Why Doesn't Flexibility "stick"?

[Cole Dano]

http://ptjournal.apta.org/content/90/3/438.long

 

Proposes a 'new' theory that stretch is neurological, sensation based, and that muscles don't lengthen in the traditionally understood way, rather describing them as viscoelastic.

[Joshua Naterman]

http://ptjournal.apta.org/content/90/3/438.long

 

Proposes a 'new' theory that stretch is neurological, sensation based, and that muscles don't lengthen in the traditionally understood way, rather describing them as viscoelastic.

Well, viscoelasticity is not a new thing. This study specifically applies to short-duration stretches and fairly short adaptation times (3-8 weeks), and we know that the first thing to change is the nervous system. Same thing happens in strength training.

 

This is a really good article for those who have a good enough background in neuromuscular physiology, and a good place to start getting study ideas for those who do not Just go concept by concept.

 

I will go ahead and say that the assertion that more sarcomeres in series does not increase muscle length is a misleading statement. More sarcomeres in series increases the maximum length of the muscle, not the resting length. Resting length tends to not change, which is why we see a length-tension shift. However, a muscle with more sarcomeres in series has the potential to reach a longer functional length during a stretch.

 

Having said all that, muscles in the human body operate within a pretty narrow range of their length-tension curve, and there are a lot of possibilities regarding what happens as flexibility increases. Chronic adaptation over a period of years is going to show a very different story than the 3-8 week mark, but I can't say exactly what the differences are until this has been done and replicated

 

Could be a combination of everything from titin isoform changes to differences in fascial tension to sarcomere count changes, neurological inhibition adjustments, and who knows what else.

[Pawel Rurak]

Excellent topic.

 

So basically hard stretching takes about one week to recover and another session of hard stretching in the same week can actually hinder flexibility improvement? What about the other days of the week? Should they only include active flexibility? What about light static streching? Avoid it completetly, because it doesn't work? Or is there some space for it in a well made flexibility program?

 

For me the biggest gains in flexibility occured usually after a period of rest (e.g. when I was sick). The first flexibility training after that was always awesome and suprising. It all starts to make perfect sense now.

[Kit Laughlin]

@ pawlov:

Real (as in 'hard') stretching) once a week on the critical, difficult stretches (we define a 'stretch' as an activity that gets you to end- or new ROM), including hip flexors, adductors, hamstrings, and whatever special attention your arms/shoulders need, like long head of biceps, and brachialis), and limbering (you folk call it mobility) whenever you wish, certainly daily. But no contractions on the limbering days, just a return to yesterday's ROM. That's what dancers are doing when (for our perspective) they 'stretch'. Sure, light static stretching if you like it; no problem at all.

For me personally, I will lengthen any part of the body that tells me it needs it, and that could be any part. This has come about these days (and for the last ten years or so) because of what I have done in the past. What you note about stretching following a period of rest is pretty much universal: after a period off, a big hamstring or adductor breakthrough can happen and it likely leave you feeling very sore. And the surprise is that it's very hard to duplicate that kind of soreness in subsequent stretching sessions. So—the lesson? Stretch intensely, and infrequently, and limber whenever you like.

Watch cats: they lick every square inch of their bodies every day, without fail (except for the little bit above their eyebrows!), and they do not use their 'hands'. It is the most elaborate yoga routine on the planet, and all done via the core muscles—think about trying to lick your own left hip!

What can we learn from this? That what looks like real stretching may just be recapturing yesterday's flexibility for someone who is loose, and the rest of us need to be more systematic about what we do to change that state. Changing the state will need recovery; this takes time. Lastly for today, we do not notice the incremental changes that result in flexibility improvements, and most people get frustrated and stop before results manifest. We recommend having no regard for the goal, and just do the work regularly—and in six months major differences will be obvious to you and everyone around you.

[Joshua Naterman]

Kit, I just have to say that you are the most consummate professional in the flexibility world.

 

Thank you so much for taking the time to post here!

[Pawel Rurak]

Thanks for your answer Kit. The concept of limbering and stretching is somewhat new to me, but it seems to make perfect sense. Hope it translates into new ROM.

[u3er]

So I've been doing moderate intensity stretching 2 or 3 days a week for a long time. I tried Kit's suggestion this week of doing easy limbering work every day followed by a single 'hard' day yesterday.

 

Man do I have DOMS. hahaha

 

I also made a pretty significant improvement in Straddle compression. Like going from head barely able to touch the floor to almost having my sternum on the ground 

 

So I guess I'm sticking with this. Going to have to put together a more regulated limbering plan than "this feels good" now.

