Stretching before or after exercise or not at all? Or both? What’s best? Part 2

Mark Perren-Jones from the haven Spa and Health Clinic

Ok, so we have discovered that static stretching is NOT what you want to be doing but that now leads us to the question-what should we be doing?

Dynamic stretching and dynamic warm ups!

When you stretch your muscles whilst you are moving, you are doing what s known as dynamic stretching. When you do this you:

1. increase your power
2. increase your flexibility
3. increase your range of motion

This is because when your muscles are stretching whilst moving they actually get an excitatory message to perform. The master to key to dynamic stretching or dynamic warm ups is to make them specific to the sport you are about to play.

“You need range-of-motion exercises that activate all of the joints and connective tissue that will be needed for the task ahead,” says Terrence Mahon, a coach with Team Running USA.

For example, let’s say that you are a runner; an ideal warm-up might include squats, lunges and “form drills” like kicking your buttocks with your heels. Or maybe you are a sportsperson that needs to move rapidly in many directions, such as a footballer, a basketball player, or a tennis or squash player. Sports such as this need to have dynamic stretches that involve many parts of the body. This is where I promised you become a superhero by doing the” Spider-Man”. It is a great drill: drop onto all fours and crawl the width of the court, as if you were climbing a wall. This is a wonderful dynamic exercise to prepare the body.

I mentioned golf before, and I have been doing dynamic warm-ups for a long time now before playing and I can vouch first hand that my game has improved from doing this. By the way, a recent survey of 304 recreational golfers found that two-thirds seldom or never bother. If you were to come to where I play in the Panamanian mountains where it’s full of retirees I would think a survey would be more like 90% don’t warm up. I think the majority of the club members consider here consider a cup of freshly brewed mountain coffee and a chat their warm up. However, if only they knew how much they would benefit from exerting themselves a bit before teeing off. In one 2004 study, golfers who did dynamic warm- up exercises and practice swings increased their club head speed and were projected to have dropped their handicaps by seven strokes over seven weeks. Not only this but  new research by Andrea Fradkin, ( an Australian I am proud to say) who is an assistant professor of exercise science at Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania, suggests that those who warm up are nine times less likely to be injured! “It was eye-opening,” says Fradkin, an avid golfer herself. “I used to not really warm up. I do now.”

In some schools, there still remains controversy about dynamic warm-ups and injury prevention. The one thing that is perfectly clear though is that studies have shown static stretching alone before exercise does little or nothing to help. The largest study has been done on military recruits; half of the recruits did static stretches before exercise/training drills and the other half did not. The results showed that there was no difference between either group. The group who did the static stretching before exercising had the same amount of shin splints, calf strains, stress fractures etc as the group who did absolutely no stretching beforehand.  Another major study published earlier this year by the Centers for Disease Control, showed that knee injuries were 50% less among female collegiate soccer players who followed a warm-up program that included both dynamic warm-up exercises and static stretching. (For a sample routine, visit www.aclprevent.com/pepprogram.htm.)

Dynamic stretching:

These exercises below are taught by the United States Tennis Association’s player-development program and are great for many athletes, even golfers. Do them immediately after your aerobic warm-up and as soon as possible before your workout.

STRAIGHT-LEG MARCH

(For the hamstrings and gluteus muscles)

Kick one leg straight out in front of you, with your toes flexed toward the sky. Reach your opposite arm to the upturned toes. Drop the leg and repeat with the opposite limbs. Continue the sequence for at least six or seven repetitions.

SCORPION

(For the lower back, hip flexors and gluteus muscles)

Lie on your stomach, with your arms outstretched and your feet flexed so that only your toes are touching the ground. Kick your right foot toward your left arm, and then kick your left foot toward your right arm. Since this is an advanced exercise, begin slowly, and repeat up to 12 times.

HANDWALKS

(For the shoulders, core muscles, and hamstrings)

Stand straight, with your legs together. Bend over until both hands are flat on the ground. “Walk” with your hands forward until your back is almost extended. Keeping your legs straight, inch your feet toward your hands, then walk your hands forward again. Repeat five or six times. G.R.

For more on dynamic stretching google ‘dynamic stretching’ and if you want it for your particular sport just add your sport after that.