Should You Stretch?

I think almost everyone thinks stretching is important. I think it’s mainly because there’s a perception of something feeling better. Static stretching is quite silly, it’s like yanking on a stale cold rubber band and expecting it to get longer. Muscles don’t necessarily love being pulled on without some kind of warning. 

If you want to stretch, one thing that can help is creating a little blood flow. If you have ever heard of a dynamic warm up that is kind of the idea. It has both movement and stretching. I think most stretching is more for people’s minds as folks think that is going to lengthen their muscles. It seems a lot of pilates cueing is based on being real long. Yoga has also given us the image in our minds of lengthening. Which makes sense for the posture required. The only thing is not a ton of lengthening is happening, it really is more that muscles are returning to their normal position or they have come out of a spasm and are now relaxed. They for the most part aren’t going to get necessarily longer. This is a topic that requires more explanation, and I plan to write about this more.

The thing is we have certain types of muscle fibers depending on our gender, genetics, and who knows what else. I don’t know how long you’re going to make anything, but you can make it more relaxed. You can help it function properly. 

I think what’s important for our muscles isn’t rooted in stretching, or length per se. It’s whether or not that muscle is functioning or if it  is in some kind of spasm or shut down mode. If you think of yourself when you are mentally/emotionally being pulled in all kinds of directions you kind of freeze or even shut down because it’s too much. The same is for muscles. You have tight hamstrings, a tight QL (it goes from your pelvis to low rib, think low back), tight chest, tight achilles. Then you start yanking on stuff in hopes of something feeling better. No, not it. 

You need to grease these wheels and you need to pay some attention to the specific areas of your body that are tight. You also need to pay attention to those that are simply just hanging out as they are maybe shut down and don’t care that you yanked on them. They just stay the same as you haven’t really done anything. 

I think one of the best methods to release tension is loading a movement with a bit of weight. But you need to first move and get some blood moving, it could be walking, inchworms, a TRX warm up. I have to say I love a TRX warm up as it gets everything awake but in a passive manner. If you don’t know what an inch worm is google it and do it. You will feel warmed up after. It gets everything on the same page and it helps you understand where you may be tight, and what may need some waking up. 

Adding weight to a movement is my absolute number one when it comes to “stretching”. I really like to do a supported single leg straight leg dead. I use a foam roller upright to keep me balanced and supported, you could use a stick or anything similar, then you hold a dumbbell in the other hand. To me this is one of the best ways to open up your hamstrings. 

It really helps to add some weight to movements, as it’s a great way to provide a nice easy stretch that you couldn't do without it. Doing this requires a nice contraction as well which is asking the muscle to just function. Asking it to do what it do. There are many movements one can add weight to and I am not going to mention anymore here, you get the idea by the single leg straight leg dead. There are a lot of resources you can find to help with these kinds of movements. 

I will say this is a broad topic and I am trying to stick to this one aspect.