Stretching - be flexible in your thinking

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.

Growing Pains

Picture this, you start a new weights program full of enthusiasm. You can picture the fantastic new body you will have. For 2 weeks you work hard, you sweat, you ache all over and you look forward to that new body that is just around the corner. And then you look in the mirror again, stand on the scales again, and nothing has changed. Has all the hard work been for nothing? 

This is a story we hear from many of our clients. They star an exercise routine with the best of intentions, even enthusiasm, but when their body is tired from the training and there is no difference to see they lose heart. This is not due to a lack of effort on their part, most people work extremely hard in the gym. Often it is from doing the wrong exercises or dong things at the wrong intensity, but there is always the element of expectation as well.

When starting any exercise program you need to have an idea of what you are expecting to change and in what timescale if you want to judge if that exercise program is doing its job. If your goal is muscle growth/toning then you need to give the body enough time for the tissue to actually grow. This takes 8-12 weeks. 8-12 weeks of consistent training providing stimulus to the same tissues with a progressive overload. That is simply how long it takes for muscles to grow.

That is not to say you won’t see benefits before this. Improvements in flexibility, posture, strength, coordination, balance and abdominal function can all happen faster as they don’t rely on muscle growth. So, after 2-3 weeks of training consistently you should start to see a few benefits in terms of feeling better and performing better. You may be able to lift slightly heavier weights than when you started, you may find that your hamstrings are not quite as tight as they were before or you may notice that your shoulders are a little further back when you stand up. All these little things can make a big difference, but the muscle growth will take longer. 

The moral of the story is that if you want to make long-lasting changes in your body you need the consistency of training over an extended period. Working hard for 2 weeks and then taking a week off will not get the results. And changing your workout at every session won’t get results either. But if you stick to a well designed program and perform the exercises consistently and at the right intensity your body will adapt and you will reach your goals, and possibly a few more besides.

Forward Head Carriage

You may have heard the term Forward Head Carriage thrown around, but what does it mean? When you have good posture, when standing up straight, the center of your ear should be directly above the center of your shoulder. It is common for people’s head to drift forward from this position, that is referred to as Forward Head Carriage. 

This type of posture happens when the muscles in the neck get tight, pulling the head forwards, or the upper back has an increased curve. It is caused by long hours spent sitting, especially when in a fixed position looking in front of you, such as working at a desk or driving. Other slouching positions also contribute, such as sitting in a deep comfy sofa whilst playing video games. As the muscles that pull the head forwards are used to assist breathing when you need extra air in your lungs, doing endurance sports such as running or cycling also tends to bring the head forward. So, if you are a triathlete who works in an office and likes to relax in front of the PS3 you can see that you have a lot of lifestyle factors contributing to Forward Head Carriage.

The big question though is why should you care? For each inch the head is forward from its ideal position it is like the muscles in your neck and upper back need to support the weight of the head again. It is not uncommon for us to see a Forward Head Carriage of 3 inches, that places a lot of strain on the neck and upper back, causing tension around your neck and shoulders that can lead to headaches, aching shoulders, restriction of movement, reduced lung capacity, expending more energy than you have to and an attractive hunchback posture. 

The posture is quite straightforward to correct with stretches and exercises that you can do at home. Many clients feel relief from the aching shoulders and headaches in a matter of days of consistent stretching! If you spend a lot of time working at a desk or in the car then these simple stretches can help you avoid falling into bad posture and can help you keep a clear head.

If you would like to see how your Forward Head Carriage is getting on, or are ready to do something about it please give us a call and we can help you get your head on straight again!

Flexible Thinking

Do you stretch before or after exercise? Why?

Do you stretch in the morning or in the evening? Why?

In exercise one of the most mis-understood areas, by both the public and professionals, is stretching. If you look at the sports section in your local books shop you will find many volumes on how to increase your flexibility, if you go to any yoga studio they will tell you that it improves flexibility, the same when you go to the gym or into any martial arts studio. So flexibility must be important?

Ask anyone if they stretch before or after their run and they will give you a confused answer, they often know that they should but they don’t know what to do or why. Often people have been given conflicting information regarding stretching and flexibility.

The most important thing when deciding what to stretch and when, is knowledge. You must know what you want to achieve from your stretching before you begin. Do you want to make your muscles longer or more flexible, are your muscles actually short or are they just carrying too much tension, do you actually need more flexibility or are you just doing what the others in your group are doing?

If you exercise with bad posture then your body will remember that, so stretching muscles that will allow you to go into better posture before you exercise is sensible. So it is a good idea to do postural correction stretching before you exercise. If your sport involves going into extreme positions like martial arts, football, ballet or gymnastics a much more extensive stretching regime should be an essential part of the warm up routine. If your sport does not involve extreme ranges of motion, like distance running or cycling, then it is not usually necessary to do stretching before the activity unless it is to correct a postural deficit or address an injury issue.

Developmental stretching is best done after exercise when the muscle temperature is higher. These stretches can be done as part of a warm-down or at home in the evening. Again for developmental stretching the evening is better than the morning because a warm muscle will respond to stretching more readily than a cold muscle.

Most people stretch muscles that are already normal in length, they do stretches that they are good at, this is normal but this often leads to joint imbalance, instability and injury. At our studio we take a great deal of time assessing and measuring our clients to ensure that the stretches we give are right for them. Stretching a muscle which is already overly long can lead to imbalances across a joint and result in injury.

Some people need to stretch before and after every session to avoid injury, some people never stretch and never get injured. You need to figure out what works for you regardless of what others in your training group are doing, the only thing we guarantee is that your body is different to everyone else’s, so what should you expect the same stretching routine to work?

Alan