STRETCHING ROUTINE

STRETCHING ROUTINE

HOW STRETCHING HELPS

When it comes to short, tight muscles, nothing beats stretching to provide pain relief and long-term prevention of discomfort.  As I’ve described earlier, stretching is pulling one end of a muscle away from the other end, which overtime brings actual lengthening to the muscle tissue. 

This free up the joints, for sure, so it allow chiropractic adjustments to hold longer—that is, the joint won’t lock up and become subluxated again too quickly.  But as muscle tissue lengthens, tension releases, and that sore, achy feeling that is a part of the tight muscle experience starts to vanish, too. 

A regular stretching program brings flexibility and freedom to the body.  I tell my clients: fifty percent of the patient visits I see in any given week could be prevented if people just stretched regularly.  Now I realize that this is bad practice management, because after all, shouldn’t doctors want more people to come into the office in pain?  The answer is no, at least not in my practice. 

I try to teach people ways to empower themselves physically.  I would love for them to come in needing only chiropractic maintenance and wellness care.  But as long as people continue to neglect the stretching of their muscles, chiropractic practice will be in business, treating people in pain—that’s just a fact of life, for now.

STRETCHING ROUTINES

A BEGINNERS STRETCHING ROUTINE

So I’d like to give you a beginners stretching routine to get you started.  I realize that it’s important to be practical when discussing frequency of activity, especially with beginners. 

In a perfect world, you would do these stretches every day; however, I do realize that it might be asking a lot, so I would say doing even as little as three time per week will do wonders for your body and for your life.  These stretches need not be performed in any order, but I personally like to do my legs and buttocks first, and then move on to my neck, chest, shoulders and arms.

Here is the beginners’ routine:

1.      Lying Hip Stretch

·         Muscle stretched: piriformis

·         Hold: 30 seconds each side

2.      Standing Hamstring Stretch

·         Muscle stretched: hamstring

·         Hold: 30 seconds

3.      Standing Hip Flexor Lunge

·         Muscle stretched: iliopsoas

·         Hold: 30 seconds each side

4.      Chest Stretch

·         Muscle stretched: pectoralis minor

·         Hold: 30 seconds each side

5.      Lat Stretch

·         Muscle stretched: latissimus dorsi

·         Hold: 30 seconds each side

6.      Biceps Stretch

·         Muscle stretched: biceps and pectoralis major

·         Hold: 30 seconds each side

AN ADVANCED STRETCHING ROUTINE

For you more advanced stretchers—anyone who has taken yoga, played sports or currently stretches at the gym, in dance class or with a trainer—try the following routine. 

Do the same exercises above, but add:

1.      Pigeon

·         Muscle stretched: piriformis

·         Hold: 60 seconds each side

2.      Thigh Stretch

·         Muscle stretched: rectus femoris

·         Hold: 60 seconds each side

3.      Neck Stretches

·         Muscle stretched: upper trapezius, levator scapulae

·         Hold: 30 seconds each side

4.      Shoulder Stretches

·         Muscle stretched: posterior capsule

·         Hold: 30 seconds each side

5.      Forearm Stretches

·         Muscle stretched: forearm flexors

·         Hold: 30 seconds each side

Something that everyone who stretches needs to be aware of is that to actually add length to muscles, the duration one holds the stretch is what really matters.  Thirty seconds is the minimum duration necessary to add muscle fibers to the end of stretching muscle. 

Sixty seconds is even better, but thirty will do.  So to gain all the benefits that come along with muscle lengthening—reduced pain, increased freedom of movement, pain prevention—you’ll need to hold that stretch, no matter how uncomfortable it is.  Hold it!

There is another type of stretching that one can do, which I call “cobweb stretching”.  This should be done in place of regular stretching when time is limited. 

Cobweb stretching is holding a stretch for a shorter time than usual—ten seconds, for example.  This way, even if you are short on time, you can go through your entire routine and “get the cobwebs out.” 

Now before you think there is little benefit to this type of stretching, understand that holding a stretch for even a few seconds will open up the muscles giving you freedom of movement.  Cobweb stretching is a regular part of my busy schedule, and it serves me well.  I highly recommend it for anyone wanting to maintain muscle flexibility and a pain-free life.

WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT FROM STRETCHING

Taking on a new stretching regimen comes along with predictable results.  The very first thing beginners experience is the discomfort of stretching tight, neglected muscles.  For some the discomfort just feels like tightness, yet for others there might be a burning sensation.  Fret not, this is normal.  When you feel burning, it is lactic acid being released by the muscle tissue. 

Nevertheless, you do not want to go too far into the stretch when you feel the lactic acid burn, so go easy.  If you have never felt this sensation before, don’t be afraid; the burn I am talking about is nothing more than an “Indian burn,” the kind we used to give each other as children.

The discomfort of the initial stage of stretching will pass rather quickly, and then the stretch will start to feel good.  Interestingly, it is the same sensation you have been feeling all along, but the mind starts to process it differently; in other words, perception shifts. 

It is really amazing how this happens, but I know from ten years experience, the pain of stretching never goes away.  On the contrary, I now crave it, and stretch every moment I can.  Weird but true.