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Stay Away from Stretching

Many athletes associate stretching with warming up. But stretching does not accomplish what a real warm-up does. Many also think stretching will prevent injury and improve performance. Not only is this untrue, but often just the opposite can occur.

It’s very important, however, that athletes increase their flexibility. This can be done just as effectively, and without risk of harm, with a proper warm-up. Even patients with arthritis can improve flexibility with an aerobic warm-up, as much as by stretching.

There are two basic types of stretching, referred to as “static” and “ballistic.” Static stretching is a very slow, deliberate movement, where you lightly stretch a muscle and hold it statically for ten to thirty seconds. When properly done, this activity promotes relaxation of the muscle being stretched. Optimal static stretching requires that each muscle group be sequentially repeated three to four times. It also demands that the activity be done slowly and not rushed.

Static stretching can be done actively or passively. Of these, active is much safer than passive.

Graph of 1-hour workout including 15-minute warm-up and cool-down

Question: I am a 17:19 5K racer and want to break 17:00. I’m using your MAF method but I am slow: 9:30-10:30 miles with some walking. I have been overtrained for the last year so this is all new to me. I have been used to 80-mile weeks. My question is: How much volume should I be doing in order to race again at a high level? Should I train twice a day with three long runs per week, or should I cut it back since I have been overtrained?Answer: Overtraining is a serious condition that must be fully corrected before resuming competition. The relation between your aerobic pace of 9:30-10:30—over thirty minutes for 5K—and your 5K race time of 17:19 demonstrates how much of an imbalance you have. This is a typical pattern seen in overtraining. Fully correcting overtraining is done best by building a great aerobic base and making the appropriate dietary and lifestyle changes for your particular needs. I suggest focusing on time and heart rate, instead of miles and pace. This provides the brain and body with a more realistic approach and helps bring out intuition—our natural response to training is associated with the time we’re doing it and the intensity, not miles and pace. With full recovery and a great aerobic base, it sounds like your goal of breaking 17:00 is not only realistic, but improvement far beyond that may also be possible.

 

 

Active stretching is accomplished by contracting the antagonist muscle (the one opposite the muscle you’re stretching). For example, to actively stretch the hamstring muscles, the quadriceps muscles are contracted.Passive stretching uses gravity or force from another body part or person to move a body segment to the end of its range of motion or beyond—the reason this form of stretching can so easily cause injury.

The second basic type of stretching is called ballistic. This is a “bouncing” method and is the most common type of stretching done by athletes. It makes use of the body’s momentum to repeatedly stretch a joint position to or beyond the extreme ranges of motion. Because this method is more rapid than static stretching, it activates the stretch reflex, which increases tension in the muscle, rather than relaxation. This can result in micro-tearing of muscle fibers with resultant injury.

Ballistic stretching is the type most athletes say they don’t do but most realistically employ. That’s because most athletes are in a hurry when stretching before or after training. Pre-race tension tends to make one stretch in a more stressful and quick, and hence more ballistic, mode.