stretching

[iggy]

who all does it?

used to religiously a couple of years ago.

haven't been doing it at all.


or getting massaged. who does that frequently as well?

 

[Big_BK]

I usually just do a quick stretch with a warmup set before i lift.

 

[lilone888]

Usually stretch for about 5 minutes after my workout only focusing on the muscles I hit that day. Also stretch my legs everyday because they usually get the most tight out of all muscles groups..

 

[MsBeverlyHills]

Never. its too painful. id rather take a jacuzzi

 

[SouthernLord]

I stretch just about every day. Dynamic stretches/flexibility movements for a warm up and static stretches pwo. I do as much foam/tennis ball rolling and stretching as possible on my hips, piriformis, and scapula.

 

[SaiBoT]

I'm a stretch freak! If possible I do it everyday throughout the day, was always very enthusiastic about gymnastics and martial arts since tender age. But it was only with 15 I could do a full front leg split and a grand ecarte when 17, hands off the floor.

 

[iggy]

what kind of stretching regiment do you do saibot. i'm very interested bro.

 

[OneBreath]

I do PWO extreme stretching. Sometimes i do it right after the actual movement. Like after heavy db bench presses i'll go right into a db fly stretch with about 1/2 the weight used for the presses.

I'm really curious about the foam roller buzz. I hear its better than stretching. Has anyone tried that?

Tight Muscles - Foam Roller Exercises for Tight Muscles

 

[SaiBoT]

what kind of stretching regiment do you do saibot. i'm very interested bro.

1) If I'm working out and feel some painful tightness, I stretch it right on the spot, for example sometimes when doing deads my triceps get tight, when doing calves my quads get tight, doing bench my lower back gets tight.

2) During a specific bodypart training I will do stretch and pose to losen up the fascia and improve blood pump effect on that specific target, some of those stretches are included on DoggCrapp, still I will save the most painful stretches I will save to when I'm fully warmed up because stretching out could it's dangerous.

3) Flexibility training for legs, hips and lower back it's quite different, first of all I will do some cardio to losen up a bit then I will start some basic stretch seated on the floor, that envolves spreading legs and waist rotation then I can use a smith machine, put my ankle on top of the bar holding for 30 secs and gradually increase the height of the bar until the bar can't be raised any higher (yes I'm that flexible). Then I proceed with these exercises mostly

YouTube - Do the Split - Flexibility for Martia arts

Now the trick to improve on these it's breathing and relaxation techniques, for example during hamstring strech your antagonist muscle (quad) and knee cap most be completely relaxed, if it's contracted it means you are overstretching and it's gonna do you more harm than good. Also hold position when you breath-in and slowly stretch when you breath-out only till the point where you feel uncomfortable not on pain.

The thing is that with stretches for great flexibility you have to listen your body too and train instinctively for example you don't have to follow specific routine, just develop a circuit of stretches then take your time performing it, relax for a minute or step to the bike for 5 min, then repeat the circuit again and repeat, usually it takes like 3-4 circuits until I can fully stretch to max on that particular session, because after sucessive flexibiliy circuit you will find that you are increasingly flexible intra-session.

There is also the dynamic stretching, but that one save it for when you are more profecient with the static, nonetheless some basic idea it's shadow kicking.

 

[Hellawulf]

If it doesn't interfer with your workout program, I recommend Dynamic Warmups, they are by far the best stretches you can do, static stretching can actually shorten your muscles and tendons rather than stretch and loosen them if done without any warmup. Normally I did dynamic warmups then static, then after the workout some quick static. Granted this was on speed training days. I too did gymnastics and martial arts, and then got into sports that required a lot of flexibility like football and basketball. You would be amazed by the amount of influence flexibility has on overall athletic ability. This would be best for fitness training, and trully trying to become more flexible, I don't know how effiecent this would be for someone wanting to see huge mass gains due to the high intensity of cardio during the dynamic warmups.

 

[OverWorked]

I used to stretch once a week maybe. I really need to do it more often, but I always take the lazy route.

 

[iron asylum]

I have to say that I don't. I really should but i don't. I do get sports massags a couple times a week though. They use to hurt like hell until she got most the years of knots out of me. Afer that it's more maintanence now.