Ido portal's latest instagram post

[Christopher Mair]

If you go to Ido portals latest instagram post and read about his thoughts on stretching, he seems to dismiss it as a viable pursuit and actually seems to think it is detrimental in the long term. Was really curious to here people's opinions on his post and stretching in general. 

[Alessandro Mainente]

If you read the book of Carlo Buzzichelli (a very good friend of mine) that is the best worldwide student of Tudor Bompa ( who is the father of periodization and programming) you can read how the first rule of performance is joint mobility. joint mobility is achieved in one way. stretching as a method of improving the available range of motion and the active mobility that is necessary to control this range of motion. I still prefer trusting Carlo and Coach Sommer. both of them trained and trains world and olympic champions (do you know who is asafa powel? ok....i've seen Carlo writing down his programming).

[Peter Ols]

Interesting topic!

I am not the expert here (far from it, more a beginner) but I have the experience that stretching can be harmful if I do it by passive "hanging" on the connective tissue that is weak. I did this when I was practicing martial arts 25-30 years ago and got inflammations and scar tissues in the hamstrings and adductor group.

When I follow the stretch programming @gymnasticbodies and I make sure that I can control the positions my old scar tissues and restrictions seems to fade. For example an old hamstring injury that has restricted me for 25 years is totally gone after 16 months of the front split program. Middle splits is a slower progress but the muscles/tissues involved are much more complex but I am seeing progress and some dormant short adductor is weaking up. I have a principle that I use: If I can contract the muscles and get out of a stretch it's fine. If I can´t contract or if I can´t breathe normal it´s too much. 

I belive in general that everything in life taken to the extreme can be harmful. Take some food for example, the right dose gives positive effect and to much och to low dose is bad.

I also believe that stretching is necessary for developing and keeping range of motion, just look at the animals, they do it instinctively. We humans also do this but social conditioning etc. makes us not do it in the normal life because it looks weird ;-)

Just my opinion. I trust coach, Allesandro and this programming and as long as I feel better I get encouraged to continue!

Would be interesting to hear coach Sommers opinion on Ido´s post.

[Christopher Mair]

Thanks for the replies and Inputs guys! All the stretching series follow along's, restore series and Integrated IM's have so far done nothing but made me feel, stronger, more supple and pain free!

Alessandro is Carlo Buzzichelli's Book named Periodisation?

Peter, when you say hanging on the tissues could you elaborate what this means? thanks

[Peter Ols]

@Christopher Mair; Hanging on the fascia: What I mean is passive stretching @endpoint of what the connective tissue is allowing without paying attention to if I am able to control the joint by activating the surrounding muscles.

Now I work inside the range that I can control still using loaded methods sometimes but engaging in the stretch.

I hope that explained what I mean. I don´t know if this is objectively correct but it seems to give me the best progress.

[Randall Osborne]

The Corset protocols he describes are a lot like "stretching"-just more dynamic than static.  And other than the long static holds you would find in the FS/MS/TB stretch series, they are very similar to they types of mobility work built into the GB series.

 

[Ivan Pomarico]

Thanks @Christopher Mair for raising this topic. I am far from being a flexible person and mobility has always been a struggle for me. However in my limited experience I have seen that working through dynamic stretching improves my mobility more substantially than with the static version and more importantly I feel no doms in the following days. Most of the dynamic stretchings are already embedded in gb foundation courses, but off course one has to find what works better for his/her specific situation. Personally I found very beneficial for my hips working almost daily on the split squat, Cossack squat and the dynamic version of pigeon stretch and before aptempting any static stretch . I hope it helps.

[Coach Sommer]

You gentlemen are funny.

You’re surprised that someone who has always tried to rush and find shortcuts without respecting proper progressions has managed to damage both himself and others in the process.  Hmmm.

 

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

[Alessandro Mainente]

2 hours ago, Coach Sommer said:

You gentlemen are funny.

You’re surprised that someone who has always tried to rush and find shortcuts without respecting proper progressions has managed to damage both himself and others in the process.  Hmmm.

 

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

I'm currently following one of his "best" student's client. one year ago this guy has come to me with a locked (almost adhesives capsulitis) shoulder due to an improper approach. I worked paired with a PT to restore his shoulder function for 2 years. 2 damn years. 

[Kai Ewert]

@Christopher Mair you misread the post a bit. He claims getting the desired range of motion should not take many years and that then you should maintain it via "added complexity" meaning using that range. The stretching he argues against sounds to me a lot more like the flexibility without strength that Coach also does not promote ("flexibility without strength is unacceptable" - etched into my mind courtesy of the MSp series). He mentions loaded stretching which works and is part of the GB method. Better for everyone to read (as Coach did) the post before commenting. Too bad that the divide seems to continue, Coach's interview on London Real had me hope that there would be the possibility of a truce at least...

[Christopher Mair]

@Kai Ewert I may have misunderstood. If he means what you say then I get it.

More than anything I was just curious to hear more experienced minds talk on his post. Which I go so thank you @Alessandro Mainente and @Coach Sommer for your inputs.

[Peter Ols]

For me flexibility/mobility methods are very interesting because I have always have very slow progress but I am also by nature very impatient and what has been the big factors for me the last 18 months is:

-Accept that I suck and respect that this takes time. Let go of my ego

-Never compare my level from session to session and only fokus on finding a good feeling

-Be happy if I progress even if it is small progress but accept that the progress comes when it comes.

It seems to work so far and for I enjoy the process more than ever compared to my history in sports. The GB method is the one that has helped me the most compared to my earlier efforts in martial arts and free diving training so I thrust it. I heard someone mentioned that 18 -36 months is a time that can make significant changes and that seems to correspond well to what my progress curve is showing so far.