Issue 016
August 2006
By Alex Gold
Lack of flexibility is an issue for a lot of people. Being inflexible can make it difficult to perform certain exercises, enter or escape from positions and can even slow you down. Worse still, tight muscles combined with weak antagonist muscles can cause postural problems, which can lead to conditions such as back pain. Also if you are inflexible and you happen to end up in a position outside of your range of motion (which is very common in MMA), you are much more likely to get injured.
How flexible do I need to be?
The question of how flexible you need to be is a very individual thing. For instance, a kicker will need great hamstring flexibility to be able to get his leg up high, however for an athlete such as a power lifter, hamstring flexibility beyond that needed to perform his chosen lifts will actually slightly impair performance.
In general I advise my clients that if they are able to perform every exercise I prescribe and have no postural problems, they will generally not need to do much flexibility work. However in most cases there are tight muscles causing imbalances, bad posture and possibly pain, and certain positions will be uncomfortable or even impossible to attain. In this case, developmental flexibility work will be performed only on the muscles that require it to bring their body to the correct length-tension ratios.
There is no need to perform developmental stretching on muscles that do not require it, as a certain amounts of tension is required in specific muscles to hold good posture. Lets look at the body as a series of ropes and pulleys holding up a skeletal frame; if the ropes on one side are too tight, the frame will be deformed. If the ropes on both sides are balanced, the frame will be held in the correct position. If we loosen the ropes too much though, we now have an unstable frame. It is important to focus our stretching on the muscles that need it and maintain flexibility in those that do not.
How can improve my flexibility?
There are three types of flexibility work we will look at in this article. They are:
= Static stretching
= Dynamic stretching
= Muscle energy techniques (METs)
Static stretching
This will be what most people think of when someone says ‘stretching’. It involves assuming a position where the muscle is stretched and holding for 10-20 seconds. To try and increase flexibility with this method I would recommend holding for 20 seconds, taking a deep breath, then exhaling and trying to increase the range of motion slightly. Repeat 2-3 times. Static stretching is called just that for a reason – do NOT bounce into the stretch as it is not only dangerous but is counter-productive. Do not push a stretch past ‘discomfort’. If pain is felt or the muscle starts shaking, back off a bit.
Dynamic stretching
Dynamic stretching involves gradually increasing the range of motion using voluntary movement of the limbs. Examples of this could be as simple as swinging the leg forwards and backwards (increasing the range of motion each time) which will stretch the hamstrings and hip flexors. This is also one of the benefits of movement prep, which is a series of dynamic exercises designed to loosen up the body and activate certain muscles (that are often not properly used in everyday life) so the training can be more effective. This type of stretching also increases the temperature in the muscle, which in turn makes it more pliable and less likely to be injured by the workout that will follow.
MET’s (Muscle Energy Techniques)
There are various types of MET- the one we will focus on is one of the most useful: PIR stretching (Post-Isometric Relaxation). Here is a basic explanation of the technique:
= Your partner will take you into the stretch
= Hold for 20 secs, or for as long as it takes for the stretch to lessen in intensity
= Partner will take you back slightly into a more comfortable position
= Push towards your partner, therefore using the muscle that was just stretched
= Relax the muscle, take a deep breath, and exhale as the partner = takes you.into a further stretch
= Repeat as necessary
This type of stretching generally shows good results very quickly. The drawbacks are that it is quite hard to do correctly alone, although you can attempt to do something similar using a length of rope.
Why isn’t my flexibility improving?
For an unlucky few, flexibility never seems to improve. There are a few reasons for this, but the most common is that they aren’t stretching enough! If you think about the average person who has tight hamstrings, they will sit at a desk for eight hours every day with their hamstrings in a shortened position. They stretch after a workout, which may be around five minutes and done three times a week. That makes a weekly time sitting in a shortened position of at least 40 hours, and a time spent stretching of 15 minutes!
Obviously this isn’t going to make a huge impact on anyone’s flexibility. What I recommend to people with flexibility problems is that they try to stretch the muscles that improvement is required in at least 4 times a day statically, and try and use METs at the end of each workout. The longer a muscle has between stretching sessions, the more opportunity it has to shorten.
Even if your static stretching is just maintaining the length of the muscle in between MET stretching sessions, you will be ahead of someone who does a developmental stretching session at the end of a workout then sits without stretching for the next two days, as their muscles will usually return to the start position between sessions and an improvement will never be seen!
Summary
Hopefully this article has given you some ideas about how important flexibility is and how to go about increasing your own. Remember that although stretching (and taking care of your muscle condition in general) may seem boring at the time, it can be priceless if it prevents an injury from occurring further down the line. Just a few minutes investment when needed can prevent major problems in the future.
