Does ANYONE know what 'proper stretching' means?

[Daisy]

Re: Does ANYONE know what 'proper stretching' means?

Here is my opinion. I HAD very good flexibility. Not so much now and my range of motion is definitely reduced. So in the long term stretching is important, for hurdling at least. As far as I can tell static is definitely safer than dynamic. I wince when i see the soccer players do their stretching.

With regard to short term prior to training or racing i think it can be over done. I always used to do a jog, static stretching, drills and sprints to warm up. it worked for me. I was taught how to stretch and warm up by a sports physiologist at Edinburgh.

http://www.sport.ed.ac.uk/services/pers ... twarm.html

They had written a great book on stretching that i owned and is probably stuck in the attic somewhere. It may be mumbo jumbo but when i strched regularly i never had muscle problems. Later when i did not strech I would often get twinges but then i was older too so its not a well controlled experiment.

My random observation as to how to perform well. It always seemed to me that I ran better after getting one flat out (100%) effort out of the way.

Sorry for the rambling.

[SQUACKEE]

i too often felt great doubling in my secound race.

one way to look at muscles is when they are cold they are like bubble gum that hasnt been chewed. you wouldnt want to try a stretch that gum. but after chewing the gum for a while it stretches easily.

[Daisy]

i too often felt great doubling in my secound race.
one way to look at muscles is when they are cold they are like bubble gum that hasnt been chewed. you wouldnt want to try a stretch that gum. but after chewing the gum for a while it stretches easily.

Nice analogy. So we all need a lion or two to chew on our legs before a race?

[Andrea_T]

Re: Does ANYONE know what 'proper stretching' means?

As far as I can tell static is definitely safer than dynamic.

I always used to do a jog, static stretching, drills and sprints to warm up. it worked for me. I was taught how to stretch and warm up by a sports physiologist at Edinburgh.

I absolutely agree with Daisy on this one. Dynamic stretching is not as safe as static.
I was a trained ballet dancer when younger, and still keep in contact with my Royal Ballet chums. You never go straight into heavy stretching, always do some kind of warm up first. For ballet, we always start with some basic simple stretches at the bar to loosen up, we never do anything dynamic before a work out. The same can be applied to other sports IMO, very basic stretching, then a decent warm up (jog, treadmill, bike etc) before more stretching and then your session. I always found that my 'proper' stretching was better suited after my main work out though (that doesnt apply to weight training though. I NEVER do any stretching after lifting weights)