Stretch or not stretch ?
I did sport for almost all my life, different clubs, different activities, different gyms, I met a lot of coaches, sport teachers, and colleagues now and no one have the same approach about stretching.
There is no absolute truth when we talk about stretching because science changes its point of view on it almost every year. So in this article I will explain how I use this practice for my clients and myself based on what science says these last years and my personal experience.
Let’s start with the basic ! There is a lot of debates about how long you should stretch, passive or dynamic stretching, or should you stretch before or after your workout. We will discuss about it later but first we have to ask the good and simplest questions : why do we stretch ? What are the benefits of this training ?
The main aims with it is to bring your muscles back to their normal length, increase your range of motion and in the same time improve your posture !
In our sedentary lifestyle we spend a long time in certain positions (sitting at a desk or lying down) so we can feel a certain « stiffness » on our muscles. I am using this word carefully because it is not what it is really happening. A tension lodges in the muscles by the fact we stay in a position for a prolonged amount of time that creates a shortening of the muscle’s length . This can lead to a reduction of range of motion, muscles imbalances, poor recruitment of specific muscle groups during exercices and potentially injuries.
A muscle imbalance is a situation where in one side of your body, your muscles are stronger or tighter than the other side. For example if your shoulders are going inward it is probably because your chest and anterior deltoid are too tight and your back muscles are not strong enough. In this case, it is interesting to stretch your chest and the front part of your shoulders to help improving the posture and of course strength your back !
But what are the modalities to stretch efficiently ?
From my point of view, I like to use dynamic stretching for the warm ups. First I start (with my clients and myself) by foam rolling, it is a good way to increase the blood flow, increase the range of motions of your joints and decrease the tensions on your muscles. Then mobility (dynamic stretching) so you will adopt different positions to stretch your muscles but you will only hold the stretch for 2 secondes and relax repetitively for 10 times. The reason I choose dynamic and not static is because you are already getting to mouvement and that’s what you want in the first phase of your session.
Some trainers will agree with me because they think static stretching will decrease performance. It is a truth but only in a specific context with a really long session of stretching (around 30 minutes) just before and extreme effort. So it is not bad to do static stretching before your workout, it will not have an impact except if you try to hit a new PR.
But I would recommend to use static stretching for your cool down or as a tool to relax before to go to bed. In this situations I will advise you to hold the stretch for a minimum of 30 secondes to few minutes depends on how you feel.
Personally I use this way of doing before sleeping. The process of long stretching will activate the parasympathetic nervous system and give you a nice feeling of relaxation. During this time, I like to focus on my breathing, just take this few minutes for me.
Let’s talk about the positions to adopt in another article 😉