Archive for the ‘Dynamic stretching’ Category

Top tips for moving well and winter exercise

Top tips for exercise in the colder months!

As winter approaches, it is important to prioritise your warm-up routine before exercising. A proper warm-up routine, not only helps to prevent injury, but also helps to increase flexibility and joint range of motion. It prepares your body for your workout.

Warm up

Warming up is essential in winter. Your body takes longer to warm up during winter to ensure adequate blood flow to the muscles before you commence more vigorous exercise.

A warm up can consist of light jogging, jumping jacks, arm circles and skater slides and planks dynamic warm-up exercises. Allow 5-10 minutes to warm up before you commence your sport or exercise.

Wear warm layers

If you are exercising outside, make sure you wear warm clothing and/or layers so that you can appropriately change your layers to allow for body (and air temperature) changes.

Compression tights are a great investment for exercising in the winter months. They enhance blood flow through the leg muscles, helping to prevent fatigue and joint stiffness.

Breathe in through your nose

Inhalation of colder air can cause your bronchial tubes to narrow. This can reduce the capacity of the mucous membranes to stay moist and is exacerbated if you breathe in through your mouth.

Breathing in through your nose gives incoming air an opportunity to be moistened and heated through the nasal mucosa and mouth. IMPORTANT: If you are asthmatic, it is best to consult your GP regarding training in cold weather.

Cool down

Cooling down is an important part of your winter exercise program. Cooling down exercises allow your muscles to gradually return to their optimal length-tension relationship and prevent venous pooling of blood in the lower extremities. They also allow your heart rate and breathing to return to a normal level and prevent a build-up of lactic acid in the muscles.

TIP: Make sure you put your layers back on before your cool down exercises to keep your body warm.

Learn more

Posted in Dynamic stretching, Exercise, Physiotherapy, Running, Strive, Tips on May 15th, 2019 by strive

Dynamic Exercises for Runners

Dynamic exercises helps the muscles to stretch through their optimal length and take the joint through a full range of motion prior to doing an activity. For runners we suggest the following sequence of stretching exercises.

1. Walk 3-5 minutes – to take joints through a range of motion

– Increases blood flow to muscles
– Stimulates the nervous system that you are ready to run

2. Jog 100m 2-3 times – to increase blood flow to muscles

– Recruits fast twitch fibres

3. Lateral swings – to mobilise hip joint

– Swing leg side to side

– Lengthen muscles on the inside outside of the hip

4. Karate kicks – to mobilise hip joint

– Swing leg forward and back

– Lengthen muscles hip extensors

5. Dynamic lunge – to mobilise hip knee and ankle joints

– Lengthens muscles on the thigh, hip and lower leg

More exercises

Cooling down exercises

Tags: Exercise, stretching
Posted in Dynamic stretching, Exercise, Hamstrings, Running, Tips on July 24th, 2018 by strive

What can you do to improve flexibility?

The good news is you can improve muscle flexibility and joint range of motion through stretching, despite physiological and other factors.

But what type of stretching is best?

Stretching can be grouped into 3 key types and all of these are important in keeping your muscles and joints at an optimum.

Dynamic stretching – are slow, controlled movements

Dynamic stretching helps the muscles to stretch through their optimal length and take the joint through a full range of motion prior to doing an activity.

It targets the most intensely used muscles in the activity, increasing their elasticity and as a result reducing injury risk due to muscle sprain/strain. An example would be hamstring swings for runners prior to running.

Static stretching – is where a muscle is held in a lengthened position for 20-30 seconds.

It is ideal for stretching connective tissue and helps lengthen a muscle. It is best to be used as a cool down after an activity. An example is a hamstring stretch after running.

3. Proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation (PNF)

Proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation (PNF) is a type of stretching that promotes elongation of muscle tissue.

It aims to optimise the neuromuscular ‘stretch reflex’ response of the body. This involves stretching a muscle passively to its end of range, then either holding or contracting the muscle for 6 seconds, releasing and then stretching the muscle further to a new range, repeating 3-4 times. Yoga and pilates exercises are a form of PNF stretching.

Important to do 3 forms of stretching

To optimise the flexibility of your muscles and joint ROM, it is important to do all 3 types of stretching.

To improve flexibility I recommend …

1.dynamic stretching prior to exercise

2. static stretching after and

3. doing a session of yoga or pilates once a week

Or, make time for a good PNF stretch program once a week to keep you supple.

Tips to remember when stretching

• Always warm up before stretching. Stretching when your muscles are cold could lead to injuries.

• Stretch to the point where you feel some mild tension. You should not feel pain. If you do, stop and release the stretch. Try again in a shorter range, build up to the increased range.

Posted in Dynamic stretching, Exercise, Flexibility, Static stretching, Strive on April 3rd, 2017 by strive

Stretching

Does stretching improve performance?
Does stretching improve muscle flexibility?
Does stretching prevent injury?

Research into stretching shows

Static stretching (a holding stretch) before physical activity does not prevent injuries and may make you prone to injuries, and decrease your performance.

A dynamic stretching warm-up routine (a moving stretch) is beneficial in many ways – and used regularly is helpful in maintaining flexibility.

Dynamic stretching is best pre-race or pre-game

Dynamic stretching:

is a slow controlled movement that takes a joint through a complete range of motion
helps promote blood flow to working muscles
helps the muscles to stretch through their optimal range prior to working the muscles hard through sport/exercise

Sport-specific dynamic stretching is recommended

Sport or race-specific, dynamic stretching is best as it targets the most intensely used muscles, reducing injury risk further. With more elasticity in the main muscles that you will use during your race, you will likely improve overall performance.

Static stretching is best used after training or post-race

Static stretching applies a force to a muscle, typically when holding a muscle in one position without moving for 30 seconds or more. It:

helps lengthen a muscle, improving flexibility
provides a slow, cool-down period for your muscles, helping to reduce soreness

Static stretching is not to be used prior to exercising. Why?

Holding a muscle in a stretch position when it is cold and without adequate blood flow can lead to muscle tears.
Static stretching causes a muscle to lengthen, it can reduce the ability of the muscle to contract forcefully, impacting on the power that can be produced.

According to the latest research from the Journal of Strength and Conditioning, static stretching can actually decrease muscle strength by up to 5.5% and power by up to 2.8%, leading to an increased risk of injury.

To optimise your performance and remain injury free

We recommend:

1. Gentle warm-ups followed by
2. Dynamic sport/race specific stretching
3. Activity/race/sport
4. Static stretching

Tags: stretching
Posted in Dynamic stretching, Static stretching, Stretching on September 2nd, 2014 by strive