Stretch Goals

I spend a good chunk of time encouraging people to stretch.  Almost no one does enough stretching, so from that perspective, any kind of stretching is good stretching.  However, in the interest of promoting optimal behavior, here’s a basic primer on how to do it:

 

There are at least two kinds of stretching:  static and dynamic.  Static stretching is the kind where we hold a stretched position for a while, like when we bend over and touch our toes.  Dynamic stretching is when we move through stretched positions, like when we twist back and forth at the waist.  Both kinds are good for us.

 

When we do static stretches, it is important to begin with warm muscles or at the very least to go slowly at first.  Taking our muscles to their maximum stretch first thing is a good way to pull something.  So:  we begin gently, stretching our muscles to the point where we feel a little tension.  NOTE:  stretching is not supposed to hurt.  It may be slightly uncomfortable, but if we hit the pain point, we are going too far.  Once we find that little bit of tension place, we need to hang out for a while.  Most of us are really impatient.  We stretch for about a second and say, “Done!”  Ideally, we stay in the stretch for thirty seconds to a minute.  For most of us, a good marker for that amount of time is about five deep breaths.  This gives our muscles some time to adjust to the stretch.  We may find that after those five breaths, we can go a little farther into the stretch without pain and repeat the process.  This allows our bodies to build flexibility in a gradual and sustainable way.

 

Dynamic stretches, in my experience, don’t build flexibility as well, but they do wake up existing flexibility.  I like them as part of a warm-up.  It’s what dancers do at the barre before getting to the actual dancing.  Just like with static stretches, the goal is to take the muscles to a place where they feel a little tension, but not pain.  We go gently to that place and out of it, not with quick bounces like some of us were taught eons ago in P.E.

 

Ultimately, any stretching is better than no stretching, so we should do the kind that appeals most to us.

 

Go play.