Issue 110

January 2014

Hold and pose your exercise movements to guarantee the best stretch ever

PAUL MCVEIGH

Sports scientist, TUF 14 cast member and full-time coach – each issue he presents his best conditioning tips

If you’re like the majority of combat athletes, chances are you’ve been criminally negligent with the flexibility your body actually needs. I know, I know, the chances of you stretching after a tough sparring session are as unlikely as bald UFC president Dana White sprouting a flowing mane of hair. It takes too long, it’s boring and it doesn’t set your lungs on fire. In fact, it’s quite relaxing, so it can’t possibly be beneficial, can it?

Unfortunately, for most of us, ignoring flexibility work will have consequences. At some point your tissues will reach a threshold when problems occur. Your hips get so tight your glutes no longer work, and your lower back gets ruined picking up the slack. Or maybe your chest gets so tight your shoulders appear like they’re trying to meet out in front, and you can forget about attacking that single-leg. 

Until we start developing badass telekinetic powers, movement will continue to be a rather large part of MMA. By looking after your ability to move you will maintain and improve your performance while simultaneously decreasing your risk of injury.

Eccentric Quasi Isometrics

Hardcore athletes need a hardcore stretching protocol. Eccentric quasi isometrics (EQI) certainly ticks that box. It’s absolutely brutal, incredibly effective and most sane people will never do it. Here’s an example: get into a push-up position on some blocks. Hold the bottom position and try to maintain it. As time passes fatigue sets in and the athlete gradually lowers under tension.

To understand why EQIs are superior to traditional passive stretching we should know a bit about the parallel elastic component (PEC) and the series elastic component (SEC). These two components are the bits of the muscle that can elongate when placed in a stretch. 

The PEC consists of the sarcolemma, tittin and other structures. The SEC is made up of the tendon and other frameworks that are connected to the contractile bit of the muscle. With traditional stretching the muscle is not contracted, meaning the SEC is not involved and only the structures of the PEC are effected by the stretch. So, imagine wrapping a chicken breast in cling film: the SEC is the chicken and the cling film is the PEC. Passive stretching results in the cling film being stretched while the meat remains untouched.

With EQIs the muscle is contracting when this descent occurs, so both the SEC and the PEC are involved. New ranges of motion are opened up with an additional benefit to the athlete, as strength is developed in these extreme ranges.

With traditional stretching, new ranges of motion can be achieved but the athlete does not have active control over these ranges. This leads to joint instability and is a potential injury risk. A really mobile shoulder with little active control at end ranges is asking to be destroyed by a savage sprawl. EQIs improve a joint’s range of motion while simultaneously developing strength in this new range.

Additional EQI benefits

Eccentric training has been shown to increase the level of hypertrophy at the tendon end of the muscle. As the tendon is trained and strengthened this has a knock-on, strengthening effect on the surrounding connective tissue. That’s some serious additional injury-prevention protection.

EQIs are thoroughly despised by athletes and rightly so. One of the reasons for this is blood cannot effectively flow into and out of the target muscle due to the intensity of the isometric contraction taking place. This leads to a massive build-up of metabolic byproducts and a fair amount of fatigue and pain.

It should probably be pretty obvious that the ability to keep your hands up in front of your brain is of benefit to the combat athlete. EQIs help the athlete develop a tolerance to localized metabolic byproducts as well as being a fun way to train mental toughness. Both of which would be of great help to any fighter heading in to the championship rounds.

The efficacy of this type of stretching is duration dependant. Anywhere between one to four minutes is great. I usually go with two minutes for most types of EQIs.

EQI FAVOrITES

Some other positions that lend themselves well to eccentric quasi isometrics are:

Squat

Bulgarian split squat

Lunge

Dumbbell fly

Dumbbell pull-over

These are all a great way to specifically target problem areas and improve your movement skills and performance.