Stretching & Self Myo-Fascial Release: Basic Concepts
Stretching & Self Myo-Fascial Release: Basic Concepts
Stretching and basic self myo-fascial release, often called SMR, isn’t exclusive to athletes and weight-lifters. Everyone should participate in some form of full body stretching as part of their daily routine.
Proper stretching helps to promote muscle lengthening, which, over time, can lead to an increase in flexibility and improved joint range of motion.
Increasing and, subsequently, maintaining your body’s level of flexibility is important for countless reasons, highest among them - mitigating the problems poor flexibility causes. Poor flexibility can ultimately lead to muscle tightness, a decreased range of motion, and, in severe cases, pain and or loss of function.
Muscles become tight if the body stays in fixed positions for extended periods of time. This affects office workers especially who spend their time seated behind a desk. Muscles may become tight from overuse creating microtraumas. Microtraumas can occur when repetitive tasks are performed. This is commonly seen in physical laborers or tradespeople, especially if they don’t counterbalance their movement patterns with oppositional movements.
The human body tries to naturally repair these muscle tears (microtraumas) by laying down scar tissue. By consistently stretching and incorporating some basic SMR techniques during this process, you can improve the elasticity of the tissue, thus maintain and improve your flexibility and the joint’s range of motion over time.
When stretching…
It’s important to remember two critical components of stretching: duration and frequency. Duration is the length of time you hold a given stretch for. Frequency is how many times you perform it.
Duration will vary depending on the goal of the stretch being performed. For example, if you are incorporating stretching into your pre-workout warm-up, they will have different durations from the stretches you would perform post workout.
The two types of stretching that this article will focus on are dynamic and static.
The Dynamic Stretch
Essentially, this is your “warm-up” stretching. Dynamic stretching uses body movement to engage muscles without overly fatiguing individual muscle fibers. This method usually involves multi-joint movements and is used to warm the body and joints up while increasing the circulation of blood. Dynamic stretching involves active movement for short periods of time. This type of stretching can also serve as a good way to bump up your heart rate.
A good rule of thumb for dynamic warm-ups is to plan your warm-up movements off of what you’ll be doing during your actual workout.
For example, if you’re planning to do heavy barbell squats, a good dynamic warm-up might be body-weight squats, 15-20 for repetitions at a (1.0.1.0) tempo. Remember to always listen to your body. Never force range of motion. Warm-ups and workouts should leave your feeling pain-free and energized.
Static Stretching
A stretch for after your work out
Static stretching involves holding a stretch for a designated period of time, typically 30 – 60 seconds and repeating 3-4 times. This type of stretching can be extremely effective in achieving plasticity. Traditionally, this method of stretching is incorporated as part of cool down / post-workout.
An example of static stretching is performing a toe touch while maintaining a neutral spine and holding for a designated period of time (30-60 seconds).
Remember to never force a stretch and always maintain proper body mechanics. Stretching can be highly beneficial, but can also lead to injury if performed improperly. For a guided session, contact our team
Some stretching considerations
Stretching throughout the day and before / after workouts is ideal. To make this accessible, you can simply add quick stretches while waiting in line for coffee, standing on an elevator, or waiting for dinner to cook. In addition, taking short breaks at work to move around and stretch may help to decrease muscle spasms while simultaneously improving energy and focus.
Stretching before a workout helps prepare our bodies / muscles for strenuous activity, improves range of motion, and helps prevent injury. Post-workout stretching decreases the chances of our muscles tightening up and, in some cases, going into spasm. Overall, stretching and basic SMR can help us lead healthier, more active / robust lifestyles.
References
Behm DG, Button DC, Butt JC. Factors Affecting Force Loss With Prolonged Stretching. Canadian Journal of Applied Physiology. 2001;26(3):262-272. doi:10.1139/h01-017.
Behm DG, Chaouachi A. A review of the acute effects of static and dynamic stretching on performance. European Journal of Applied Physiology. 2011;111(11):2633-2651. doi:10.1007/s00421-011-1879-2.
Herman SL, Smith DT. Four-Week Dynamic Stretching Warm-up Intervention Elicits Longer-Term Performance Benefits. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. 2008;22(4):1286-1297. doi:10.1519/jsc.0b013e318173da50.
Weerapong P, Hume PA, Kolt GS. Stretching: Mechanisms and Benefits for Sport Performance and Injury Prevention. Physical Therapy Reviews. 2004;9(4):189-206. doi:10.1179/108331904225007078.
Microtrauma. (2015, August 8). Retrieved June 14, 2017, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microtrauma
Gransee, H. M., Mantilla, C. B., & Sieck, G.C. (2012, April). Respiratory Muscle Plasticity. Retrieved June 14, 2017, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3962767/