Many of our clients when we ask them if they stretch get a guilty look in their eyes and mumble something like “I know I should but …”. There seems to be a misconception in the world that stretching is essential for everyone. This is simply not true. Stretching is there to make muscles that are too short longer. For some people who are genetically tight this will be very important to allow their bodies to go through a full range of motion, maintain good posture and avoid injuries. For others that are genetically very flexible there is no advantage in doing lots of stretching and it may actually be detrimental by de-stabilizing joints and leading to reduced performance and injuries.
Most people fall somewhere between the two extremes. And for most people only some muscles will be tight. This is usually a function of our sport, working life and other habits we have got into. So, for most people you only want to stretch the muscles that are tight and not the ones that are of the right length or loose already. This ensures that you make the greatest improvements in your posture, have the flexibility required for your sport, avoid injuries and you spend less overall time stretching than if you were to stretch everything!
When we start working with any client for exercise we take a postural & biomechanics assessment that can take up to 2 hours. During this we measure your flexibility, your posture and your spinal curves and movements, amongst other things. So, we can develop a detailed stretching plan that targets only the muscles you need, plus we show you exactly how to stretch those muscles effectively. We also offer a stretching analysis which includes only the flexibility assessment portion of the full postural & biomechanics and gives you a full-body stretching program.
So, if you are wondering if the stretches you are doing (or not doing) are the right ones for your body give us a call and we can find out.
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