Stretches for the Office Part 1

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Stretching has become increasingly important in my clients programs, no matter what the age, gender, or goals. Most people I talk to are not on a stretching routine, let alone a strength training program to begin with! Those two areas need to be addressed immediately.  If there is one thing I am constantly addressing it is making sure my clients lift weights and to make sure they are stretching the proper muscles groups. However there needs to be a balance approach to both activities. I love Mike Robertson and his logic with stretching frequency which he discusses here. To summarize, if you are doing no strength work and tend to stretch and/or do yoga frequently then you should do more strength work; keep your stretching frequency the same or cut back on it a little bit. If you do lots of strength work and don’t stretch then cut back on the strength work and do more stretching…simple!

Some people like to stretch only certain muscle groups and this can be a huge problem. If I have someone that has laxity in their hamstrings and is in anterior tilt like 90% of the population, then they don’t need to stretch their hamstrings nearly as much as their quads and hip flexors. Their program might look completely different from another person who cannot touch their toes. As with anything ndividualization is key. I like to go through all the stretches for all the major muscle groups, and then spend about another 5-10 stretching the tighter muscle groups.

the benefits of stretching are numerous but I like to boil it down to these factors…

1) Keeping proper length tension relationships between muscle groups and the connective tissue

Their is a certain length at which muscles operate most efficiently and forcefully, this would be the ideal resting length (point b). When certain muscles are stiff and tight their resting length may not be optimal, thus decreasing their force capacity or their ability to generate tension. This would be represented as being too far left on the graph, and why the tension drops as you move to the left (point a). If a muscle is too lax or their is too much length, then force output also drops off. This would be going too far right on the curve and would be represented before point c. This is why yoga can be harmful or you see people in figure skating, ballet, or dance putting their body in extreme ranges of motion, and sometimes they end up with back pain or get injured. Too much flexibility is just as bad as too little flexibility. The right balance puts your muscles at optimal length and thus they can produce the most force. This is why you may get stronger by getting more flexible. We must also remember we are stretching the fascial network and connective tissue when we stretch, not just muscles.

2) Accelerate Recovery

Stretching routines can last from 10 minutes to 30 minutes. Foam rolling may or may not be included but would definitely add to the effectiveness. Because there is gentle and relaxed moving through the entire body, blood flow is increased through the muscles. This helps flush out waste products aiding in recovery. Although there is lots of debate, I am a big advocate of stretching before and after competition if your an athlete, just make sure to  dynamically stretch your athletes to fire up the CNS! If your not competing for anything, I like stretching before bed or in the morning 3-5x/wk. Again, it helps return your body back to proper resting lengths and gets some blood in the muscles. I also believe the lymphathic system plays a role in recovery as well. Most people don’t know what that is, but throughout your body you have a network of vessels, capillary beds, and lymph nodes that act like a sewage treatment plant and  filter waste products from your body.Your lympathic system has no pump and relies on movement to carry waste products and aids the immune system. Flushing and moving these metabolites,pathogens, and waste products along helps aid recovery and allows your immune system to do its job.  I think stretching increases lymphatic flow minimally, but that it is worth noting. Foam rolling does a really good job of it!

3) Structual Balance and Decrease likelyhood of injury

I don’t have any research on injury rates and stretching, but I have looked at a few of them. While this may mostly be ancedotal evidence, I don’t always believe research has caught up to whats going on in the trenches; if it works, it works! The biggest issue I see is keeping opposing muscle groups balanced equally around the joint. When you have a stiff muscle it will exert a pull greater than it’s antagonist and create what I call sloppy “inefficient” movement. Keeping opposing muscle groups in balance keeps the body aligned, especially while it is dynamically moving. I like the analogy of a car and its suspension.  If your car is misaligned when your driving around the neighborhood you may not notice it, but when you take your car out on the highway or race your friend, that is when the problems arise. The same thing happens with people… their “tires,” “steering-wheel,” “suspension” are all misaligned and they never notice it during daily activity, so they think everything is fine. When they go run or play a sport their chance of injury is much higher due to these musculo-skeletal imbalances.

Now that I gave you my reasons I give you my stretching routine. Part 1 will be mainly lower body and Part 2 will be upper body.

Lower Body

Low Back

Quads

Hamstring

Glute/Piriformis

Although this is not an exhaustive list by any means, this will give you a heads start on stretching some of the major muscles of the lower body. If none of these work for you, my favorite toy is the stretch out strap, which you can buy for about $15 by clicking on my product tab on the right.