The beginner's guide to flexibility

I was wondering if anyone had any input here, but how nessisary are isometric stretches?

IME isometrics tend to cause a considerable amount of DOMS and neurological fatigue, given the frequency of my training I'm concerned that including them will be yet another stress/they may impede on my other sessions.

What're people's thoughts on just dynamic (daily) and relaxed (again every day) as well as my regular strength and MA training?

Also will throwing in some particular strength movement help? I know VZ has mentioned adductor flyes and hamstring pull downs a couple of times.

 

Here's the thing. Regardless of how you do it, your ultimate goal when training for flexibility is to change your nervous system (specifically your myotatic reflex).

There are multiple ways of doing that; however, there is no (I repeat, no) other way that is faster than isometric/PNF/contract-relax. It is super fast when you do it in conjunction with relaxed stretches on a 2 day/week PNF and 4-5 day/week relaxed stretch routine. Super fast.

Relaxed stretching WILL do what PNF will do in the end, so your answer is no; however, it might take a year or even more. It all depends on how much time you have.

This is the way these various types of stretching work:

1) PNF forces the body to relax through exhaustion. It has no choice.
2) Relaxed stretching gently convinces the nervous system to allow for greater ROM but it only works if you can relax properly.

When doing relaxed stretching, the important things to do are:

* Breath
* Don't stretch very hard. Only as far as you can comfortably go.
* Mental imagery
* Go as far as you can each day you stretch
* Relax. Relax. Relax. Control your muscles through your nervous system and just relax.

You CAN get the splits without PNF but you won't get them quickly.

 

what patrick said.

isometrics are strength training. approach them like you would other CNS intensive movements. the best analogy is a romanian deadlift focusing on ROM: strengthens the hamstrings and lets them extend further at the same time.

combined dynamic stretching and strength training relative to what you want to do (slow leg swings and romanian deadlifts if you want hip flexion ROM, lunges, slow side and backicks, and KB swings if need hip extension, etc) should give you similar results without needing to do relaxed stretching at all, although isometrics will speed up the process even more.

 

Ahh if they're only twice a week I could possibly make that work, maybe if I put them in on squat day and Deadlift day.

I'll see how I get on like that and do 4-5 day/week relaxed and dynamic.

Thanks guys!

 

you're welcome!

also, if you fancy some masochism, put pieces of cardboard (or some other suitably slide-y thing) under your feet to help the stretch (which will require more muscle activation to keep you in place during the tension phase as well).

 

Fish of Doom is right. That will make things harder. Just remember to gradually increase the tensions over the course of about 3-5 seconds and the tense your VMO and quadriceps as hard as you can to stabilize your knees. If you feel knee pain then you're a) not tensing your knees hard enough or b) can't tense your knees hard enough (which means get stronger for about a month before trying them again).

Just so you know, scaled PNF doesn't really work. It has to be very intense to have the desired physiological affect (afaik). This seems to be a common misconception, so I wanted to make sure you knew.

Good luck!

 

Funnily enough I used mats that slipped around a lot today, I must be able to presence MAP posts psychically!

Her mm deff didn't think about flexing my quads much today, whoops, I'll get on that on thurs.

So what your saying is all or nothing at all? Sounds fair I'll try to remember that.

Thanks again lads you've been top notch.

 

Hi, I am quite new to TKD and sports and I've heard lots of do's and do nots. I have a few questions if I may.

1)I've read the 1st page and saw that jumping jacks are bad, but what about star jumps?
2)I have been told that knee rotation is bad as it is not within the joints normal range of motion. Is it true?
I've read that doing knee rotation helps loosen the joints, but wont that be bad when doing physical activities?

 

Never ever try to rotate a kneee joint, its a hinge, if you try and twist a door about its going to get knackered, same apllies to a knee.

As for the jumping jacks, isnt that just another word for star jumps?

 

I thought Star jumps is the exercise where you start out from the squat position then leap upwards with hands and legs stretched out. Jumping jacks are are just the opening and closing of the legs and hands. Am I wrong?

 

i dont know, different people probably have different deffenitions, its the case with a lot of things, (skull crushers, burpees, not looking for a serrious relationship....) from what i gather avoiding that movement pattern all together sounds wise, they're not that great of an exercise that your going to serriously lack in you training if you drop them.

 

Can you isometric stretches for every single stretch?

 

I think you can turn any stretch into a isometric exercise.But I also think you only need 1 or 2 isometric stretches per muscle group. Like, side and front splits is pretty much it, maybe a few others if you have certain biomechanical weaknesses.

 

Do you mean can you isometrically stretch every muscle? Not exactly, but you CAN isometrically stretch most major muscle groups. The fact is, 99% you just don't need to stretch the ones you can't.



Remember that isometric stretching is not the only form of stretching. The more research is done on flexibility the more convincing the theory that it is primarily a neurological setting is. Because of that, whenever you stretch (isometric or relaxed), try hard to feel the stretch and fill your mind with it so all you feel is the sensation. Feel it's intensity and as you breathe slowly (in relaxed stretching), you will feel the sensation slowly grow easier and eventually dissipate.

 

Ya, yoga is great for learning breathing in stretching.

 

I've read through the beginning post a couple of times and still have a question. When would you do active stretching as opposed to the passive? Would you do both as part of the post-workout stretching or is it more like one replaces the other?

 

Well, remember that active stretching is simply the method of stretching by contracting the agonist of a movement. For example, raising your leg in front of you until you feel a hamstring stretch. It's stretching, but it's also specifically active strength training to be able to achieve full range of motion flexibility through strength. Basically, it's a strength exercise. Put it with your other strength exercises.

Alternatively, you can superset active stretches and isometric stretches together. It's incredible. It's like bending a piece of steel in half and then bending it back and forth until it breaks. Actually, that's kind of a bad analogy because your muscles won't break (hopefully) . Instead, just consider it as alternating between two opposites. You're pushing in with one and you're pulling out with the other. In and out, in and out. And they're both reinforcing the stretch. It's very effective, and I highly recommend you try it for a few weeks at least.

Example set:

1) Isometric side split stretch
2) Super slow side leg raises (straight leg or bent)

1) Isometric front split stretch
2) Super slow front leg raises (straight leg or bent)

You don't need to rest any more than you feel you do between sets. Kurz suggests around 1 minute between isometric sets, but 2 minutes should be fine as well. You could rest 15 sec. after isometric and then do the active stretches with should take about 30 sec. each (at least) to have pretty close to 1-2 minute rest. 3 sets is fine, so is 4.

Maybe more information than you wanted, S&CMAN, but I hope it helps.

P.S. Neither active stretching, nor isometric stretching, nor dynamic stretching can replace old fashioned passive (static-relaxed) stretching. It has it's place of value. They all do.

 

THanks for the info. I'll give it a shot

 

thnx for the post, I've been stretching for 3 years (according to Thatsoulin's programme http://developflexibility.org.ua/relax-into-stretching-2) and I can't still do a full side split

 

I recommend Thomas Kurz's method or Kit Laughlin's method over that one, Andre.

Thomas Kurz - http://stadion.com

Kit Laughlin - http://www.kitlaughlin.com/