that's some really interesting stuff, and i think there's an opportunity here for some vast physical improvement. another lesser-known stretching technique is proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation [pnf] stretching. i found this in the navy seal physical fitness guide, and have been doing it post workout and have noticed less soreness and increasing gains in flexibility. it seems completely feasible to combine these technologies, so for anyone wanting to know more about these techniques, i'll do my best to create a logical fusion of these ideas
pnf stretching generally consists of a passive stretch, followed by an isometric contraction, which is then followed by another stretch [static or dynamic]. when a muscle is slowly stretched and held, the resulting tension triggers the lengthening reaction which prevents the stretched muscle fibers from contracting. when this stretched muscle is then isometrically contracted, the following happens; [pinche dead shift key]
- during an isometric contraction, some fibers will contract, but others will stretch even further. when the contraction is stopped, the contracted fibers return to their starting position, while the stretched fibers retain their stretched position [due to muscle spindle accomodation] and are able to lengthen even further
- the increased tension within the muscles generated by an isometric contraction activates the golgi tendon organ which triggers the lengthening reaction, and inhibits further contraction. when the isometric contraction is stopped, the muscle is still inhibited from further contraction and able to lengthen further.
the final stretch, which follows isometric contraction takes advantage of the muscle's ability to elongate further, and allows the muscle, tendon, and sense organs to adapt to greater lengths. this seems the logical place to introduce the active isolated stretching technique.
the principle of ais are essentially
- holding a stretch for 2 seconds 12 times [reps] is much better than holding for 24, 48, or 96 seconds because the muscle begins to fight against the stretch, so the 96 second stretch could actually cause muscle damage
- it is better to isolate a muscle group when stretching, and this can be accomplished by using the opposite muscle group as the primary mover. thus naturally inducing relaxation in the muscles group you're trying to stretch
as such, a pnf/ais combined stretching technique would go as follows
1. passive stretch [perhaps even dynamic stretching would be applicable here] for 10-15 seconds
2. isometric contraction for 7-15 seconds
3. 3-5 [do more if you wish] repetitions of 2 second stretches, in which the opposing muscle group is contracted, and the range of motion is gently increased with a rope or towel.
4. repeat steps 1-3 3-5 times
also, this should only be done after an adequate warmup, and stretching 'cold muscles' can cause damage. my new adopted exercise sequence will be the following
1. treadmill for 15-20 minutes, slowly increasing from walk to light jog
2. 3 sets of pnf/ais stretching for each muscle group to be worked out
3. weight training
4. row - hiit until sufficiently winded/exhausted, then 15-20 minutes gradually slowing down [to insure that blood doesn't pool in the muscles and to increase the removal of cellular waste]
5. 3-5 sets of pnf/ais stretching
6. eat
hope this increases your overall satisfaction with exercising
