Why I Never Recommend Stretching
This week we're going over why I NEVER recommend stretching to my patients and athletes. It doesn't matter whether you're an elite level athlete or just have difficulty getting out of a chair.
1. Clarifying Terms
Whenever I say stretching, I am referring to passive stretching where it is being held in an elongated position without any significant load on the muscle for a sustained period of time.
Dynamic stretching does not fit these terms as you're often performing it while standing, not holding for any significant period of time, and the muscle is loaded (due to the standing and/or active movement component).
Yoga is also generally fine because most of the "Stretches" are actually being held in difficult balance or stabilizing positions causing the muscle to work and contract to maintain its position.
2. What's Actually Happening When You Stretch
For this we need a short lesson in Neuromuscular physiology, fancy words for how your nerves and muscles work together. Along your muscles are things called "Muscle spindles."
These Muscle Spindles give feedback on muscle length and how quickly that muscle length changes. These spindles get stretched when the muscle lengthens (AKA stretching).
When the muscle spindles stretch the connection between nerve and muscle essentially weakens. You will notice a significant drop in force production as you can see in this quick video.
This effect typically lasts 1 hour, so it's not permanent, but definitely not moving you in the direction you want to go for any kind of activity afterwards.
Think about starting your car. Do you want the wires to your car battery loose and splayed open? Or do you want them tight and orderly? Chances are the latter option will have a better chance of starting your car.
There are 2 main things that can happen with stretching and then trying to perform whether that be in a workout or a race.
You don't perform as well as you could have had you done something to activate your muscles
You expect a certain level of performance from your body that it can no longer give and increase your chance of getting injured as a result.
3. If I Shouldn't Stretch, What Should I do Instead?
There are 2 easy things you can do to replace stretching in your routine that will actually help you improve your performance.
Isometrics
Increasing muscle recruitment
Isometrics are pretty simple, you're generally isolating one muscle group by holding your arm/leg/trunk in a certain position and squeezing that muscle for a certain period of time (I usually prescribe 5 times for 5 seconds each).
This has the benefit of facilitating the muscle that you're contracting. If stretching weakens the connection between nerve and muscle, isometrics strengthen it. I've attached demonstration videos for the 3 most common isometrics (well 2 videos, one of them you'd have to pay extra to see) I give out that is mostly due to the frequency we sit.
Butt Squeezes (this is the one with no video)- While standing squeeze your butt muscles together and hold for 5 seconds. Repeat 5x.
Increasing muscle recruitment can be accomplished through 2 different ways: Increasing the load/weight the muscle has to move or increasing how quickly you are trying to move. This video of a full dynamic warm up involves both of these aspects.
