Stretching: Don't Do It Cold!

Are you looking for the truth about when best to stretch?

Do you hear conflicting advice about stretching before or AFTER a workout?

There are two central issues to consider when approaching flexibility training via stretching.

These two highly related issues are:

1.  Thermo-Elasticity, and

2.  The Stretch Reflex

My recommendation, and the practice I have followed personally and in coaching and training for years, is to follow this protocol on the trail to enhancing your flexibility via stretching:

1)  perform light activity to warm the muscles

2)  proceed to more intense activity, depending on your goals for that particular training session (1.e. strength or endurance)

3)  decrease exercise intensity as needed at the end of the intensity phase (#2 above)

4)  proceed to stretching, or muscle elongation, such as the this hamstring stretch.

These considerations are essential for not only enhanced flexibility, but injury prevention as well!

To simplify things, let's look at what I call "the science of the stretch:"

All soft tissues (muscles, tendons, joint capsules, fascia, skin) are more extensible when they are warm.

Think about it.  What do glass blowers, blacksmiths, and taffy pullers do before they s-t-r-e-t-c-h their product?

They warm it up!

Your muscles are the same.

Muscles Are Thermo-Elastic

We need to respect the fact that muscles are "thermo-elastic".  When cold, muscles are rigid and inflexible.  For this reason, all stretching is ineffective if it is performed when the body is cold, and should therefore be preceded by a series of warm-up exercises to increase tissue temperature.

There is another related characteristic of muscle tissue that needs to be considered as well.  That is what I call the stretch reflex.

The Stretch Reflex

Muscles and tendons have a neural reflex arc that prevents excessive stretching, or tension developing. You can connect with your own experience of this neuromuscular inhibitory response to demonstrate this phenomenon:  have you ever noticed the tightening effect that occured when you have gone too hard, too quickly into a stretch?  It's as if your body "freezes up" and locks you out of the stretch!

This is actually what is happening.  Here's how.

There are receptor nerves within your musclesthat are very sensitive to changes in muscle tension and length.

When you move into a stretch on a muscle, spindles within the muscle send a message to the central nervous system. This message causes a reflex reaction, specifically the contraction of the muscle in order to prevent stretch damage. The exact opposite of the muscle elongation that you are trying to achieve with the stretch!

Heat And Time As Your Stretch Allies

However, you can use heat and time as your allies.

The first priority is heat – and that you achieve by moving the body to warm up the joints, muscles, and fascia tissue that are a protective sheath around the muscle.  When the body temperature is raised via overall activity, blood flow to muscles, muscle sheaths, and all connective tissue is inspired.  This then creates a state of readiness for more intense exercise, as well as stretching.

Next on the list is time!

If you gently maintain the stretch for more than 6 seconds the Golgi tendon organs respond to the change in muscle tension by sending a signal to the central nervous system which causes the muscle to relax. Basically, this means that stretching exercises should be done slowly with a gradual increase in the range of movement every few seconds.

I like to think of it as "inviting" the muscle into elongation through gentle persistence and coaxing, honoring the need of the muscle to not only be warm prior to stretching, and with all due respect to the reflexive response of the muscle to the stretch itself.

More Considerations

Injury prevention, strength building factors, and a variety of other considerations need to be taken into account with an effective and safe stretching program as well.

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© Lani Muelrath All Rights Reserved

© Lani Muelrath