Static stretching time during flexibility training

When ordinary healthy people do regular flexibility training, static stretching of a single target muscle for 15-30 seconds has the highest input-output ratio.； Children and teenagers have better muscle elasticity and can be shortened to 10-15 seconds ； For people with severely limited joint mobility and need for rehabilitation, it can be extended to about 60 seconds under professional guidance. ； Stretching for too long a time will not bring additional flexibility gains, but will increase the risk of sports injuries.

I'm not making this up. I checked out the latest guidelines from the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) a while ago and the advice given is similar. But in real training scenarios, with different people and different goals, the differences are quite large. A novice girl I worked with last week finished leg training. She squatted on the yoga mat and pulled on her hamstrings for 2 minutes. When she got up, her legs were so numb that she almost fell. She said that a blogger said, "The longer you pull, the faster it will soften." This made me very angry.

When I first got into fitness, the old-school coaches always said that I had to pull for 45 seconds before it would be effective. Later, I went through a lot of pitfalls in my jiu-jitsu training to open my hips, and after talking more with the provincial team's physical coach and sports rehabilitation therapist, I discovered that this time interval is not an iron rule in the first place. I had a meal with the figure skating team's physical trainer before. He said that the athletes should do static stretching before the game. Each muscle should be held for a maximum of 20 seconds. He was afraid that the stretch would be too loose and affect the take-off force. ； But when doing flexibility breakthroughs in the offseason, I will cooperate with the PNF stretching method to extend the static holding time to 30-45 seconds to specifically suppress joint mobility.

Of course, there are different opinions. Nowadays, many rehabilitation schools support longer static stretching. A sports rehabilitation practitioner I know does relaxation for patients after meniscus surgery. When encountering severe joint adhesions, he will extend the static stretching of a single muscle to 60-90 seconds. When combined with joint mobilization surgery, the data he has is that for people with severe lack of mobility, if they pull for 60 seconds each time for 4 consecutive weeks, the improvement rate is about 8% higher than that of 30 seconds. However, this conclusion only applies to people with clear rehabilitation needs. There is no need for ordinary people to join in the fun.

Think about it, most of us stretch either to loosen our shoulders after sitting for a long time, or to stretch our legs to relax after running. We can't afford to compete with ourselves to stay up. It takes more than 10 seconds for the Golgi tendon organ in the muscle to trigger the relaxation signal. If you pull for 5 seconds and then get up, you are working in vain, and the muscles have not yet responded. ； But after more than 30 seconds, the marginal effect drops off a cliff. The extra time can hardly be exchanged for additional flexibility improvement, but will inhibit the muscle contraction ability. If you have to play iron or play ball immediately after pulling, your legs will become fluttery after pulling for too long, which will make you more likely to sprain your feet and lose strength.

In order to open the crossbar, I had to carry the frog and pull for 5 minutes every day. I pulled it for half a month and my groin was painful. Later, it was changed to 30 seconds each time, and 4 groups were performed. Between groups, he stood up, walked two steps, and shook his legs to relax. After two weeks, the crossbar went down 2 centimeters. To put it bluntly, the muscles have to be soft and not hard. There is no point in trying to endure the time with it. You have to follow its temper.

There are also studies showing that a single pull of 120 seconds can increase the range of joint mobility by about 2 degrees more than that of 30 seconds, but it takes four times as long, which is a total loss for ordinary enthusiasts. If you really want to improve flexibility, it is better to divide the 120 seconds into 4 groups of 30 seconds, and take a short rest between groups. The effect is much better than pulling for 2 minutes at a time. Some people always think that the more painful the stretch, the better the effect. In fact, this is not the case. The pain of static stretching only needs to be to the level of "obvious pulling sensation but normal breathing."

In fact, there is really no need to dwell on the number of seconds. You can feel your body when you pull, and when the sharp pulling sensation subsides, just hold it for another three to five seconds. After all, most of us are not stretching to participate in the Jiu-Jitsu World Championships. It is comfortable, useful, and durable, which is better than anything else.