stretching:rights and wrongs

[theneuhauser]

whats your input when it comes to proper stretching?

ive noticed that most places where ive trained, they would stretch us before class and not after.

how often and how do you stretch?
what's best for you?

 

[karatekid1975]

I stretch 3 to 4 days a week (before and after class). I always make sure I get the blood flowing and warm up before I do any stretches (running around the dojang, jumping jacks, ect). I do the basic martial arts stretches ..... front split, side split, the one where you bend one leg and straighten the other, V stretch (stretching and touching each foot and to the middle), the modified front stance one, butter fly stretch, and sometimes I use a partner to stretch my legs in a front, roundhouse and side kick potitions. But not too often, cause I get sore doing that.

If you have problems or don't agree with the way the class is being stretched, do it by yourself before and after class, like I do.

 

[sweeper]

I do some dynamic stretching before class when warming up as well as some static stretches, but the only time I do stretching after class is if I think I have over excersised a muscle, and than it's just light static stretching to see what it feals like.

when I'm normaly excercissing I stretch in a warm up and than do a more intence stretch after I'm done excercising.

 

[Yari]

I belive in streching after class, and doing it three times.

I also try to do it every morning, not that I'm a rubberband now, but it helps keeping the muscles flexible and soft. If I skip a couple of days I can feel it.

I probably do it the "old" way. Strech the muscle and hold for 20 - 30 sec. and then on to the next. And when I've done the series I do it again. Max three times, and as a min. two times. My teacher usally said that three times to expand, and two times to keep it as it is.

In winter time streching has to be carful, since your body surly is cold.

/Yari

 

[Dronak]

With our classes we typically only stretch before we start. That includes some joint warmups -- wrist, shoulder/arm, waist, knee, ankle circles, that sort of thing. Then we do a variety of stretches such as the ones karatekid1975 mentioned. As you'd imagine, this is done so that we'll be less likely to pull a muscle when we start practice. Once in a while we do a second round of stretching, either after the beginning stamina training portion of the class or at the very end before we go home. Most of the times we don't though. Personally, I don't think we spend enough time stretching. Yesterday we did the whole set in 15 minutes. But this is also part of the reason I normally get to class a bit earlier, so I have time to do some additional stretching on my own before we start and do some stretches we don't do together as a group.

As for how to stretch, I suppose what's best depends on the person. I think the two main options are stretch and hold or slowly bob in and out of the stretch. I do a combination. Some stretches are easier than others, so the ones that are harder I will usually ease into by bobbing in and out of it, slowly increasing it until I get down where I want to be. Normally I'll hold a stretch for a little while, then release it and do it again. This seems to work pretty well for me. I like holding rather than only bobbing, but I don't want to do just one hold and that's it, so I hold a bit, release, and repeat. When you're bobbing though, you have to be careful not to do it too hard or too fast or you can hurt yourself. It's got to be gentle and slowly increase the stretch. Also as Yari said, in the winter when your body's colder you have to be more careful. In the summer when your body's warmer, it's a bit easier to work the stretches. We're supposed to be working on that during class this summer for that reason, but the training leaders seem to forget that point most of the time. I don't usually do a lot of stretching outside of class, partly because my natural flexibility is pretty good. I may start trying to do some though, because I hurt my hip or something last week while stretching. It was minor and got better quickly enough, but I guess I'll have to be a little more careful when doing the stretching. Doing some on my own on non-class days may help, too.

 

[Cthulhu]

The only thing I tell people not to do is bouncing a stretch. Whether they stretch before or after a workout is up to them.

Cthulhu

 

[Nightingale]

never, ever bounce or bob when stretching. its very easy to tear stuff that way. Always stretch when your muscles are warm. Have em run a few laps around the studio to get the blood flowing first. cold muscles don't stretch, they tear.

 

[SolidTiger]

I think stretching is important because if you don't you have a bigger chance to get a injury, and it don't feel nice to pull a muscle
at all. I know from experiance I pulled a muscle because I never
thought I had to stretch. Now I stretch at least ever three hours, I
learned my lession.

