Long Duration Stretching Or Short Duration?

Joshua Naterman said:

It doesn't have to be painful, and your body adapts pretty quickly. More than anything, it's boring. However, it does work!

 

I would only focus on one stretch at a time for long sessions, should you decide to adopt them as a training protocol, and spend regular time on everything else. Then, as significant progress is made over a few months, switch focus to another stretch and spend time there.

 

You have to be very careful with bridge and shoulder stretching, you can easily compress nerves and cause damage, so shorter duration stretches may be better for those. I know I have had issues with this, but I also have full cervical ribs on C6 and C7 so I can't exactly be used as any kind of predictive example for the general population. Nonetheless, I would approach with caution for shoulder opening stretches.

What is the things to watchout for when doing bridges? Like how do I perform it so I won't injure myself? How do I know if I've compressed any nerves? What should you do if you've compressed a nerve?

Back to long duration stretches:

Apparently, not everyone agrees on the benefits; some even point to dangers & negative effects:

Prolonged Stretch

Prolonged stretch is very similar to static stretch, in that the stretch is held without moving. However, it is held for a significantly longer period of time, several minutes instead of seconds.

 

These stretches are used by medical professionals for very specific and serious medical pathologies and are not appropriate for dancers. They elongate anatomical structures that are supposed to stabilize the joints, i.e. ligaments and joint capsules.

Dancers should avoid these stretches as they can lead to loss of stability and serious injury (See “Which tissues to stretchâ€).

Dancers frequently use these stretches (either intentionally or unintentionally) when they sit on the floor between classes or while doing homework, maintaining their legs in various stretch positions fo r long periods of time. For example, lying forward while in second position for extended periods places undue compression of the hip labrum, potentially contributing to future injury.

http://www.iadms.org/associations/2991/files/info/stretching.pdf (page 2)

 

Not too sure what to think now...

One reason that I just don't post on the topic of stretching is I'm not interested in the inevitable bickering that ensues due to the wide range of opinions on the subject.

There is no universal agreement, because IMO, we just don't know yet.

However, the author above is talking from bad experience with certain joint loading stretches which I full agree can cause problems in the  long run. However, assuming one has set the stretch up right, so it's working the muscle, there is no reason to believe that long duration stretching will cause any destabilisation. Ideally long duration stretching will only be one component of the program which also includes active work, strength etc..

Joshua Naterman said:

Cole, that's all very true. I didn't endorse him. I didn't realize how full of new-age stuff his products are until I read Amazon reviews.

 

Important edit: Bob Cooley clearly has no idea what he is talking about. Don't waste your time, or money.  

This is an unfair statement, especially if you haven't read his book.  He's talking about his experience and discoveries, which I found quite interesting, and many pioneers of new methods (pilates/alexander/osteopathy) started off mainly through self experimentation even though they lacked scientific knowledge.

I have read this book.  Found it in a library so didn't have to pay for it.   Its true that its full of a lot of stuff inspired by eastern philosophy etc which I didn't have patience for, but the core message of how to stretch I think is both valid, interesting and unique.  Like with most things you have to pick what might be useful and what is not worth the time.  I've read plenty of books and done many seminars on stretching but this is the first time I came across this specific protocol, which does seem to be effective:

Start with the muscle in its most contracted position.  Whilst maintaining resistance, pull the muscle to its most stretched position, resisting all the time.  Then allow the contracting action to take the muscle back to its original position.

This is different from PNF methods that I have seen, which alternate relax and contract.  In this method you never relax, you keep the muscle contracting as hard as you can (you build up to max) whilst using the floor/rope/other limbs/a parter to move the muscle into a stretched position and back.  Also different from most other methods is the constant movement.

You can experiment with how many seconds to take in eccentric and concentric phases of the movement. You can do between 6 to 10 reps, and add sets if you find you keep improving range of movement. For me at least I found immediate increases in flexibility which were faster than pnf etc, and had the added benefit of making the muscle feel 'active' rather than some stretching methods which make the muscle feel weak for a while after.  So its potentially a good warm up stretch whereas long passive and PNF techniques are not normally useful before exercise because of the weakening effect and loss of co-ordination.  

Anyway, I've pretty much summarised what I thought was the most valuable part of the book so unless you can get it at your library or have lots of money then just experiment with the above info.  That's what Bob Cooley did after all.  

I now sometimes use this method of stretching combined with dynamic, passive, pnf and another technique that I have never seen used anywhere else (I learnt it from a Muscle Activation Technique guy)

Meanwhile, the book I would recommend is Thomas Kurz 'Stretching Scientifically'.

The most useful bit of info in my opinion from this book is to strengthen muscles whilst moving through max range of motion.

Because of recommendations here I'm looking for Kit's book, but from what I've seen his flexibility is not very impressive, so having trouble believing his methods are very effective...

Random note to you guys here, but Kit has some sport-specific products (which I personally didn't see the last time I visited his site), one based towards martial arts and gymnastics - it's a mere 6.32$. I ordered it right away, as it's a downloadable PDF!

It contains excerpt from his other books, and I believe it'll be easier to navigate and choose stretches (well, they're pretty much chosen for you). I just looked through it, and I'm eager to get started!

Bissen said:

Random note to you guys here, but Kit has some sport-specific products (which I personally didn't see the last time I visited his site), one based towards martial arts and gymnastics - it's a mere 6.32$. I ordered it right away, as it's a downloadable PDF!

 

It contains excerpt from his other books, and I believe it'll be easier to navigate and choose stretches (well, they're pretty much chosen for you). I just looked through it, and I'm eager to get started!

Thanks for the tip, I got a copy as well