I'm also wondering about what constitutes a "limbering" program...  Would the mobility exercises in F1 be sufficient enough for day-to-day limbering + 1 hard stretching session per week?

[FedorG]

@ pawlov:

Real (as in 'hard') stretching) once a week on the critical, difficult stretches (we define a 'stretch' as an activity that gets you to end- or new ROM), including hip flexors, adductors, hamstrings, and whatever special attention your arms/shoulders need, like long head of biceps, and brachialis), and limbering (you folk call it mobility) whenever you wish, certainly daily. But no contractions on the limbering days, just a return to yesterday's ROM. That's what dancers are doing when (for our perspective) they 'stretch'. Sure, light static stretching if you like it; no problem at all.

For me personally, I will lengthen any part of the body that tells me it needs it, and that could be any part. This has come about these days (and for the last ten years or so) because of what I have done in the past. What you note about stretching following a period of rest is pretty much universal: after a period off, a big hamstring or adductor breakthrough can happen and it likely leave you feeling very sore. And the surprise is that it's very hard to duplicate that kind of soreness in subsequent stretching sessions. So—the lesson? Stretch intensely, and infrequently, and limber whenever you like.

Watch cats: they lick every square inch of their bodies every day, without fail (except for the little bit above their eyebrows!), and they do not use their 'hands'. It is the most elaborate yoga routine on the planet, and all done via the core muscles—think about trying to lick your own left hip!

What can we learn from this? That what looks like real stretching may just be recapturing yesterday's flexibility for someone who is loose, and the rest of us need to be more systematic about what we do to change that state. Changing the state will need recovery; this takes time. Lastly for today, we do not notice the incremental changes that result in flexibility improvements, and most people get frustrated and stop before results manifest. We recommend having no regard for the goal, and just do the work regularly—and in six months major differences will be obvious to you and everyone around you.

Can you give good examples for limber-exercises/ mobility exercises for the hips (hip flexors, glutes and so on)? If I want to flexible in bridge position could just doing some bridge push ups be considered "limbering"?

 

Do you sell any books or have anything where I can read and learn about your system?

[Cole Dano]

Google Kit Laughlin, you will find he has a number of books and DVDs.

[FedorG]

If someone else has good mobility exercises for the hips, thoracic (extension) and muscles that could help my bridge, I would love to read your tips =) My goal is to get a better arch for the bench press to more specific. I've felt that a higher/better brigde have help my arch in the bench press. 

 

I'm going to put a pvc pipe on the bench and then lay on top while trying to arch more. Would this be considered an exercise I only should do once a week or so or could I do this more frequently? I don't get sore from it and if I listen to my body I think I should get the best results by doing it as often as my body allows me to?

[Cole Dano]

Everyone is different but backbending for me needed more frequent work to make progress and maintain. 

 

I don't think there is a complete consensus, but I go by DOMs, when the DOMs is gone it's ok to go deeper. Otherwise just maintenance. 

 

The pvc pipe on the bench is good. I'd put a towel on it or something to soften the pipe. There is a whole series on a bench or chair I used to do that was really helpful for me. Essentially it's just gradually sliding off the bench till the shoulders are on the floor. The pipe or foam roller is an excellent starting point.

[FedorG]

Thank you so much for your answer Cole Dano. Could you explain a bit more about the series on a chair/bench? =)

[Kit Laughlin]

Thanks for the kind remarks, colleagues; always appreciated.

 

"Limbering" like 'mobility': often mentioned; rarely deeply understood. I only have a few minutes today so will need to make this brief and I'm dictating it too, so there might be a few typos et cetera.

 

Limbering is returning to yesterday's flexibility. You can be informal about it, and think about getting out of bed, watching the coffee machine filling up and then sitting down to read emails, all of which take your body through some of the range of movement it has, or it can be more structured like a limber class in a dance studio. Now, when I first attended a so-called limber class in a dance studio which I was attending to try and do something about my shockingly poor flexibility, they all look like contortionists to me. It's all a bit different now, but the point is that limbering is a completely relative term and can only be understood in relation to your own patterns of flexibility. For a dancer, full side splits is a limbering activity; for most of us, it's a dream, or at the least, a very intense experience.

 

In our use of the term, stretching always means exploring new range of movement. So, from this distinction you can see that most of the stretching people do is really limbering rather than stretching because it doesn't actually produce a new range of movement. If new range of movement is explored, delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) is almost guaranteed. This is the reason for my recommendation of strong, but infrequent, stretching workouts. These are the best done when the body is warmed up as much as possible and why I recommended to Coach that his athletes don tracksuit pants at the end of the workout before they started the stretching activities. For best effect on muscles and fascia you must keep the actual physical heat in the body.

