Stretching for Success

This is one part of training that is too often neglected, forgotten or avoided. It takes time and is often uncomfortable... yett should never be painful. Of course I am talking about stretching!

I feel like there are 3 types of people when it comes to stretching and flexibility training: Person 1. Loves it! Person 2. It's Ok I guess Person 3. Really REALLY doesn't like it.

We all have different natural ranges of movement, which is going to heavily impact on this outcome. The problem is that no matter what your opinion on stretching is, your attitude could be effecting your likely hood of injury. 

If you are naturally very flexible and find stretching easy, there is a chance you could over stretch and injure yourself because you don't feel the stretching sensation like somebody else might. Alternatively if you truly dislike stretching you could be susceptible to injury through lack of stretching, lazy stretching or through a forced/strained range of movement. 

The most common injury points I have witnessed occur through the hips or hip flexor region, back of the legs through the hamstring or sciatic nerve or also commonly through the shoulder in one of the many rotator cuff muscles.

A strain will occur if a muscle, tendon or ligament is torn. This could occur from holding a stretch position for too long, progressing too quickly, inadequate positioning while in the stretch or bouncing in a stretch.

There are 2 main types of stretching. Passive Stretching which involves holding a position over a long period of time with zero or limited movement. Active or Dynamic Stretching which involves a large range of movement through out a stretch (think lunge walks or needle kicks). Both have their benefits, but doing one completely on it's own in a training schedule will only get you so far!

I'm going to outline a very basic stretching routine structure for you all:

• 5-10 minutes of cardiovascular exercise - This is essential to warm up the muscles in the body, preparing it for the stretching to come. Stretching cold muscles is a one stop shop to injury town... so best to avoid that!
• 2-5 minutes of Range of Movement exercises - This is best to work more than one body part at a time. For example, walking lunges and making large arm circles above your head. Caterpillar walks, bear walks etc.
• 2-3 minutes for articulation - This is important for activating all the joints. If you skip this, you will have nice warm muscles surrounding the joints, but still have stiff or "sleepy" vertebrae. All of these should be very slow and controlled. Think about standing and slowly rolling down through your spine until you can touch the floor/reversing this movement. Some other good ones are head circles, shoulder rolls, ankle and wrist circles, scrunching and spreading your fingers and your toes etc.
• 5-10 minutes full body stretches - I like to work from the top down, this way its harder to miss a muscle group. So for example you can start with shoulder/forearm stretches, then back stretches eg. twisting side to side or extension and retraction of the spine. Then moving down to hip stretches/hip flexors eg. hip circles, deep lunges, triangle pose stretch etc. Move down to abductor/hamstring/sciatic nerve/calve stretches and lastly finishing off with ankles and wrist stretches.
• 5 minutes of GOAL stretches - Here's the thing, if you have a flexibility goal you need to make time to work on it and it needs to be consistent. If  you really want to progress in your splits, now is the time! If you want to open up your shoulders and upper back, do some bridges or wall shoulder stretches. If you spend the time working on these when your body is the most prepared it will be a lot easier and a lot safer!
  
  
  

Alternatively if you really can't make the time to stretch outside of your gymnastics class you could try these:
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- Having a light stretch after getting out of a hot shower as the water will of raised your muscles temperature which will make it more receptive to stretching.
- Practicing a few stretches daily each time you wake up from bed. Don't expect to be doing walk overs first thing in the morning, but practicing simple stretches and joint articulation will really benefit you and the rest of your day. 


Stretching is super important to maintain your over all health whether you partake in gymnastics or not. However if you partake in gymnastics it should be a priority of yours to not only maintain but progress your skills!

Do you have any stretching goals for 2019? Share them with us, we would love to know!

Signing off for now,
Coach Maygan.