Stretching for Athletes Series : Part 1:General guildlines

       This article series will focus on stretching and improving imbalances caused by weak or tight muscles. Everyone has imbalances and it is up to the coach and athlete to identify the imbalances and try to correct them. This series is based on my own opinions and should not be taken as the ONLY way to go about fixing imbalances. I will be focusing more on the stretching side rather then the muscle strengthening side however they both go hand in hand as you most likely already know.

      Let me start off by saying not enough people stretch in general and not enough people stretch  for long enough durations.  Yesterday in Open Gym Class, I asked everyone, “How long should you hold a stretch”. I got answers ranging from taking breaths, to 10 seconds, to 15 seconds.  The text book answer is 30 seconds per stretch , but the practical answer is, stretch until you are  achieving range of motion (ROM) that is required for your sport.  Recreational athletes need to stretch generally to keep the muscles from seizing up. Real athletes need to make sure they can move their body in ways that is relevant to their sport.  For the recreational aspect of stretching please read the “Warm up for Younger Kids: is there a right or wrong” article I posted a while back.  I will be concerned with real athletes in this article. 

      Stretching can be done alone or with a partner. I believe with a partner helps greater then alone due to the fact even when you want to stop that coach or stretcher will be pushing you down anyways and force you   to keep trying. We all know how easy it is to say " well I'll do it next time". With that said it is important that the athlete learns to push him or herself. Learn to give your self pain and understand that it is necessary. If the athlete does not have the ability to push themselves through pain then their sporting career will be very short or not very glorious.

 

      When I trained gymnastics we held each stretch for one minute and repeated this at least three times.  I did not notice a stretch until the second time and third set of stretching which goes to show holding the stretch once even for a minute is not enough. Counting breaths works as long as you are counting at least 20-30 breaths. Muscle Spindles are receptors in the belly of the muscle that sense change within muscle length and control how far you can stretch. Basically the spindles sense a stretch and say “hey what’s going on I’m going to rip the muscle, STOP!”  It sends this signal to the brain and the brain sends a signal back keeping the muscle tight. After about 30 seconds, give or take,  the muscle spindles decide that maybe in fact you are not going to get hurt.  It sends a signal to the brain saying “hey we are all good over here let the muscle relax” and the brain responds by letting the Actin and Myosin filaments separate slowly. If this is done to fast the signal to the brain remains “Keep it tight” so that the muscle does not tear. As we know it is not too hard to tear a muscle however and this is when mechanical loads are put on the athlete to quickly and the muscle does not have time to relax slowly so the muscle spindle just stays tight because it does not think it is safe to relax.  The mechanical load usually gets harder because the stretcher thinks he or she is simply not pushing hard enough and there you have it, a muscle tear.

     As long as the mechanical load is small and gradual the athlete can go as far as they want and the only barrier will be the structure of the joints. Some athletes have slightly tighter joints due to the anatomical structure that varies slightly in every person.  You cannot fix this. Well, you can but it requires surgery and may cause more problems than it solves.  I do not recommend it. 

This may be a little extreme

 

      There are a few different types of stretching and all of them are useful. The first one which most people know of is the slow and steady gradual push. You have to start out where there is a slight stretch but no pain. Every 20 seconds push slightly farther. The athlete will get tired and resist less and less. I tell you, the way i resisted stretching, that could have passed as conditioning.  Try to get the athlete to not push because it just tricks the muscle spindle. Tell them to relax and just count to 20, or any number you chose.  Do not push to quick or the spindles will be tight.  This is the simplest method and is used by most. AS long as the coach knows basic anatomy then he or she can create a stretch to relax any muscle. Map out where that muscle originates and inserts and then push or pull, gently. 

      Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation (PNF) is a newer form of stretching and has gained a lot of popularity. Simply you are deactivating the muscle spindle quicker by tiring out the muscle by pushing against the coach. The athlete will feel he or she can go farther quicker but the only drawback is that usually the athlete will find he or she gets tight quicker and the muscle goes back to resting length quicker. PNF should be accompanied by a slow progressive stretch before and after. DO NOT jump into PNF after 5 laps around the gym. Make sure the athlete is more than ready before you begin.

 

These honestly are your two basic types of stretching but everyone comes out with slightly different variations which they call “new stretches”. It is all the same, just in a different position. You as a coach need to find what works for your body type and the athlete’s body type. Ask the athlete if it hurts, what feel where they feel the pain and monitor them closely. I am currently teaching all my athletes how to stretch themselves because it is good to have the athletes understand what they are doing on their own without you babysitting all the time. 

        If the athlete cries don’t worry some will cry over nothing and just are being big babies. Enforce from the start that it will hurt and that that is not a bad thing. I always hear:

“when you stretch you should feel a pull but not a pain”

      Well great, have fun stretching for a year before you make 10 degrees of improvement.  It will take forever to get results if it does not hurt. Folks, pain means you are making the body do things it is not use to. It is not always a sign of permanent damage. If it is September and first competition is in January, the athlete will need to go through pain to be flexible in time. With that said you have to use your head. You as a coach can feel the tightness of a muscle. If the athlete is shaking and keeps trying to move do not push more because involuntary contraction is a sign of extreme tension. You most will not want to keep pushing until athlete relaxes a bit. If the athlete starts crying as soon as you touch them then too bad tell them to suck it up. NEVER do this to a new athlete!!!!!!! You do not know their body and perhaps in fact that really is their limit. Fine, work with it. Once you have worked with the athlete for a few months and they trust you, know you are not going to hurt them etc. then you can put them through a bit of pain. Pain tolerance can be trained as well, but that is an article for another day. 

      Before I run off to lunch I will quickly touch on the times to stretch during a training. I make my athletes stretch after a warm up, between their turns and at the end of training to relax the muscles before going to bed.  Stretching is not like muscle building, you do not need a rest. You can stretch all the time and get full splits within a month. It will hurt a lot but you can do it with out injury. Do not stretch before you warm up the muscle or else the muscle is cold and will tear much easier. If you do not stretch after training, like I sometimes forget :(, then you may be sore the next day. For athletes who are new to the sport is not going to kill them but it is good to get them into the proper training habits for later use. 

 

      The intention of this article is simply to have a small refresher for coaches and athletes of things to think about during stretching. I know that I get lazy sometimes and forget basic strength and conditioning principals, there are a lot so a reminder can’t hurt. Next in the series will be specifics of leg stretching, with references to specific muscles and stretching techniques.

:)