STRETCH, BUT DON'T STRETCH TOO MUCH
How many of you stretched this week? Stretching is one of the easiest things to skip or overlook. Unlike cardio or weight training, it's hard to motivate yourself to stretch because it can seem so tedious and unrewarding. Yet, while understandably tedious at times, stretching is by no means unrewarding. Stretching improves your flexibility and range of motion. When you can move through the full range of motion, you are allowing your muscles to work more effectively. Stretching can also help your posture and help you to avoid injuries. Stretching improves blood flow and thus oxygen and nutrient delivery to the muscles, which reduces muscle soreness while maximizing performance.
But before you start stretching 10 times a day, it's important to note that it's also possible to overstretch! Too much stretching can lead to muscle, tendon and ligament damage. Too much flexibility (aka "hyper mobility") can be harmful as well. Taken to it's visual extreme, there are circus performer contortionists that are truly super-human in their flexibility. But this has less to do with conditioning and more to do with a genetic disorder of their collagen matrix that allows than to safely perform these visually stunning feats. It's a far cry from the rest of us. If we push ourselves anywhere close to these limits, we'll hurt ourselves. If your range of motion is larger than it's meant to be, your muscles will be working in a range of motion that perhaps your body can't handle. When you stretch too much, your muscles, ligaments and tendons become lax and can lead to joint instability and injury.
To make it a little more complicated, it matters both how and when you stretch. Before you stretch, your muscles should be warm. Before you train, run or do whatever activity you're doing, it's usually best to do a dynamic warmup where you stretch your muscles simulating the movements you'll be doing. After you've completed your activity and your muscles are warm, you should take the time to statically stretch your muscles. This is the more common idea of stretching when you hold your body in the stretched position for 30 to 60 seconds.
I have to admit, I'm often in a rush or simply more motivated to get on with my day and skip my stretch. If I'm skipping something, it's always my stretching that suffers. So this month I'm going to make an effort to get my stretching in (without overdoing it)! Join me in my effort this month to stretch and hopefully develop a better habit that will help in training and athletics and prevent injuries. Oh! And don't forget that when it's time to train, it's CRUSH TIME!
How many of you stretched this week? Stretching is one of the easiest things to skip or overlook. Unlike cardio or weight training, it's hard to motivate yourself to stretch because it can seem so tedious and unrewarding. Yet, while understandably tedious at times, stretching is by no means unrewarding. Stretching improves your flexibility and range of motion. When you can move through the full range of motion, you are allowing your muscles to work more effectively. Stretching can also help your posture and help you to avoid injuries. Stretching improves blood flow and thus oxygen and nutrient delivery to the muscles, which reduces muscle soreness while maximizing performance.
But before you start stretching 10 times a day, it's important to note that it's also possible to overstretch! Too much stretching can lead to muscle, tendon and ligament damage. Too much flexibility (aka "hyper mobility") can be harmful as well. Taken to it's visual extreme, there are circus performer contortionists that are truly super-human in their flexibility. But this has less to do with conditioning and more to do with a genetic disorder of their collagen matrix that allows than to safely perform these visually stunning feats. It's a far cry from the rest of us. If we push ourselves anywhere close to these limits, we'll hurt ourselves. If your range of motion is larger than it's meant to be, your muscles will be working in a range of motion that perhaps your body can't handle. When you stretch too much, your muscles, ligaments and tendons become lax and can lead to joint instability and injury.
To make it a little more complicated, it matters both how and when you stretch. Before you stretch, your muscles should be warm. Before you train, run or do whatever activity you're doing, it's usually best to do a dynamic warmup where you stretch your muscles simulating the movements you'll be doing. After you've completed your activity and your muscles are warm, you should take the time to statically stretch your muscles. This is the more common idea of stretching when you hold your body in the stretched position for 30 to 60 seconds.
I have to admit, I'm often in a rush or simply more motivated to get on with my day and skip my stretch. If I'm skipping something, it's always my stretching that suffers. So this month I'm going to make an effort to get my stretching in (without overdoing it)! Join me in my effort this month to stretch and hopefully develop a better habit that will help in training and athletics and prevent injuries. Oh! And don't forget that when it's time to train, it's CRUSH TIME!
"Failure is success if we learn from it"
"Be somebody who makes everybody feel like a somebody."
RSS Feed