Chances are that you have tried stretching before, but if you are
like many you probably gave up before you reached your goals. Perhaps
it was too painful, perhaps you didn't have the patience. I believe
that stretching is often done incorrectly even with good information
as a base, and that is what I will address in this article. I am
not going to be speaking about stretching for warm-up purposes,
rehabilitation, or any of those things. I am going to deal with
relaxed and contract-release stretching for gaining range of motion.
So, you have purchased a good book on stretching like Tom Kurz's
Stretching Scientifically or Pavel Tsatsouline's Relax into Stretch.
You've tried contract-release stretching and you were amazed at
how low you sank and you were equally amazed at how sore and miserable
your legs were the next day.
The problem is that you probably forced yourself too deep into
the stretch. You have taken on the barbarous practice of tearing
your muscles to increase range of motion. You have missed the
boat on contract-release stretching.
Both relaxed stretching and contract-release stretching have
this in common: you absolutely must not force anything (at least,
until you know why you are doing it, for what reasons and the
trade-offs). You must be a slacker.
Relaxed Stretching
In relaxed stretching, you want to sink until you cannot sink
any deeper. Then you want to breathe. As you peacefully exhale,
you may sink a little bit deeper as your nervous system allows
the muscles to relax. You can take up the slack and sink a little
deeper, but absolutely under no conditions must you push yourself
deeper into the stretch. Your only goal is to take up the slack.
That means that you only sink as you breathe out-do not try to
eke out another inch or two. Let them happen by themselves.
One of the keys to creating more slack is to keep your breathing
relaxed. If you start holding your breath or begin to adopt a
state of panic, your progress will stall. You want to breathe
in slowly and exhale slowly. If you can exhale with a sigh of
relief, all the better and you will sink even deeper. If you can
manage to breath abdominally-which is admittedly difficult when
in a straddle split at the limits of your range of motion-you
will progress more quickly yet.
The better you get at sending relaxation signals to your body-loose
hands and forearms, loose glutes, and relaxed breathing-the more
success you will have with relaxed stretching.
Contract-Relax Stretching
Contract-Relax stretching requires more muscular coordination
than relaxed stretching because you need to alternate rather quickly
between tension and relaxation-add to that the fact that contract-relax
stretching is usually performed while fatigued and you have a
reasonably difficult task. Here are some tips for better stretching.
Again, you only want to take up the slack. Do not push yourself
down farther, let yourself fall. If you feel an intense burning
sensation you are probably forcing the stretch, if you feel a
general feeling of tension and discomfort you are probably dealing
with muscular tension which is the discomfort you are seeking.
The discomfort will grow stronger as you sink. As long as you
are only taking up the slack you can rest assured that you are
tricking your neuro-system into greater flexibility gains instead
of tearing your muscles apart and stretching tissues.
When you contract your muscles-longer for slow-twitch muscles
like adductors and shorter for things like hamstrings-and then
you release the contraction, try giving a relaxed sigh. It will
help you transition from the tension of an isometric contraction
to the relaxation of sinking. The power of this technique cannot
be under-estimated. If you combine it with immediately releasing
the tension in your hands, forearms, abs, and glutes you have
a powerful tool for rapid stretching progress.
Another powerful tool for getting a little more slack is to imagine
that you are extending any given limb from its root joint. In
the example of side splits, you would visualize that you were
pushing the walls apart with your heels. With a raised leg hamstring
stretch, you would visualize that you were extending your leg
through the heel creating more space in the hips.
Also, remember that you may not need to hold the isometric contraction
at 100% tension, 50% tension is usually more than adequate. To
build more strength in the extreme range, you can apply more tension
or squeeze yourself up off the floor in the case of the splits.
To Beat a Dead Horse
Contract-release stretching is more difficult than relaxed stretching,
while relaxed stretching requires more patience. A lack of patience
in either will get you injured.
With relaxed stretching you have to be willing to sit and wait
out the tension. You may drop into a deeper stretch quite unexpectedly.
If you use the breathing and other techniques above, it won't
require unreasonable amounts of patience.
Contract-release stretching is difficult because it is a mix
of strength training, neural trickery, and relaxation. Most people
forget the relaxation part as they are gritting out the pain of
working towards their side split-do not forget the relaxation!
It is the most important part to avoiding injury, achieving your
goals, and having a rewarding stretching experience. So-be a slacker,
combine it with extreme range of motion strength, and show everyone
how being a slacker will get you to mutant status quickly and
safely.
Christopher Muscarella is a student and an athlete. If you
have questions or comments post them on the DragonDoor Forum or
e-mail him at m@christmasgorilla.com.
You can also visit his web-site at http://www.christmasgorilla.com/training/
