How to make an Active change to become more Flexible and Free in your Life

July 12, 2011

Most people stretch passively, unfortunately it’s inefficient and has limited effect. Active stretching is efficient and maximizes results. Here’s how it’s done. You need to contract the muscle that is on the opposite side of where you feel the tightness, contract and pull that limb to the point of light irritation and gently stretch for 2 seconds providing less than one pound of external assistance (like with a stretch strap) to help increase range of motion. Release the pressure and return to the starting position. Here is an example, if you are tight on the front side of your thigh, contract the muscles directly opposite (glutes/hamstrings), the contraction will pull your leg behind your body allowing the front thigh muscles to relax into a stretch. Repeat 10 times. If you are exceptionally tight, you can do a second set of 10 repetitions. Breathing is important, exhale during the stretching work phase as it encourages muscle relaxation and inhale as you return the body part back to the starting position. That’s 2 seconds of gentle stretch repeated 10 times.

This type of stretching is called Active Isolated Stretching (AIS). The technique stretches muscles, tendons, vertebrae, ligaments, joints, superficial and deep connective tissue (fascia that can get glued and locked together) and so, helps to increase the glide between isolated muscles and neighboring muscles. We know that short, stiff, tense muscles are revitalized by proper nutrition, rest and exercise, so a daily stretching exercise program is vital to help restore full joint movement, decrease soreness and fatigue, increase tissue pliability and improve posture.

So how do you know what muscles to stretch, besides the obvious, usual tight ones? Well, that’s where it gets a little more complex and where the help of a professional comes into play. By investing your time with a professional, each joint and muscle can be tested for range of motion and the appropriate stretches can be applied. For example, if you have pain and tightness in your back, you will benefit from a hip and back stretching protocol which can involve multiple, sequential stretches and that can easily be learned.

Can you get better results if you do stretches in a specific order? Yes. If you follow a sequential order it will methodically help unlock muscles and joints, however, since this is supposed to be a quick tip, doing your usual stretches in this new active, isolated way, will help. There are numerous books on the subject and stretching certifications that teach appropriate and most effective stretching, so it does get more extensive and more complex, but if you want to learn more, authors like Aaron L Mattes and Ann & Chris Frederick can take it to the next level for you. I will be teaching AIS in the fall, so if you want to learn more and take it into your own hands, please look it up in our programming events. Personal, assisted stretching is available with me, Kim and other personal trainers Mitch and Nick who do assisted stretching using the Stretch to Win technique.