All Manner of Stretching and Bending

To stretch or not to stretch?

The Bend Bulletin recently did an article on stretching and highlighted the current debate about the benefit (or not) of the traditional passive form of stretching. The article is titled Should I stretch out before or after exercise? (05/08/08) and can be found at www.bendbulletin.com (subscription required).

Although the article supports the use of "dynamic stretching" (you can find my Runner's Dynamic Warmup here), the pictures just as clearly show the non-dynamic, traditional stretches being performed. Weighing in on this important issue- My two cents:

1. "It ain't whatcha do, it's the way that'cha do-it"
As with many exercise techniques, success with stretching comes down to form. Dynamic stretching incorporates many of the same movements that happen during an actual activity such as hiking, running martial arts, playing a musical instrument etc. and tends to be both safe and more effective than static stretches and positions which are extremely unlikely to happen in the "real world". Whichever approach you favor, make sure your movements are well supported posturally. Including your breathing throughout and encouraging a deeper sense of release and relaxation will make a huge difference to the end result. As a general rule, spend more time and do less.

2. Being tight means... what exactly?!?
What is the cause of flexibility issues? Any thoughts? Are your muscle fibers adhered? Your joint capsules stuck or frozen? Your ligaments and connective tissues resentful and morose? For a nice therapeutic change in semantics, let's focus on the "being" part for a change, instead of the "tight" part in the experience of "being tight". That's right, flexibility or lack of is in large part a functional problem rather than a structural one.

If we studied all of the movements you routinely perform in a typical day, or during your preferred fun-thing to do, you would have a very specific way of doing those activities that belongs to you and you alone. This is your movement footprint, and it's both unique and very, very consistent. If we represent your movement by using an image of your footprints in the sand, wherever your foot lands is movement that you use regularly. All the muscles, joints and motor programs involved in these regular movements are streamlined, efficient and effective. It's to your nervous system's advantage to make these movements work better, since you've been successful in the past. Make sense? These are the movements your motor cortex thinks will help keep you alive in the big bad world.

Now look just outside your footprints- notice all the untracked sand? That's the land where "tightness" lives. Not inherently mind you, but through a clever function of our nervous system that makes routine activities even easier and more hard-wired/therefore efficient, we're limited from stepping outside our tracks of flexibility because... we've gotten so good at stepping in our tracks! We're so good at the routine movements we do, in a very real way, we are doing them all the time! It's very difficult to button a shirt while your hand is holding a glass of water. In the same way, standing taller or sitting more easily without pain might be difficult because your postural muscles are already contracted doing something else.

Our goal? Imagine a juggler- to be successful requires both the catching part, and the letting go! We have to learn how to NOT do all of the unnecessary (but useful) things we're unconsciously doing. As Dr. Feldenkrais said, to improve your standing, simply stop doing all the things that are NOT standing, and your standing will improve! Sounds deliciously simple. How do we do it?

There are three ways to work on this flexibility puzzle: The hard way, the long way and the easy way.

The common way people improve their flexibility during their activities is also the hard way- Using our juggler as an example, instead of learning to catch and let go in balance, we simply try to catch harder- for example if I run more miles, or push my muscles harder in training, or practice slouching everywhere, not just on my sofa, I'll uncover the secrets of flexibility? Sadly not- this is the hard way, since your current motor patterns are running at the same time new demands are placed on your system, any flexibility gains that are made are won during this tug of war at great cost, including increased soreness, pain and occasionally injury. However...

Often as luck would have it, learning a new activity requires a new set of joint and muscle angles, and voila! You have a slight improvement in your flexibility. This is the long way, because it requires you to actually perform ALL the necessary movements and new patterns in hopes your clever nervous system will remember them all and not leave you in a resting position that's good for only one or two basic motor patterns. Very effective but requires patience, virtue and strength of character to wait it out... as an example, try "Chi Walking or Running" - or choose your favorite activity and do it Left handed instead of Right handed...

And the easy way? This is also the most subtle, and therefore the most difficult for many of us to grasp and/or make time for. If your nervous system could be pictured as a large slider board like the kind you'd see in a TV station's control room, the easy way is to slide ALL the little levers and dials to their minimal or resting positions. Using our earlier walking on sand metaphor, this is the beach after the tide has washed the footprints away, and there's no trace of any kind in the sand. This state of no-posture actually has a very specific physical feeling associated with it (that's fairly impossible to describe, like the taste of "blue"), and a name- the "potent posture" in Feldenkrais language. Cultivating this is fairly easy once you've learned the "language" of the exercises and what specific feelings to look for (weight, pressure, ease, comfort etc. or whatever your body suggests) while moving. Then it's just a matter of applying these same feelings while doing your activity- instant flexibility! Expect to feel the same movements become even easier, lighter, more effortless, and measurable improvements in flexibility.

The only downside to taking the easy way? Making your movements so effortless and gentle can sometimes encourage a good nap, but that's never hurt anyone, has it?

Burke can be reached for comments through the Focus Physical Therapy website and contact page here.