I’ve slowly worked my way up to stretching at least an hour a day, and after a few months I am just starting to really experiance an increase in flexibility. Yesterday when I was stretching I experianced the most amazing sensation of the muscles of the neck. The muscle running up to my ear when stretched felt like warm hot taffy stretching it was very pleasurable. Today I felt this warm stretchy taffy type feeling not only in my neck muscles but in my glutes. Also my hamstrings used to be very tight and it would take a long time of stretching to reach my toes,also it would be hard to relax the muscle of the hamstring. Now it takes a short time to reach my toes and my hamstrings feel very comfortable when I stretch them. Has anyone else experiances this? It is like a lightbulb went off and I am suddenly able to stretch very easily.Sorry for the long post but I used to be very tight and unflexible and I am excited that I am making some serious gains in flexibility.
Well, what did you do for it? I myself am chronically inflexible, and I have just decided to stick with a stretching routine for months to come. How many months did this take you?
t2,
your becoming gumby!!
well I started in May so it took me about 5 months but I didn’t start right out stretching for at least an hour a day every day I worked out right off the bat. I worked up to it. I slowly built up patience and enjoyment of stretching, if you have the patience to stretch an hour a day every day right off the bat then go for it, but for me it took awhile to get in a really good groove. I started off with the microstretching techniques http://www.geocities.com/stretchtherapy/Articles.htm and
Ian King’s stretching routine
http://www.t-mag.com/articles/215lazy2.html
I basically did the Ian King routine after the warm-up for my tempo and sprint workouts. I stretch after the workout but I usually stretch more after the warm-up and before the main workout becuase I have gotten into that routine. With Ian Kings stretching routine I took away some of the stretches I felt didn’t work for me well, the lower back stretch and I added a few stretches to it. Right now I basically use this routine with added stretches and with altering the angle and postioning of the stretches to stretch my muscles at different angles.
For microstretching I use the techniques for it now but I don’t go through the whole routine. The first couple of months though I would regurally go through the whole microstretching routine on the website, usually before I went to bed.
In August I purchased the fraid knots ropes http://www.tomdrum.com/
I found this ropes to be very beneficial for stretching and I would recommend purchasing them, there also very cheap and come with a stretching routine. Also I am now taking a yoga class which is twice a week and lasts about 45 minutes but I’m not confident and have doubts weather this class helps my flexibility becuase I take it right after I get up but it does help me relax so mabye in the bigger picture that effects my flexibility, I’m not sure.
Also I found this book to be very helpful in teaching me about how to stretch and relax. It is very well written and an easy read and I found it to be a great start in helping me become more flexible,
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1891369032/qid=1064896119/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/102-2078773-3096968?v=glance&s=books
In closing you could prolly become very flexibile in alot less time then three months if you stretch alot and make use of the fraid knot ropes which I didn’t have available to me until agust. Also do not stretch aggresively, the stretch should always be gentle and feel good, have patience and remember to breath deeply and feel good when stretching.
I have done the same as you ,starting with just a couple of stretches ,and now after a year i do eleven stretches twice a day. It takes me about three hours a day ,but then every tightness I ever experienced are gone ,and whats more every injury I have picked up during the year has disappeared after incorporating the proper stretches.
Give me three to four years and I’m going to be as supple as Linford Christie…
Thanks for the long reply. I’ve been stretching for about 3/4 year, but I’ve had periods off because I felt it just wasn’t working. Through some trial and error I think I found a decent stretch routine for me, but we’ll have to see. I hope to stick with it for a long time…
Sometimes mixing up the oder of the stretches you do, adding new ones once in awhile and using different techniques of stretching, and altering the postion of the stretches you normally do can help you gain flexibility faster from my experiance.
You stretch for three hours a day!
Since I started at age 29 ,and always where stiff I reckoned that I just as well get professional as quick as possible - I haven’t got many years left to reach my targets.
Has anyone any thoughts on becoming too flexible???
For example to the point where the elasticity necessary to run fast is lost. Personally, I find that if i static stretch pre-workout ( speedwork, weights) not only does the workout quality suffer but technique does too. Any thoughts???
Post photo of athletic body.
RK- i have wondered the same thing… i am fairly flexible all over, but my hamstrings are excessively flexible- to the point where i can’t feel many hammie stretches, and i have to reach past my toes and lie flat on the ground to feel anything. i felt that this somehow helped with injury prevention- whenever i have hamstring problems i am able to run through them without causing major damage… or this could just be luck.
I did speed work today and I Stretched for a long time before the speed work. I noticed I lost power becuase I wasn’t able to do a standing jump over the hurdle height I am normally able to do. I’m going to stop static streching for such a long time before speed work, and do it after the workout. I felt really loose and relaxed in the hamstrings and glutes but I noticed I felt a loss of power in these muscles.
Krasnayafleur I wish I was as flexible as you in the hamstrings, my hamstrings are the tightest muscles in my body.
Krasnayafleur do you get injuries in your hamstrings and they just go away, even if you continue running?
Also are you genetically gifted with flexbility or did you develop the incredible flexibility in the hamstrings over time, or both?
I NEVER static stretch before speed, unless something is really really tight, i stick with hurdle mobility and drills to loosen up and save the static stretching for after a workout when i am stil warm. to a point the flexibility is genetic, but it was also developed by dance when i was younger and it seems to have stayed with me. after a period of inactivity i had to work a bit to get back where i was. but i am not stretching as regularly as i should be now, and i still have the flexibility.
i had microtears and lesion sites in both hamstrings at one point or another during the season- never a full pull. i had a few massages which helped, plus icing. there were a couple meets that my trainer told me i was taking a huge risk by competing, and the pain was so bad i probably should have sat out. but i risked it and came out with 3 PR’s and my leg was no worse off. this has happened a couple times, i really think it was the flexibility, although i can’t really back that up specifically.
Isn’t the same argument of becoming too strong. I would think that if it a benefit and usable it doesn’t matter
I thought flexibility prevented tears and pulls in the hamstring muscles. Was this overtraining or can a lack of strength cause of injuries? Does anyone know what the general causes of injury in the hamstrings are, if good flexibility is present?
in my case it could easily have been lack of strength or overtraining… i had a little bit of both going on. i think those are easily the general causes even given the good flexibility- the flex. i think helped me be able to recover quickly and work through injury to a greater extent, but i don’t think that the flex. alone could have prevented the problems.
There have been a lot of studies done which found too much static stretching decreases power and rate of force development.
Static stretching in general or before a workout? What type of stretching should you do then?
Dynamic before - static (20 secs hold min.) after.