Static Stretching Versus Dynamic Stretching
Unfortunately what most people do before they exercise actually limits their performance and may leave them open to injury.
Two Types of Stretching:
1. Static Stretching – Holding a pose without movement for a period of time. Typically what most people do before a run or workout or what is practiced in yoga.
2. Dynamic stretches – Offer a warm up of muscles, ligaments, and joints through movement and is highly recommended prior to any type of exercise.
Click here to see part two – a complete Dynamic Stretching Workout
Here are Some Problems Static Stretching can Cause:
1. Impaired performance – Studies have shown that static stretches decreased vertical jump height, decreased sprinters speeds, and static stretched muscles are substantially less strong. This effect lasted for 15 minutes to an hour, even after just a 10-minute stretch.
– This happens because it inhibits the stretch reflex, which is the ability to store kinetic energy in your muscles during the eccentric. In other words Squatting down correctly stores energy in your hamstrings by stretching them like a rubber band. But static stretch loosens them like an old elastic waste band that doesn’t have the snap any more. In an example of a Squat, you can squat more weight by using this reflex on the way up, but static stretches inhibit this reflex, lowering your squat strength. This prevents your muscles fibers from storing energy, like an old elastic waistband.
2. Muscle Stabilization – Although static stretch increases your range of motion, it does not stabilize the muscle in this new position. So excessive flexibility without strength creates a lack of balance and will increase your risk of injury. In other words it will make you wobbly when you’re doing squats for example.
3. The myth that stretching decreases muscle soreness, which it does not. The only thing that decreases soreness in muscles is training those muscles again, so that blood will go into the area. You don’t have to fully train them all over but getting blood to flow there such as body weight squats or the dynamic stretches will achieve this.
4. Static stretches do not warm up your muscles and cold muscles are more prone to injury. The better option is to do movement such as riding a stationary bike, or jog, or dynamic stretching that we are going to do next.
5. Static stretching does not put your muscles in the in the right mood to exercise, they relax you, which is why doing yoga is a great way to relax and de-stress, but not charge you for any explosive or aggressive work out.
Some say since animals stretch humans should too. This is somewhat true that animals move and “stretch” within their natural means.
A lion, (or your dog or cat), doesn’t cross his hind legs and lean forward to stretch out his hips before he chases a zebra. Your cat doesn’t take her front paw and grab her rear leg to pull it to her neck so she’s more flexible prior to her night hunt.
If you are going to static stretch, better to do so afterwards. Static stretching is good for cool down. It is also a good idea to create tension in the muscles you are stretching as well as the opposite muscle if possible. (Called Reciprocal inhibition – see video in part two)
Studies on Static Versus Dynamic Stretching:
Multiple studies taken place since the 1980’s on the benefits of dynamic stretching for warming up. They have proven that dynamic stretching significantly increased for the angular displacement of the hip joint, especially compared to static stretching.
In a study testing the “effect of dynamic versus static stretching in the warm-up on hamstring flexibility,” 12 randomly selected participants assigned to three interventions of 225 second stretch treatment on separate days. Those were:
1. No stretching
2. Static stretching
3. Dynamic stretching
Findings:
“The intervention study comparing the effects of static and dynamic stretching routines in the warm-up on hamstring flexibility demonstrated that dynamic stretching enhanced static as well as dynamic flexibility. Static stretching on the other hand did not have an impact on dynamic flexibility. Static stretches may be useful in the cooling down period of training for long term gains in flexibility.”
Dynamic stretching improves performance by increasing flexion in the joints and increasing body temperature, causing blood to flow more easily to muscles. The warmer the muscle, the less chance there is of injury.
Click here to see a complete Dynamic Stretching Workout
