IMPORTANT: PLEASE READ THIS POST BEFORE ATTEMPTING ANY EXERCISES FOUND ON OUR WEBSITE

This guide will be your road map for success with regards to homecare. Learn what specific variables you can change with any of your stretches; as well as find resources to provide a deeper understanding of stretching or homecare as a whole.

***Please note that following a clients in-home treatment (if any homecare is applicable to their goals) our therapists do their best to explain all of the pertinent information found in the homecare section of our website. The information found on here should then be used purely as a reference in the event that these specific individuals forgot something or want further clarification.

If you do not fall into the above category of our clients, please be advised that any exercise attempted – without having first been shown in-person how to do so by a knowledgeable / experienced practitioner – is done so at your own risk. In the event of an injury, Precision Therapeutics cannot be held accountable for any misappropriation of information on your behalf.***

Before getting into the meat and potatoes of this guide, here are some resources for you to check out:

— why you should stretch; but also pointing out times when you should NOT stretch

— potentially confusing terms whenever talking about homecare

— the most common types of stretching

What Can Impact Stretching Outcomes?

There are a few things that will determine the effectiveness of your stretch. All of which can be adapted to suit your needs, but the most common would be changes to the alignment and duration portions below.

Alignment:

positioning a limb or the body in a manner that directs the stretch to the desired / appropriate muscle group / muscle

Stabilization:

the fixation of one side / attachment of a muscle, while the stretch force is attached to the other side / another bony attachment

Intensity:

magnitude of the stretch force applied

Duration:

length of time that the stretch force is applied during a stretch cycle. Stretch cycle then functioning as the amount of times that a stretch force should be applied successively

Speed:

the speed at which the initial stretch force is applied

Frequency:

number of stretching sessions per day / week

Method:

form in which the stretch is applied (i.e. static, ballistic, etc.); and degree of participation (i.e. passive versus active)

Looking Deeper

There is a general consensus among researchers that stretching should be applied in a slow and controlled manner with a low-intensity magnitude. This low-intensity stretching ensures that the movement is more comfortable for the person stretching, and at the same time helps decrease the likelihood of your body guarding itself (this happens through a process known as muscle guarding). While the slow and controlled manner of stretching ensures that you remain in control.

The negative side of when your muscles do tighten / guard during a stretch is that this may engage your muscles stretch reflex arc. A stretch reflex arc can cause a rebounding activation of your muscle; this in turn causes tissue injury (likely tearing) or soreness once you are done stretching.

Many lengths of stretch have been studied – though certainly not all. One such study attempted just two repetitions of 30-second hamstring stretching, and found that this was just as effective as six repetitions of 10-second stretches.

In a separate study spanning a 5-week period (with equal total duration times), three 15-second hamstring stretches each day yielded significantly greater stretch-induced mobility gains than nine daily 5-second stretches.

Even though I usually tell people to perform a stretch cycle 3-4 times, with 20-30 second holds for each; It is important to realize how effective a stretch will be ultimately comes down to a few key things. Those are: what is currently going on in your body, how willing you are to stretch, and what your functional goals are.

Honestly, a better scale to use is to simply listen to your own body as you are doing the stretch. Once you are no longer feeling a comfortable pull (and it just feels like you are ‘hanging around’) then you should be able to release the stretch while still receiving optimal benefits.

Outcomes / Benefits:

The expected and primary effect of any stretching exercise is that the extensibility of the muscle-tendon unit has increased. This gain is due to biomechanic and neural changes to both the contractile and non-contractile elements of the muscle-tendon unit (say that ten times fast – or in my case: try to type it even just once).

Increasing the extensibility of a muscle will in-turn lead to an increase in flexibility as well as mobility / range of motion**. A large sum of studies have validated these thoughts, but I would like to note that the effects are particularly noticeable (in an immediate sense) with both static and PNF stretching.

** In an effort to provide you, my dear reader, with a full picture.. there are some researches who believe that the increased range of motion benefit may be in-part due to an individuals perception or tolerance of the sensations associated with stretching.

In addition to improving a joint-specific / overall flexibility and range of motion, stretching routines can be utilized in conjunction with physical activity as either one or both of a warm up + cool down. Stretching exercises are also an essential component of conditioning programs; whether this be for: general fitness, workplace activities, recreational activities, or competitive sport training.

The efficacy of stretching with regards to post exercise soreness, enhanced performance, and injury prevention are highly touted – but it is difficult to quantify these claims. The research is inconclusive, but this is more so because of the fact that it is near impossible to say what would have happened when that ‘happening’ never came to pass in the first place.

Personally, I think it would be best to trust your own first-hand experience with opinions on effects such as enhanced performance and injury prevention.

As a final note I would say that for myself these benefits are very apparent; but for yourself please do keep in mind that there are many many things that factor into the previously mentioned injury prevention, post-exercise soreness reduction, and enhancing performance. Knowing this means knowing that you should never put all of your eggs in one basket.

By this I mean that exercises like stretching or foam rolling are not perfect substitutions for massage therapy, chiropractic, or acupuncture. They should be done in unison with your homecare; creating a compounding synergistic approach to your healthcare. That being said, simply stretching would obviously be better than nothing at all.