 

Mobility is not well understood in my view and I must say that until fairly recently I believe that I had discounted the importance of mobility myself. Working with Coach and with his athletes has changed my view on the subject. Mobility is as much about controlling the application of strength as it is about range of movement. Mobility is as much neural as muscular and in my view mobility is best understood as strength and flexibility in action. When an athlete takes the strength gained in the body by doing something like full-back squats and runs out on the field and tackles another plater (an activity that looks noting like a full back squat), what's happening is that the brain learns very quickly how to use that new strength in the other activity.  In this example, strength is being applied; mobility and function/application of that strength improves.

 

Typically in our work, we use stretching techniques to target limitations we see/feel in any desired range of movement. A perfect example would be the pike. A perfect pike needs elements from calf muscles coaching hamstrings stretching lower back fascia release, middle and upper back stretching and fascial release, and neck range of movement as well. And if that foot point is not perfect you will need to stretch anterior tibialis and the whole anterior surface of the foot.

 

That's all I an do today; please ask questions that might have specific answers. There is a chapter in my book Stretching & Flexibility called "the unnumbered lesson" that describes a full whole body limber session—but it's the least-often read chapter! Limbering is an activity that can significantly improve one's fascial system, too; more on that later.

[Joshua Naterman]

We actually talked about this obliquely in Exercise Prescription today, during a far too cursory run through postural analysis. I wish we had a whole semester class on that... what a massive elevation of the degree that would be!

 

Anyways, what was mentioned was that when prescribing a stretching program, you tell people how long the reps are, how many sets to do, and how many times per day to do them. Not how many days per week, how many times per day. This particular teacher is a massage therapist, which I admit is an odd person to be teaching, but she's had a pretty neat career. When it comes to practical application she's sharp as a tack.

 

I just thought that was an interesting coincidence.

 

Hard stretching sessions coming along infrequently, with multiple limbering sessions per day (preferably), is a good idea.  Daniel and I were talking for a bit earlier about the similarities between a hard stretch and a hard workout, with the soreness and all, and that in both cases we always seem to require about a week(give or take a few days) to get back to full flexibility.

 

From what I know about the inflammatory response to bouts of eccentric exercise, which hard stretching definitely falls into, this makes perfect sense given the new (to me) information that fascial tension can be increased by the presence of histamines, which are part of that inflammatory process. Of course they also help draw nutrients to the area, and macrophages activate satellite cells, thereby increasing the rate of adaptation (for those that don't know, they can turn into cells that contribute to the adaptation of muscle tissue, which in turn influence connective tissue repair) and this process takes around 7 days to run full circle after an initial 1-3 bouts that result in the initial adaptations to eccentric exercises.

 

This has me thinking that there is, perhaps, a similarity between the known accelerated recovery benefits of what we call "active recovery" for resistance exercise and the accelerated flexibility gain effect of limbering. There are of course differences between the two, but perhaps there is a similarity in this aspect.

[Cody Hahn]

"We actually talked about this obliquely in Exercise Prescription today,
during a far too cursory run through postural analysis. I wish we had a
whole semester class on that... what a massive elevation of the degree
that would be!"

 

I agree and this is the type of thing that I want to gain more understanding in, but unfortunately posture and movement don't seem to be things that are covered much in school. Guess I am going to have to form the right connections and do a lot more self-education; a very slow process that is.

[Craig Mallett]

Heya Kit,

 

Quick question, posted here for the benefit of others as well as myself:

 

I rarely get DOMS from our stretching sessions.  At very worst it might last until the end of Wednesday (our sessions are on Tuesday night). Does this mean we gotta get a bit more into the stretch on my hard stretch night or would I be better served adding a second night in somewhere?

 

See you tonight.

 

Cheers,

Craig

[Craig Mallett]

Also I'd like to offer my perspective on what a "limbering" session would entail:  Basically there is no reason it can't be the same as your stretching session, only without going past your range of motion.  This means, unweighted, without relaxing and contracting and without partner assistance.  As Kit mentioned, a stretching sessions should see you go past your current ROM, where as a limbering session will only see you move through and not beyond your current ROM.  We're basically spending some time exploring and becoming more familiar with a ROM we already own rather than extending the ROM.  So instead of a weighted pike, you're just doing a bodyweight pike, or instead of a side splits with lots of contract and relax and forcing yourself lower, likewise with a pancake.  I like to crawl my hands from foot to foot in my pancake limbering sessions, but on my stretch day I've got partners pushing and pulling me deeper into the position, I've got things supporting me to help me relax deeper into the stretcher, etc, and ideally each stretch session I go further than I've gone in the past.