If you’ve read my stuff before you know my
feelings on stretching: It’s probably
the most misunderstood and misused aspect of fitness. Frankly, there isn’t even a close
second. The overwhelming majority of
exercisers take what is an extremely complex area of bio-mechanics and dumb it
down to “If I pull on this muscle, that’s a good thing.” Sorry, it’s a wee bit more complex than that.
A recent pulled muscle – my own quadracep – provided me with
an example to prove my point:
I perform sprint intervals in my own workouts pretty
often. In fact, sprinting may be my
favorite exercise in terms of return on investment. The keyword here is “sprinting”. 100% all out sprinting. The kind that if you do it for more than a
few seconds you have to slow down or stop.
The exact opposite of what the shuffling limpers you see on the side of
the road as you’re driving to work do.
Sorry, back to the point:
During one of my recent workouts, I felt a pull in my quad
while sprinting. Not quite bad enough to
call it a day, but some tension and slight discomfort that made me more aware
of my form and speed. It occurred to me
that this was a perfect example of what I’ve been telling people for years.
Think about it:
- I warmed up and loosened up prior to the workout.
- It was in the 8th round of sprints, so had fully extended my legs are far as they can go hundreds of times prior to this.
- I was obviously “loose”. My quad was working fine up to that point.
So why the pulled muscle?
Because my body could no longer control the
lengthening. “It wasn’t just stretch it
and hold it”, like what everyone suggests you do. It was rapid fire lengthening and shortening. I.e., real life.
And therein lies the secret to flexibility, my fiends.
My body could no longer control the lengthening (as it had
merely seconds prior) due to:
a) Fatigue, which caused poor mechanics
b) Poor mechanics, which caused fatigue
c) Some combination of a and b.
A very subtle change in my physiology and mechanics led to
an injury.
In the fitness business, this is called an inability to
maintain optimal length- tension relationships.
Incidentally, this is a concept Bruce Lee discussed decades
before it became cutting edge.
This is also why any trainer who suggests that an
excessively high number of reps of anything is an imbecile. Fatigue causes injury. Reason #742 if your coach is a Crossfit
coach, fire your coach.
Parenthetically, just the night prior to my pulled muscle, Jacoby
Ellsbury of the Yankees pulled a muscle running the bases. If you think about it, that doesn’t make much
sense either. He obviously warmed up and
stretched out. It was the middle of the
game so he had been on a 100% sprint more than once. But because of choices a, b, or c above, he
pulled a muscle too.
So here are the secrets to flexibility:
Pre-workout stretching, or static stretching does not
prevent injury.
Functional flexibility is a matter of neuro-muscular
coordination, not just lengthening a muscle.
Bruce Lee was decades ahead of his time not only in regards
to the martial arts and filmmaking, but in exercise.
Crossfit coaches are dense.
Really, frigging, dense.
OK, the last two are generalized observations and far from secrets. The first two are the take home messages for
you. J
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