flexibility

The first 30 days of stretching!

andrewstemler 2 Comments

It’s about time that you began to understand the secrets behind effective stretching. The secrets begin with understanding what the process is.

The first part of the process, in the first 30 days, is that improvements in  your range of motion in the joint occur because you tolerate the discomfort more (aka Stretch Tolerance) NOT, because you have lengthened the muscle.

Reference

Law et al, 2009. Stretch exercises increase tolerance to stretch in patients with chronic musculoskeletal pain: a randomized controlled trial.   Find here

Flexibility Standards

andrewstemler Leave a comment

Do you need to be more flexible?  How flexible are you? What are your flexibility targets? It’s interesting ploughing through the flexibility literature looking for effective and reliable flexibility standards.

These  following two photos are from the  Men’s Gymnastics Coaching Manual and they give an “interesting” guide as to the possible  levels of flexibility that would be gymnasts may need. Im not sure to what extent it should guide normal people, but, it’s an interesting, if depressing, place to start answering the question of ” how flexible” do you need to be.

Tom Kurz suggests this reference chart in his famous book  Stretching Scientifically: A Guide to Flexibility Training

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