Total Body Transformation Training Blog

Stretching... Why and How

Stretching is one of those things we know we should do but usually find excuses not to do. When we are pinched for time, stretching always seems to be the part of the workout that is cut out or rushed through. Unfortunately, stretching is one of the most important things runners and strength trainers can do. Get used to it, because stretching now can save alot of later pain.

When to Stretch
The ideal time to stretch is not before starting the workout! Think of any workout -- strength or endurance -- as having four parts: warmup, stretch, main activity, and cool down. The warm up's goal is to raise the heart rate and your's body internal temperature. It can be 5 minutes on a bike, some brisk walking, or doing a shorted set of deadlifts with light weight. Stretching happens with a warm body. That is the key! If we are stretching to help prevent injury during a workout, then the best time to stretch is after the warm up and before the main activity. Depending on your activity it may also be a good idea to stretch as part of the cool down as well. Most strength training and running activities could benefit from lower back and hamstring stretches during the cool down.

Why Stretch?
The main reason to stretch is not "flexability" but rather mobility -- joint mobility.

We stretch to prevent injury resulting from forced muscle contractions and extended ranges of motion in a short period of time. Warming up and stretching before running 100 yards gives the muscles, joints, and ligaments time to pump blood into the areas that will be needed most. Ballistic movements require joint coordination and mobility and stretching helps with this.

We also stretch to prevent overuse injuries. Our bodies go through a restricted range of motion during any repetitive activity or workout. Stretching helps restore full range of motion to the body. This in turns helps prevent excessive wear and tear on the muscles and joints used workout after workout. For this reason (among others) it is always a good idea to mix types of workouts up so as to allow the body to be stressed in different ways.

How to Stretch
There are many forms of stretching: static, dynamic, active-isolated, relaxed tension, etc. Most popular in the US is "static" stretching where a particulr stretch is held stationary for 10-30 seconds. with static stretches the muscles should be stretched enough to feel it but not so much as to cause pain and discomfort. As you practice static stretching more, it becomes easier to stretch through the same range of motion so you constantly need to push yourself a little father but not to the point of pain.

What to Stretch
What to stretch depends somewhat on the activity you are performing. But in general it is good to promote full body stretching so as to allow for maximal ranges of motion in all the limbs regardless of the activity performed. There is no magic order as to what to stretch first and people differ in their specific routines. In general though you want to make sure you stretch all the joints and the body from top to bottom -- neck, shoulders, upper back, hips and pelvis, knees, thighs, hamstrings, ankles, and especially the lower back. Running and squatting activities can benefit greatly by emphasizing stretching the groin (inner thigh), hamstrings, and lower back. Upper body strength training routines need to stretch the shoulders, low back, and chest with extra emphasis.

Improve Your Exercise Gains by Not Caring?

If your goal is to lost fat or get fit how excited do you get when you start making progress? If you're training to run a first marathon, or break 400 pounds in the deadlift do you start to crave your training sessions -- looking forward to entering the results into the log? Sure, we can all talk about periodizing our workouts and not peaking too early but by our very nature human being love goals and get excited about achieving them. But is this the best way to sustain progress?

Surprisingly, the answer is "it depends." Endurance activities like marathon running, triathalons and long distance rowing are activities where it seems a little indifference goes a really long way. Psychologists have been studying human performance for decades and they have concluded that we do our best in endurance activities under conditions of rather low arousal. What this means is that it is in yours and my best interests to avoid getting worked up for training runs and week by week progress toward the eventual goal. It is especially important to remain calm on race day.

The main reasons for this are biological. Excitement activates the nervous system in ways that aren't great for marathon training or other longer distance events. Heart rate increases, blood pressure goes up, oxygen consumption becomes greater... none of which help you perform well in training for distance events. The goal is "flow" -- that relaxed almost meditative state where you are confident of your abilities and you are observing the world without being attached to its goings on.

Distance athletes spend a lot of their training cycles working on relaxation techniques for this very reason. Even when it is relatively easy to stay relaxed week to week during training, it is another thing entirely on race day. Because of this, meditation, yoga, and formal relaxation techniques are an important part of endurance training.

