E-mail this pageNutrition and Health Information for Student Athletes
Flexibility
Flexibility refers to the ability to move body parts around a joint, through its full range of motion (R.O.M.). Many exercise programs do not provide adequate flexibility, and run the risk of future injury. Flexibility can be improved through a systematic daily stretching routine, which should be done BEFORE and AFTER and workout or exercise bout. Flexibility exercises are designed to stretch certain muscles and reduce the likelihood of injury.
Stretching before activity is essential for immediate gains in flexibility and safety, but the best time to stretch for long-term gains is after games, practices, and training sessions. Following activity, a muscle's temperature is at its highest, allowing for easier stretching. Stretching after activity also reduces delayed muscle soreness and helps your muscles recover from exercise.
A common myth holds that strength and lean muscle mass gains decrease flexibility. However, if a muscle is stretched on a regular basis gains in both areas can be achieved.
Remember These Stretching Points
- Always warm-up a muscle for 5 to 10 minutes before stretching. Stretching a cold muscle can cause minor muscular damage and decrease flexibility. The warm-up increases the deep core muscle temperature, improving the muscle's elasticity and lubricating the joint. DO NOT STRETCH COLD MUSCLES.
- Isolate the muscle to be stretched with very strict technique. Do not "cheat" and alter the exercise slightly just to stretch farther.
- Move slowly and smoothly through the stretch. Fast movements will cause the muscle to contract (to protect itself). Receptors within your muscles where they attach to bones can sense the rate of lengthening, they will tell the muscle to contract, to protect itself from lengthening too fast.
- DO NOT OVER STRETCH. Most athletes try to stretch as far as possible, straining to move farther into the stretch. This may seem logical, but the receptors in your muscle and at the muscle tendon attachment also sense how far the muscle is being stretched. Straining a joint beyond its range of movement only causes the muscle to contract to protect itself from being stretched to far. Stretching across a contracted or tight muscle ultimately leads to the formation of inelastic scar tissue. You need to stretch a relaxed muscle, not a contracted muscle. Hold the stretch in a comfortable position. You should feel only a slight tension in the muscle, which should subside as you hold the position. If it does not subside, back off into a more relaxed position.
- Hold the stretch in a static position without bouncing or moving. Remember-stretching a muscle too quickly, bouncing or holding a stretch as far as you can go causes an involuntary muscle action, which tightens the very muscles you are trying to relax and stretch
- Hold each stretch for a minimum of 30 seconds and optimally up to one minute. The longer you hold an easy stretch the more likely the muscle will relax and loosen.
- Inhale before you move into a stretch, exhale as you move into and through the stretch and then continue to breathe normally and freely as you hold the stretch. If a stretched position inhibits your natural breathing pattern, you are not relaxed and are likely straining. Ease up until you can breathe naturally. Take full relaxed breaths, and NEVER HOLD YOUR BREATH.
- Progress to development stretching. The initial "easy stretch" is designed to help relax the muscle. If your muscle was comfortable during this stretch, you can move another half inch for a longer stretch. Move farther into the stretch until you again feel a slight tension. This tension should subside. If not, back off to a more comfortable position. Similar to the initial stretch, as you increase the range of motion (progressing deeper into the stretch), exhale slowly.
- Come out of each stretch as slowly as you went into it.
- Stretch consistently. Regular daily stretching is needed for improvement