The ability of a muscle or extremity to relax and yield to stretch and stress forces; the ROM of a joint, affected by muscles, tendons, ligaments, bones, and periarticular structures.
This is probably the most difficult topic to talk about, reason is, each person adapts and is composed differently, but also has opposite ideas. It does provides efficiency to the person and how they articulate and move. That being said, I'm going to talk about my experience with a few different ways to stretch and their affects as well as published research. .
First, lets talk about how I've reacted to stretching and what were the results. Since I've been in college and rowing, I obviously have been rowing and training a lot more and at higher level. The one thing that has made me realize the importance of flexibility and stretching, was a small injury. I wouldn't really call it an injury though since it never put me out of business. This "injury" was actually the accumulation of stress in my hamstrings, especially the right side. I thought to myself why am I hurting so badly in my back when I do enough stretching to prevent hurting myself. It was really my hamstrings pulling on the all the superior (above) muscles and causing pain there. To treat this problem, I had to spend more time stretching in different ways throughout my whole body so that this wouldn't happen again. Now back to types of stretching that I have experienced. There are two main ones that have worked in different ways for me. the primary one is 10-15 second holds and making sure that the muscle you want to affect is feeling the pull. Of course you do not want to make it hurt but still make it a noticeable extension. I like to work from the neck down because of how the body is designed since everything is mostly linked to one another like I previously said with my back and hamstrings. I first began to do this when I attended a high performance sculling camp in Tempe, AZ for the national team and it has worked well since then. As soon as I go through most of the major muscle groups and some specific small ones, I go back with a elastic band and find areas that I usually wouldn't be able to stretch in a classic way or to get the full muscle stretched. For example, the legs. I go through the hamstrings, illiotibial bands (IT band), and the inside of the legs. I put a lot of emphasis on that area because of the large amount of load and strain applied around the abdomino-pubic area. To start those stretches off, I like to use the foam roll when I can to really get the waste out of the muscle fibers for less soreness and more flexibility. Some people don't consider that part of a flexibility pattern but I feel so much more release out of the muscle afterwards. The second type of stretching has a more repetitive style to it. While training for trials this summer, I was rowing with a guy who stretched this way and had made his back problems vanish because of it. It consists of 2 second holds for about 10 reps. He had done some research on how to fix his problems and one man from Tampa uses this technique to get paraplegics to start walking again. These short holds keep the proprioceptors in the muscle fresh and ready to signal whenever activated. Since he was a new teammate, I figured why not try his ways. For a little I was doing both styles and I felt a big difference especially before and after my steady state pieces. I allowed me to get way more reach and be more flexible at the front end where a lot of rowers have a difficult time being comfortable. I felt more efficient on the water with posture and technique, but also the positive progression of my numbers that I could observe on the erg (rowing machine). I think I can say that my body felt the best it ever has and I could perform with a higher quality.
This section will be from a published book used in one of my classes called High-Performance Sport Conditioning: Modern training for ultimate athletic development by Bill Foran. This book has a lot of information that I agree and disagree with. The writer thinks that it is needed to stretch the entire muscle AND the tendon which is not elastic. To do so, the person should hold a stretch for 60 seconds to reach both. He also states that shorter holds that are more intense than 30-40% (which he recommends) will result in microtears which then turn into microinjuries. This information I'm not very convinced with and most of my classmates (mostly athletes) weren't either. On the other hand, I like his thoughts on the frequency of stretches per day. He recommends twice a day and three rounds. Of course, most people don't have time for that so they adjust by stretching specific muscle groups that are most affected by the sport or activity. And as well as what I mentioned earlier on the order of the stretches, he stated: "The stretches selected follow a specific kinetic order. Morphologically, there is no value in doing a lower-body stretch followed by an upper-body stretch. The orderly progression is useful because each stretch leads into another. This flow imprints itself in the neural system." (p.55)
In a way, everyone is flexible, some more than others, but it is a state that can change all the time, positively and negatively, and this can affect the efficiency of one's athletic ability. As a rower, flexibility is a huge factor for upcoming workouts, better performance, and quicker recovery. I don't think that there will ever be a written down right way to stretch or to be more flexible, but the only thing I can provide you with is try different ways and continue using the one(s) that seem to work the best for you.