Good Mornings

There was a time when my weight was over 330 pounds. After shedding more than 100 pounds and keeping it off for nearly 5 years I would hardly say I have a chiseled body, but I am happy to know that I can enjoy most physical activities and especially love contact strength-endurance activities. Getting into running has been as much a psychological hurdle as it has been a physical one. I hate to run. I love to sweat, I love the exhaustion high from intense physical exercise, I love to row, box, do aikido, lift weights, stretch, practice yoga -- countless things. But I have to force myself to jog/run/walk as part of a training program. So be it. What we dislike and what we are not good at makes us stronger -- at least that's what I keep telling myself.

Despite my personal aversion to running, my body shares something in common with most North American and European runners of all kinds: weak hamstrings. The hamstrings are those knot like mucles in the back of our legs that prevent most of us from bending over without arching our backs. Stiff, inflexible hamstrings limit our range of motion and explosive power and help cause misalignments in the hip flexors and pelvis. Weak hamstrings also promote a weak lower back and ab complex.

There are many stretches and exercises to help develop the hamstrings. A problem that I've mentioned many times before is isolation -- most of the machines and movements and stretches attempt to isolate the hamstring muscles. Not only is this difficult, it promotes further imbalance. A fundamental way to help your hamstrings is to stop using the leg extension and leg press machines -- these thigh/quad isolation machines promote undue quad development at the expense of hamstring strength. Flat footed bodyweight squat holds help. With your feet should/hip width apart just squat down (back really). Your feet stay flat on the floor and your butt dips below your knees -- well below. This common position for elimination in Asia and much of the third world is excellent on the internal organs, promotes strong ankles, and help stretch the ligaments of the thigh and hamstrings.

Good Mornings though have become my favorite movement to promote strength and stretching of the hamstrings. A great exercise to do first thing in a workout, Good Mornings are not always fun but brutally effective. Be careful! There is no need to use too much weight and injure yourself here. The basic good morning exercise is done with an olympic (45 pound) barbell. Place the barbell across your back (traps), holding the barbell with a wide grip with the hands. Feet are flat, knees slightly bent and relaxed. Tighten your glutes, look up a bit, and bend at the hips. Your back needs to stay straight throughout the movement and if necessary bend your knees more to make this happen. You want to bend 90 degrees and then straighten back up. Keep your butt clenched. Good mornings strebgthen and stretch the lower back and hamstrings. Once you can do 10 slow movements add weight to the bar -- but slowly. You don't need a lot of weight to acheive a great stretch here and build hamstring strength. Move slowly and deliberately. Keep your head up, back flat, glutes squeezed, and your hamstrings will release and strength in no time. Follow your Good Mornings with some back bends and you will find your running much more fluid and easier on the legs.

Training during cold and flu season

Traing in any activity is not a series of steady progressions, especially once you get some experience under your belt. The body just cannot continue to make improvements week after week with no limit in site. Periodization refers to the deliberate structuring of a training program to design in "easier period" with "harder periods". Periodization was formally studied and made into a science by the Bulgarian and Romanian olympic coaches training athletes during the height of the Soviet Union.

While there can be very complicated perdioization strategies, simple methods work surprisingly well. For weight training and endurance sports a sample period would be 12-16 workouts of continual focus on progress culminating in the final workout being at or better than the previous "personal record". Now a period of active recovery comes in -- 12-16 workouts at much less intensity and overall load. This backing off period lets the body heal in preparation for another cycle of acheivement.

I just finished a periodization phase last week and it was coupled with a growing feeling of being run down and sick. In the northeast it is cold and flu season so this wasn't exactly surprising. By Sunday I had a sore throat and difficulty breathing. The general viewpoint is that if sickness is contained "in the head" it is ok to workout. Any form of whole body sickness though needs rest. This can be difficult to determine if your workouts are normally taxing and require all out effort. The best non-medical advice would be to reduce your intensity and listen to your body. If you feel achy and have less strength while showing signs of sickness then it is time to stop the all out efforts and back off. The body needs time to heal and the more it is pushed the more it will repond by shutting down.

At the end of my periodization cycle last week I was supposed to train hard on Saturday and take Sunday off. Not feeling well and being exhausted from Friday's workout I let Saturday be a day of rest and went back to working out on Sunday with a reduced amount of work and intensity with plenty of rest between sets. It was easy to tell I was taxing myself a little too much -- on the treadmill during my walk/run I saw my heart rate go up and up much quicker than normal. Backing off on the speed and incline and time allowed me to have a reasonable workout for my body and let it move while getting plenty of time to recover.