would sit right next to me in a “W” configuration in which he kneeled quite extremely to the point that his knees and hips were hyper-flexed and his lower legs and feet pointed out to the side. You may be thinking I’m running on a completely wild tangent right now but let me drive this point home right now. I was regularly and habitually assuming a sitting position that put my hips into external rotation and my best friend was assuming a sitting position that put his hips into internal rotation. In essence we both sat in ways that put our hips in opposite directions with respect to rotation and now to this day he has a great deal more internal rotation in his hips than me and I have a great deal more external rotation in my hips than he does. My point is that over time our bodies adapt to the positions we put them in and muscles nerves ligaments skin and fascia all either lengthen or shorten to optimize our habitual positions. What does this mean in the big picture?
Each sport has a unique range-of-motion profile with some requiring more than others both globally (entire body) and locally (one or two body parts). If you want to perform optimally in your particular sport it is essential that you have adequate flexibility in both your active and passive connective tissues. If you don’t you will have to work much harder to achieve the same results as a more flexible athlete and over time you will develop mechanical compensations that lead to tissue breakdown tissue failure and ultimately injury. So what are the best ways to increase flexibility?
I believe that there is no singular best practice to increase flexibility. It is important to incorporate several techniques. It is also important to choose techniques that you can adhere to on a regular basis otherwise you won’t see results. The first place to start is by maintining adequate hydration so that the plastic elastic and viscoelastic qualities of your connective tissue are as high as possible all the time. Next consider an active/dynamic form of stretching before exercise/practice/competition. This is a form of stretching where you are moving your body through sport-specific ranges of motion by activation of your muscles. It helps prepare the body by giving it stretching input and also by warming the tissues and circulating blood. Passive stretching can be an excellent adjunct to active stretching but should really only be performed after exercise/practice/competition as you will see most gains that way and will minimize injury. Finally consider yoga tai chi or another form of soft martial art that will act as a time for you to focus on slowly gaining flexibility and body awareness over the long-term.
Flexibility is not something you can improve overnight. It takes diligence but it is definitely worth the effort in the long run.
Live well.
Ryan
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