This is probably the most difficult topic to talk about, reason is, each person adapts and is composed differently, but also has opposite ideas. It does provides efficiency to the person and how they articulate and move. That being said, I'm going to talk about my experience with a few different ways to stretch and their affects as well as published research. .
First, lets talk about how I've reacted to stretching and what were the results. Since I've been in college and rowing, I obviously have been rowing and training a lot more and at higher level. The one thing that has made me realize the importance of flexibility and stretching, was a small injury. I wouldn't really call it an injury though since it never put me out of business. This "injury" was actually the accumulation of stress in my hamstrings, especially the right side. I thought to myself why am I hurting so badly in my back when I do enough stretching to prevent hurting myself. It was really my hamstrings pulling on the all the superior (above) muscles and causing pain there. To treat this problem, I had to spend more time stretching in different ways throughout my whole body so that this wouldn't happen again. Now back to types of stretching that I have experienced. There are two main ones that have worked in different ways for me. the primary one is 10-15 second holds and making sure that the muscle you want to affect is feeling the pull. Of course you do not want to make it hurt but still make it a noticeable extension. I like to work from the neck down because of how the body is designed since everything is mostly linked to one another like I previously said with my back and hamstrings. I first began to do this when I attended a high performance sculling camp in Tempe, AZ for the national team and it has worked well since then. As soon as I go through most of the major muscle groups and some specific small ones, I go back with a elastic band and find areas that I usually wouldn't be able to stretch in a classic way or to get the full muscle stretched. For example, the legs. I go through the hamstrings, illiotibial bands (IT band), and the inside of the legs. I put a lot of emphasis on that area because of the large amount of load and strain applied around the abdomino-pubic area. To start those stretches off, I like to use the foam roll when I can to really get the waste out of the muscle fibers for less soreness and more flexibility. Some people don't consider that part of a flexibility pattern but I feel so much more release out of the muscle afterwards. The second type of stretching has a more repetitive style to it. While training for trials this summer, I was rowing with a guy who stretched this way and had made his back problems vanish because of it. It consists of 2 second holds for about 10 reps. He had done some research on how to fix his problems and one man from Tampa uses this technique to get paraplegics to start walking again. These short holds keep the proprioceptors in the muscle fresh and ready to signal whenever activated. Since he was a new teammate, I figured why not try his ways. For a little I was doing both styles and I felt a big difference especially before and after my steady state pieces. I allowed me to get way more reach and be more flexible at the front end where a lot of rowers have a difficult time being comfortable. I felt more efficient on the water with posture and technique, but also the positive progression of my numbers that I could observe on the erg (rowing machine). I think I can say that my body felt the best it ever has and I could perform with a higher quality.
This section will be from a published book used in one of my classes called High-Performance Sport Conditioning: Modern training for ultimate athletic development by Bill Foran. This book has a lot of information that I agree and disagree with. The writer thinks that it is needed to stretch the entire muscle AND the tendon which is not elastic. To do so, the person should hold a stretch for 60 seconds to reach both. He also states that shorter holds that are more intense than 30-40% (which he recommends) will result in microtears which then turn into microinjuries. This information I'm not very convinced with and most of my classmates (mostly athletes) weren't either. On the other hand, I like his thoughts on the frequency of stretches per day. He recommends twice a day and three rounds. Of course, most people don't have time for that so they adjust by stretching specific muscle groups that are most affected by the sport or activity. And as well as what I mentioned earlier on the order of the stretches, he stated: "The stretches selected follow a specific kinetic order. Morphologically, there is no value in doing a lower-body stretch followed by an upper-body stretch. The orderly progression is useful because each stretch leads into another. This flow imprints itself in the neural system." (p.55)
In a way, everyone is flexible, some more than others, but it is a state that can change all the time, positively and negatively, and this can affect the efficiency of one's athletic ability. As a rower, flexibility is a huge factor for upcoming workouts, better performance, and quicker recovery. I don't think that there will ever be a written down right way to stretch or to be more flexible, but the only thing I can provide you with is try different ways and continue using the one(s) that seem to work the best for you.
