King Joes Barbell Club

Flexibility is the range of motion possible around a specific joint or series of articulations. Flexibility is specific to a given joint or movement. A person may not be able to function normally if a joint lacks normal movement. The ability to move a joint through an adequate range of movement is important for daily activities in general as well a sports performance.

Flexibility training is perhaps the most undervalued component of conditioning. While recent and ongoing debate questions its role in injury prevention, athletes can still gain much from a stretching regime

The Basics of Warming Up

It's important to warm up your body before any physical activity. Warming up goes a long way toward preparing the body for exercising, both physically and mentally. It also helps prevent injuries.

The term "warm-up" describes many light-aerobic and cardiovascular activities, which are separate from stretching. (Stretching works best when performed after warming up.) When you warm up, you are literally warming up the temperature of both your body and your muscles.

Warming up also:

• increases your heart and respiratory rate
• boosts the amount of nutrients and oxygen delivered to your muscles
• prepares the body for a demanding workout
• makes it easier to burn calories
• extends your workout

Types of Warm-Ups

You can use many types of warm-up activities to prepare your body for intense physical exercise. Often a warm-up activity is simply the activity you are about to do but at a slower pace. For example, if you're about to go for a brisk run, warm up with a light jog, and if you're going to go for a swim, do a couple of slow freestyle warm-up laps.

Only after this light warm-up, which should last about 5–10 minutes, should you attempt to stretch.

The general warm-up should begin with joint-rotations, starting either from your toes and working your way up, or from your fingers and working your way down. This facilitates joint motion by lubricating the entire joint with synovial fluid. Such lubrication permits your joints to function more easily when called upon to participate in your athletic activity. You should perform slow circular movements, both clockwise and counter-clockwise, until the joint seems to move smoothly. You should rotate the following (in the order given, or in the reverse order):

1. fingers and knuckles
2. wrists
3. elbows
4. shoulders
5. neck
6. trunk/waist
7. hips
8. legs
9. knees
10. ankles
11. toes

What are the benefits of a warm up?

Performance may be improved, as an appropriate warm up will result in an:

• Increased speed of contraction and relaxation of warmed muscles
• Dynamic exercises reduce muscle stiffness
• Greater economy of movement because of lowered viscous resistance within warmed muscles
• Facilitated oxygen utilization by warmed muscles because hemoglobin releases oxygen more readily at higher muscle temperatures
• Facilitated nerve transmission and muscle metabolism at higher temperatures; a specific warm up can facilitate motor unit recruitment required in subsequent all out activity
• Increased blood flow through active tissues as local vascular beds dilate, increasing metabolism and muscle temperatures
• Allows the heart rate get to a workable rate for beginning exercise
• Mentally focused on the training or competition

Just as there are different types of flexibility, there are also different types of stretching. Stretches are either dynamic (meaning they involve motion) or static (meaning they involve no motion). Dynamic stretches affect dynamic flexibility and static stretches affect static flexibility (and dynamic flexibility to some degree).

Types of Stretching:

In general terms, and to avoid getting caught up in the stretching controversy, there are two types of stretching: static (without motion) and dynamic (with motion). Yes, there are dozens of different stretching names, but they are mostly derivative of the basic ones we'll cover. As per usual it's up to YOU to decide what's needed for your lifestyle.

Without motion:

Static stretching consists of stretching a muscle as far as possible without pain and then holding that position for 20-30 seconds. This form of relaxed stretching is used to increase flexibility over a long period of time (as in months, not the hold of the stretch), during cool downs to prevent blood pooling and return the muscle to it's resting position, plus as a measure to relieve spasms and prevent adhesions in muscles that are healing after an injury. The term passive stretching is very similar and the main difference is the use of external force, either a stretching buddy or an exercise apparatus, brings the joint through its range of motion.

Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation (PNF) is a wide assortment of rehabilitative movements used to re-educate a muscle; however, we'll only touch upon the stretching aspect. The Contract-Relax technique take advantage of the post isometric relaxation in a muscle to increase its range of motion; for those interested it's occurs when the Golgi Tendons Organs/GTO sense tension overload and relax a muscle to prevent injury (e.g. a common ankle sprain).

After assuming an initial passive stretch, the muscle being stretched is isometrically (muscle force exerted, but no movement occurs) contracted for 5-10 seconds, after which the muscle is briefly relaxed for 2-3 seconds (GTO causes relaxation), and then immediately subjected to another passive stretch which stretches the muscle even further than the initial passive stretch. This final passive stretch is held for 10-15 seconds. The whole PNF process is to "trick" the muscle spindle fibers that contract a muscle when it's stretched too far, too fast. The method can also include contracting the antagonist muscle before going deeper into the stretch. For example, stretch your hamstring, isometric contraction of hamstring, and an isometric contraction of the quadriceps as you go deeper into the hamstring stretch.

With motion:

Dynamic stretching consists of controlled leg and arm swings that take you to the limits of your range of motion and not beyond as in ballistic stretching. An example of dynamic stretching would be slow, controlled leg swings, arm swings, or torso twists as part of a general warm-up for an activity. Your proprioception is allowed to keep track of these controlled movements by providing feedback to the central nervous system (CNS).

Ballistic stretching uses momentum rather than muscular control to increase ROM and allows for bouncing. This form of stretching uses the momentum of a moving body or a limb in an attempt to force it beyond its normal range of motion and is obviously used with discretion, because it can cause microscopic tears that tighten the muscle even further. Your proprioception loses track of such "uncontrolled" movements and there is no feedback to the CNS to alter the outcome of the stretch.

The different types of stretching are:

1. ballistic stretching
2. dynamic stretching
3. active stretching
4. passive (or relaxed) stretching
5. static stretching
6. isometric stretching
7. PNF stretching

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Your cool-down routine can vary from workout to workout. It should include light aerobic activity and stretching. If you're running at a quick pace, you can slow down to a steady walk to cool down. Cooling down and stretching at the end of a workout help to:

• slow your heart rate to a normal speed
• return your breathing to its regular pace
• avoid stiffness and soreness of the muscles
• reduce any risk of dizziness and lightheadedness
• relax the muscles

Cooling down should consist of the following:

• 5 to 10 minutes jogging/walking - decrease body temperature and remove waste products from the working muscles
• 5 to 10 minutes static stretching stretches are more appropriate to the cool down as they help muscles to relax, realign muscle fibres and re-establish their normal range of movement. These stretches should be held for approximately 10 seconds.

What are the benefits of a cool down?

An appropriate cool down will:

• aid in the dissipation of waste products - including lactic Acid
• reduce the potential for DOMS
• reduce the chances of dizziness or fainting caused by the pooling of venous blood at the extremities
• reduce the level of adrenaline in the blood
• allows the heart rate to return to its resting rate

When done properly, stretching can do more than just increase flexibility. According to M. Alter, benefits of stretching include:

• enhanced physical fitness
• enhanced ability to learn and perform skilled movements
• increased mental and physical relaxation
• enhanced development of body awareness
• reduced risk of injury to joints, muscles, and tendons
• reduced muscular soreness
• reduced muscular tension
• increased suppleness due to stimulation of the production of chemicals which lubricate connective tissues ...