Stretching

I remember being told from textbooks that you should stretch to reduce your risk of injury during activity. But don’t stretch before activity, because that will increase your risk of injury during activity. And you shouldn’t stretch when the body is cold either, because your muscles are tight and you may hurt yourself while stretching. Also that holding stretches for longer than 60-90 seconds has no benefit on flexibility. So you should stretch after your activity to prevent injury during activity, but only for brief moments.

Oooooookay…..?

I used to watch movies and stretch for hours at a time. Yes, I said hours! I never warmed my body up, I’d stretch cold. I’d sit in positions for 20 minutes or more and just get lost in the movie before switching positions. I’m really quite limber. I wasn’t always this way, I just spent time working on it. It can work for you too if you spend dedicated time on it. The proof in that pudding goes completely against everything my college degree said. Go figure!

The human body is really quite simple; it adapts to how you use it. Inside our muscle tissue there are several layers of fascia with distinct traits of consistency that form the shape and function of our tissue. In stretching, our aim is to deform the fascial layer with the most stable structure and the least ability to naturally deform. We call this layer the plastic layer.

Since this fascial layer is incredibly resistant to change in deformation and is very stable, we have to spend time “coaxing” it into changing shape, i.e. stretching at an easy intensity. Once we have coaxed it into changing shape it benefits us to keep it in that new shape in order for the memory of the tissue to set in i.e. stretching for longer periods of time.

This is the same principle that was outlined in the “High Intensity Stillness” post regarding skill and form. If you spend time in positions that you want the body to be better in then your body will learn how and store that movement memory inside the tissue. It works for stretching and flexibility too.

As it turns out, stretching is more effective when your body is cold than warm. Once you warm up the heat generated inside your body causes the various fascial layers to move together more homogeneously. Stretching while warm also deforms the viscous and elastic layers, two layers that are meant to change shape, not hold shape. This allows the plastic layer to do what it’s meant to do; retain plasticity to retain shape. Cold stretching targets this plastic layer more independently in order to change the resting shape of the muscle.

That’s all we’re trying to do, teach the muscle how to change shape and stay that way.

Good form mandates mobility. Mobility is built on flexibility. Flexibility is best cultivated through low intensity stretches held for long durations of time. Once you cultivate your flexibility and put it to use through the mobility of good technique, your body will be reticent to give up what you’ve cultivated. It will embed that movement memory deep within the cells of your tissue, and when your cells damage, die and replace over the years of your life, it will transfer that movement knowledge to the next generation of cells. Only through lack of use, injury, or extreme old age will you ever lose mobility once you cultivate it and use it regularly.

People ask me very often, “Should I stretch before a workout, or after a workout?”

My reply has been the same for years, “Stretch as a separate workout.”