Stretching is one of the most often neglected and misunderstood components of athletic well-being and training. When? How much? How long? What kind? These are all questions about it that need to be asked by the athlete and then thought through with their trainer or coach. The short answer is there’s no “right” answer for everyone. At a base level a dynamic warm up that prepares your body for movement is a must. Anywhere from 5-10 minutes of continuous activity involving all the major muscle groups and moving through their relevant ranges of motion is suggested. Good rules of thumb are breaking a sweat, elevating heart rate, and a moderate workload. This allows our muscles and body to physiologically prepare for the load of training by pushing blood to our muscles and beginning the engagement of our energy delivery systems. Secondly, it serves as a great diagnostic tool for us pre-workout. We can watch for areas of tightness, joint pain or tenderness, or delayed response from a prior workout (I’m still recovering from the last workout). Body awareness is the goal and a hallmark of every athlete dedicated to moving their potential forward.

The goals of stretching are to increase, and maintain, ranges of motion for the muscles and joints. Flexibility is KEY. If our muscle can deliver a certain force through a range of motion the result is an amount of work done. Increasing that range of motion and keeping force constant increases the amount of work done. Flexibility contributes to performance!!! Being loose is enormously important as one of our biggest inhibitors can be our own muscles. Example, I can’t raise my knee higher during a sprint because I have extremely tight hips or hamstrings. In this example the knee can’t rise to full height and therefore the muscle has to contract through a decreased range of motion in the extension motion which results in a slower overall speed or decreased ability to deliver force into the ground. Maximum potential can’t be achieved if your own muscles are fighting against each other before dealing with the stresses of the motion being performed.

The body is a fluid and constantly adjusting system affected by health, mood, hydration, and many other factors. Our lifestyles of recent which involve sitting, and driving, and working in a chair, predispose us to limited ranges of motion because……..WE DON’T MOVE!! Flexibility has to be worked on and achieved so that the body can perform in the multi-plane requirement of motion that is athletics.

So the take away is remember to stretch!! Do not ignore it and at the very least stretch post workout. Always stretch when you’re warm. Get moving and limber, and then perform your stretching routine. Also remember that resistance training and watching your FORM is an excellent way to promote functional flexibility (attained when you ask the body to perform a task under load through incrementally increased ranges of motion ex. dead-lift from floor, squat with weight.

TO BE CONTINUED….