You read that right…. Stretch to impress.
What does that mean? Do you value stretching as a form of movement that can help invigorate your health. That compliments the chiropractic adjustments and rehab therapies that you do every week. Just like we ask you, “why do you get adjusted?”, do you know why you do, or should stretch? Stretching is not just something that is thrown at you as a last resort when nothing else seems to work for your health problem. Stretching our bodies is needed for NORMAL function! Have you ever woke up from the best sleep ever, and laying in your comfortable bed, you start to writhe and stretch your limbs into the weirdest positions? You may even arch your back farther than you even thought possible. Why would you do that, especially right at the start of your day? The answer is you need to stimulate your nervous system, activate all the millions of sensors within your body to get you ready for a full day of function. How else can you get your body ready to move, consume nutrients, and think then with a little bit of movement? This is one of the reasons we recommend that you do some amount of home exercises first thing in the morning, to complement whatever movement you do right before you get out of bed. In fact, even when sleeping, studies show that you begin to move as you move from the deeper beta and delta wave sleep states up to alpha wave, or light sleep. Your body is so smart to know to begin the movement process even before you wake.
How do you Stretch?
There are three main types of stretching; static dynamic, and ballistic. There are also a few ‘fringe’ types of moving that may qualify as stretching, but generally fit into one of the three main categories. Static stretching is the most common. You take a joint to its end range of motion, and then hold that position for anywhere from 30 seconds to over a minute. Why hold for that long? The major determinant of your end range of motion is how far your muscles can stretch. Your muscle is made up of hundreds of thousands of functional units called sarcomeres. The sarcomere has the capacity to increase its length and establish a new length with static stretching, which is the primary benefit of this type of movement.
However, each muscles sarcomeres require a different length of time to relax and acquire a new length. So the safe bet is that if you want to actually get a functional benefit from static stretching, hold the stretch for at least 45 seconds, breathing the entire time.
Fun Fact: Do you hate when your neck gets adjusted? We are taking your spinals joints to their end range of motion before the adjustment. That is why the true adjustment requires next to no movement at all. Remember, the goal of each adjustment is to interact with your nervous system at a specific neurological level, which just so happens to be at a specific spinal level too.
Dynamic stretching involves taking a muscle(s) through a range of motion where the muscle lengthens, then shortens beyond its resting length, before going back to a resting length. The benefit to this type of stretching is that the potential for injury is minimal since full range of motion is not usually the goal. Also, since a repetitive movement is required to do the stretch properly, it acts as an exercise too! In fact, you can get an amazing workout in just by doing a series of full body dynamic stretches! Further, every professional athlete does some level of a dynamic stretching warmup prior to actually performing their sport. If it is so great for them, it should make sense that a dynamic stretching routine would be great for you too!
Ballistic stretching is also known as explosive stretching. It is like dynamic, but is done in a fast, uncontrolled manner. You have seen this before; the person at the gym bouncing at the waist to get their hands towards their feet to stretch their low back and the back of their legs. This type of stretching is dangerous. Your muscles can go past their maximal length which will cause damage to them. Since the joints these muscles act on are now used to that type of motion, their could be damage to those as well. Avoid doing any type of ballistic stretching, in favor of focusing your efforts on dynamic and static stretching.
Stretch Like Your Life Depends on it! So why should you stretch? Stretching in the morning helps your body go from night mode to day mode. Stretching after being stuck in one position for more than a few minutes (as I am while typing this newsletter) will allow your muscles , nerves, and joints to reverse their adaptation pattern reset themselves. Stretching before a workout can help prepare your body for that performance, just like your spinal warmups prepare your spine for your adjustment. Stretching after your workout is fine too. The research says that any type of stretching will work, but before a workout, dynamic stretching is best. After a workout, static stretching is best. This is because during the workout your muscles probably were under a lot of contractile forces to shorten and produce high levels of force. The easiest way to help reestablish your muscles resting length is to statically stretch. Need some more specific tips on stretching? Email me at drchris@askdrernst.com and I will be happy to assist you! Stretching should be fun, and shouldn’t take more than a few minutes to do.