What makes our stretch class different to most
Welcome to the weekly warble here at Ideanthro Movement.
This week I'm going to talk about what makes our stretch class different to most, and then I'll give you some tips on how you can implement that in your own stretching.
In a nutshell, what makes our stretch class different is that we focus on developing not only absolue range of motion (passive range), but also strength in that new range was well (active range)..
Let me explain. Imagine you bend over to touch your toes while keeping your legs straight. Gravity helps to pull you down but you don't try and use your own muscles to get deeper. This is passive range of motion. It's what most stretching develops.
Now imagine that you sit on the ground with straight legs and reach forward to touch your toes. Gravity isn't helping here. You have to use your own muscles to pull you forwards. You probably won't get as close to your toes this way. This is active range of motion.
There are several reasons that we want to develop not only passive range, but active as well.
The first is that when we develop strength in ranges of motion it tells our nervous systems that we're safe in that new range. This helps to relax the nervous system and allows us to stretch deeper into our passive range in the future. If you've only ever done passive stretching before and feel that you're not making progress any more, then developing strength in that range will likely help you to make more progress in your passive range in the future.
The second reason to develop strength in new ranges of motion is that it makes that new range useful to us in our movement. For example, it's one thing to be able to sit in the splits passively, but that won't help the martial artist with high kicks, the handbalancer with their press to handstand or the rock climber reach their foot to a high foothold. However having strength to actively pull into the splits without the help of gravity will help all three of those people. Those are somewhat extreme examples, but I hope you see what I'm getting at.
The final reason to build strength at range is to help prevent injuries. If you can get into a position but don't have much control there, the risk of injury is higher than it would be if you had more strength to control that position. Thus we make sure we build strength in that new range.
So how do you implement this in your own training?
Rather than simply doing a whole lot of passive stretching, you instead want to mix together 3 things, just as we do in our stretch class:
1) A thorough warm up of the joints to be stretched
2) Passive stretching to increase passive range of motion.
3) Active stretches to build strength in that new range
I'll give you an example to help make that clearer.
Let's say that I wanted to improve my pike position (the ability to touch my toes with straight legs). I'm primarily going to be trying to improve my ability to bend at the hip and relax my hamstrings. Thus I'm going to want to primarily warm up my hips and hamstrings, and to a lesser extent (but still important) the rest of my legs and torso.
Once warmed up I might do some jefferson curls. A jefferson curl is a movement where I start standing with my feet together, and then with straight legs, curl down through my spine and hips to get my hands as close to the ground as possible. You can see Adrian performing a similar movement in this photograph (except his feet are spread apart in a straddle). In some situations I might choose to hold a light to moderate weight to help pull myself deeper into the stretch.
Finally, to train my strength in this new position I might practice some pike leg lifts. In these, I sit on the ground with straight legs, reach my hands forward to touch the ground nearly as far forward as I can, and then lift my feet off the ground. You can see Adrian performing a version of this in this photograph.
And that's a look into stretching and how we do it!
Whether you're new to stretching or you've been doing it for a while, I hope you found something useful in this warble.
If you'd like to know more about our stretching class or our gym more generally you can contact us at www.ideanthromovement.com/contact-us
I hope you have a lovely day!
Cheers
Jack