Thursday, April 7, 2016

Stretching Friend or Foe:



In fitness stretching always seems to be a topic followed by many myths. Some people revolve their entire workout regime around stretching, some use it when they need and many simply do it because they were told at some point down the line how to or simply to do so. 

What makes this most interesting to me is the timeline of stretching knowledge that has presented itself in my thus far short fitness career. 

I'm going to start with college. I remember back to a time when a professor literally told me "no one knows if stretching is good or bad." This brings a lot of questions to mind of course, but in a classroom setting the discussion begins to cover what is bad about stretching or styles of stretching. Example, Ballistic stretching ... A big "no no" at least for the purpose of this class and regurgitating information for a test. I left this class with simple definitions of dynamic, static and ballistic stretching. Uses, or not for each, and a boat load of questions that will never be answered unless I research and formulate an opinion for myself. This opinion of mine has changed many times over the years however wiser now science is science so let's discuss that. 

Here it goes. Stretching is NOT makeing you stronger. Notice I'm talking about strength, for those who want to increase strength for a particular reason, stretching "tight" muscles will not make you stronger. 

Now, to clarify, I’m primarily talking about static stretching – that’s the “stretch and hold” type of stretching. Dynamic stretching and other stretching programs can help with natural movements and range of motion that typically aren’t harmful if done properly. 

If you're lifts are not increasing or going as planned it is usually not a matter of inflexibility rather poor technique. Technique discrepancies can stem from many factors, most importantly a weakness. Meaning a good way to fix form and gain strength by doing a movement properly would be to identify and strengthen the weak muscle that is limiting your range of motion. 

"Tightness" comes from an imbalance that lies with in the neuromuscular system There is a neuromuscular inhibitory response to static stretching. The straining muscle becomes less responsive and stays weakened for up to 30 minutes after stretching, which is not how an athlete wants to begin a workout.

Some people don’t agree with the fact that stretching causes muscle weakness because they don’t feel weak after stretching. This is because most people feel the tight part of muscle imbalance and usually don’t feel muscle weakness until it begins affecting a joint or unless it’s severe enough to reduce muscle power. So you might feel your hamstring to be tight and the need to stretch it, but typically the weakness is in the antagonist muscle, in this case the quadriceps. Stretching the hamstrings will further weaken that “tight” muscle and perhaps temporarily provide symptomatic relief, but the problem will only continue to present itself if the antagonist muscle is not strengthened. 

Trigger point therapy can help realign muscle fibers that are mis aligned due to injury. Stretching would be worse because the fibers are already elongated or pulled away from each other. 


However placebo effect is still an effect. Perhaps try and identify a weakness next time you have what you think is a "tight" muscle. Rather than stretching, strengthen that weakness and take the pressure off of the "tight" muscle. 


Lauren Ciurzynski 

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