
Critical Analysis of Stretching Theory (2011) - agarttha
http://www.matraining.com.au/personal-training-articles/critical-analysis-stretching-theory
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CuriouslyC
While having the strength to support yourself in extreme ranges of motion is a
major part of flexibility, a muscle's level of tonic contraction is the
biggest limit on most people's flexibility. Static stretching does reduce
tonic contraction temporarily and to a small degree, but it is not very
effective at this. The best way to reduce a muscle's tonic contraction is
through compressive techniques, such as body tempering and variants of
myofacial release. A combination of stretching and compression actually works
best of all (this is similar to the active release therapeutic modality).

As an anecdote, doing an hour of yoga every day for three months didn't do
that much for my hip and shoulder mobility, but an hour of body tempering by
rolling on a PVC pipe while watching TV (while doing absolutely no stretching
at all) produced massive improvement.

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kenjackson
Do you have any links you'd recommend on how to do what you did?

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CuriouslyC
Take a look at this video:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qq1z3usHseU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qq1z3usHseU)

Those PVC pipes are ~$8 at your local home improvement store. I don't roll the
way he does though. Instead, I try to move my body through various movements
(squat, arms behind back/overhead, etc), and when I feel tightness or pulling
sensations in the muscle I'll mark the spot. Then I place that spot on the
roller, and just lean all my weight into it; I will roll around a tiny bit
just to try and find the most tender spot, but once I find it, I hold still
and press on it until it "lets go" and it no longer feels tender.

Once I had been using a PVC pipe for a while, I started doing the same thing
using the shaft of a barbell - with weights on the end, it works a lot like a
foam roller. This really hurts, but the results are amazing.

I really should make do a youtube video of this because almost all of the foam
rolling/self myofascial release stuff on the internet is kind of bad. The
barbell trick doesn't seem to be something people know about either.

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DrScump
Why is the video called "foam rolling" if just plain PVC with no foam covering
is used?

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wyc
Some hidden wisdom in here:

    
    
        Too much flexibility for a runner, on the other hand, may not be desirable. The
        ankle, knee and hip joints stay within the mid-range of motion during endurance
        running, so maximum static ROM will not have much effect. It has also been
        shown that stiffer leg muscles in endurance athletes may make them more
        economical in terms of oxygen consumption at sub max speeds (De Vries).
        Sprinting, martial arts, gymnastics involve movements of much larger ROM
        therefore depend on good flexibility. However, as already pointed out,
        development of flexibility must be specific to the sport. If a soccer player
        developed same type of flexibility as a gymnast, he would be of a greater risk
        of injury as extremely mobile joints may become unstable.
    

In your life or company, where you should be rigid or flexible really depends
on what you're trying to accomplish.

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griffinmmahon
The rise in popularity of "functional fitness" and its accompanying ideas
about mobility and flexibility have made it seem like everyone should be a
contortionist, but if you're only an amateur athlete, the mobility you should
focus on is _just_ what's necessary for your sport.

Like the paragraph you cited says, extra flexibility is sometimes a bad thing.
Weighted mobility, once you can achieve the positions you need to, is a better
progression than trying to increase ROM.

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Scarbutt
Anyone have any good tips/resources on how to achieve a leg split? ;)

~~~
maxxxxx
Don't even try. I did martial arts for a long time. some people have the body
for doing splits, some don't. I finally could do splits but I have quite a few
injuries from that time. It's simply not worth it. Same for lotus seat in
yoga.

