DON'T Stretch Like This...

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Boy, if your muscles are stiff, okay, and you don't have good range of motion.

You need to watch this video now being in sports wrestling.

I did a lot of stretching in the past and the way we're taught is called static stretching

where you're actually, you know, trying to stretch out a muscle and you're holding it

for 30 to 60 seconds.

That is the worst way to stretch.

Now, this information is based on a really interesting book and I'll put the link down below

authored by Jim and Phil Wharton.

Now, I'm not sure about Jim, but Phil is a physiotherapist and a fitness coach

and has worked with some of the top runners in the world, Olympic runners.

Okay, so this guy definitely knows his stuff.

But his information on stretching is quite fascinating.

It makes a lot of sense and I'm going to share it with you.

The first point I want to bring up is a tight muscle.

A tight muscle is not ever going to help you.

It's not going to protect the joint.

It's actually weaker.

It's more susceptible to an injury and usually there's inflammation.

Now, what happens when you stretch the muscle after three seconds is you kick in this stretch reflex.

It's called the myotactic reflex.

And the purpose of that reflex is to counter this stretch and create a contraction.

So when you stretch a muscle, you're basically causing the muscle to bite that stretch,

okay, and start to contract.

And so you have the situation where you're using force against force and you can actually

injure yourself and I've done that many, many times.

Even before a wrestling match, I would stretch incorrectly and end up straining or pulling a muscle.

Very simply, this is how it works.

A muscle always comes in a pair.

So you have one side of the body is contracting and then the other side is relaxing.

They don't both contract at the same time.

And if you have one muscle that's healthy and it's contracting,

the other one's relaxing, you have motion.

And so motion is all about the coordination of this contraction and relaxation.

And so the type of stretching that they came up with is called active isolated flexibility.

So very simply, there's just three simple steps, right?

You want to isolate the muscle, you want to stretch.

So let's say, for example, you have a tight hamstring, okay?

That's the back part of your leg.

What you want to do is you want to contract the opposing muscle

as you stretch the hamstring.

What is the opposing muscle?

That would be the thigh muscle or your quadricep, okay?

So you're going to be contracting the quadricep,

which is going to automatically cause a communication to the hamstring to relax it.

Because it absolutely makes no sense.

If you're going to try to stretch a muscle that you're contracting at the same time,

you want to relax the muscle that you're stretching, right?

I mean, it's pretty obvious.

But if you contract the opposing muscle, you send signals to allow

that hamstring to totally relax so you can stretch it without injury.

Number one, identify the muscle you want to stretch.

Number two, contract or tighten the opposite muscle, okay, as you stretch.

And then number three, when you get to the point at the end of the range of motion,

we've gone to a point where you can't go anymore.

And I don't recommend going into pain.

At that point, remember I mentioned the stretch reflex that kicks in.

Well, that stretch reflex kicks in at three seconds.

So what you want to do is you want to stretch it all the way to the end point for two seconds,

okay?

And then you relax it.

That way we avoid the contraction or the countering of this stretch.

And he recommends that you repeat this eight to ten times per muscle.

And this could be a great warmup before your exercise.

And he even recommends this, or maybe a version of this, if you injure yourself.

You see this is Andrew Huberman, host of the Huberman Lab podcast.

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A lot of times when you injure a knee or another part of your body,

they want to immobilize it.

Now, I think you should immobilize it if there's a fracture,

or there's a severe injury, but if that injury is not that severe,

it's very important to add motion into that joint as soon as possible,

starting with maybe a passive range of motion,

and eventually going into these stretches right here,

which should be very therapeutic in the rehab.

But that's a separate topic.

Let's get back to the stretching.

So in this first example,

bent knee hamstring stretch with a rope.

Just so you get the concept, you can see he's contracting the quadricep

as he's bringing this up for about two seconds at the end of the range of motion,

and then he's relaxing, right?

And he's doing that for eight to ten times.

And this next one, he's doing the hamstring straight leg.

So he's using his thigh muscle or quad to contract,

as he holds it for two seconds at the end of the range of motion.

But this is the best way to create a really good relaxation

and increase flexibility of the hamstring.

Now, of course, you're going to do both sides.

Now, I put those links down below to get more information.

But if you haven't seen my other video in exercise,

it's pretty cool.

I put it up right here.

Check it out.

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