Thank You

SolidTiger

 

[sweeper]

you can stretch a cold muscle, it's just a little risky

 

[Nightingale]

true, but why risk it? it only takes five minutes or so to warm up enough to stretch safely.

 

[sweeper]

I'm not quite sure... I do stretches without warming up to see how far I can stretch without a warm up.. not quite the same thing, it's alot more gentle

 

[Yari]

Originally posted by sweeper

you can stretch a cold muscle, it's just a little risky

Why is it risky? Aslong as you do it carefully.

/Yari

 

[Nightingale]

its risky because your muscles are much more likely to tear if they're cold. you need to get your blood flowing to warm up your muscles before you stretch. if you need an example of this, freeze a rubber band and then try to stretch it. it breaks or doesn't stretch as far. same with your muscles.

 

[sweeper]

actualy, the rubberband thing is totaly diffrent, your muscles can tear largly because you carry so much static tension when you are cold, your blood's viscosity does increase and your capalaries close down some but that affects your mescle strength more than your flexability. The thing is you can train yourself to reduce the static tension of a muscle when it's cold, to give an example, have you ever been shivering than tried to relax the effect? genneraly you can stop shivering if you want to, it's not pricisly the same thing it's very simular (your body tightens your skeletal muscles to generate heat in he same way it creates more tension in your muscles when they are cooler). The rubber band analogy could apply to a dynamic stretch because you are stretching much faster, but it doesn't apply to a static stretch because a static stretch takes longer to stretch the muscle.

 

[Yari]

Originally posted by nightingale8472

its risky because your muscles are much more likely to tear if they're cold. you need to get your blood flowing to warm up your muscles before you stretch. if you need an example of this, freeze a rubber band and then try to stretch it. it breaks or doesn't stretch as far. same with your muscles.

My understanding was that every kind of streach was a kind of tear. But over doing it is just easier when cold?

Would it be correct to say that you get at better streach before or after a class? I think after a class, but any other ideas?


/Yari

 

[MartialArtist]

I stretch both before and after. Before to prevent injuries and after I stretch, I'm always faster, more powerful, and be more agile. I can kick higher and lower faster, I can do many things better after stretching. I stretch after so I don't get sore.

 

[artful dodger]

A lot of it depends on how flexible you already are. If you're quite flexible it doesn't seem to pose too much risk stretching before warming up. But the consensus is warm your muscles up first. Then do static stretches, then dynamic stretches. Then take your muscles slowly through the movements of the activity you are about to do e.g slow kicks. Good time to practice the balance aspects of your kicks etc. When I use to train in Wing Chun we used to do static stretches as soon as we started the class (which was 8.30p.m, imagine that in a cold hall in the middle of winter). I wasn't too keen on that idea and because you don't stretch very well in this state you aren't able to gain the flexibility benefits of the warmup.

At TKD we don't seem to do stretching at the end, only at the bebinning, but I think you should because of the build up of lactic acid. I also believe this is when you can increase your flexibility as opposed to just maintaining it. You should do the end of class warm down in the opposite order from the warm up.

 

[DJDragon]

Originally posted by artful dodger


At TKD we don't seem to do stretching at the end, only at the bebinning, but I think you should because of the build up of lactic acid. I also believe this is when you can increase your flexibility as opposed to just maintaining it. You should do the end of class warm down in the opposite order from the warm up.

The TKD class I attended didn't have a warm down either. I was sore for days. Also at the start he made us bounce during stretches - possibly to get warm but I'm suprised we didn't have a proper time for just stretching. I guess theres not enough time in a 1 and a 1/2 hour lesson.

 

[Nightingale]

never, ever bounce during stretching. Its a real good way to tear something.

 

[lvwhitebir]

Originally posted by nightingale8472

never, ever bounce during stretching. Its a real good way to tear something.

It's interesting that this is the party line, but... ever watch gymnasts stretch? They bounce... and they're damned flexible. What I've read is that novice's shouldn't bounce because they don't know how far to go. They should start slow and ease into the stretch. Experience people *can* get a benefit out of the bouncing (Balistic Stretching) if they control it properly.