Flexibility training considerations

Don’t blindly compare your strength with others, don’t bear the pain beyond your tolerance, and don’t just fool around with 5 minutes before and after exercise. The remaining details actually extend around these three points. There is no need to remember too complicated rules and regulations. If you stick to these three bottom lines, there will basically be no big problems.

Don’t think I’m being alarmist. I met a young girl who just graduated from a fitness studio before. She followed a yoga trial class and saw that the old member next to her could easily release the horizontal crossbar. She forced the teacher to help her press it. She was in so much pain that she couldn’t stand up on the spot. She went to the hospital to find out that the medial collateral ligament of her thigh was slightly torn. She took a rest for almost two months. In fact, there are quite different views on how much flexibility should be practiced in different sports fields. Practitioners of sports such as powerlifting and weightlifting mostly believe that flexibility only needs to be enough for you to complete standard movements. For example, if you can squat until your thighs are parallel to the ground, it is enough to do deadlifts without bending to compensate. Excessive pursuit of joint mobility will reduce the stability of force output. ； However, projects such as yoga and rhythmic gymnastics require a higher range of motion to adapt to the performance needs of the project itself. There is no need for us ordinary enthusiasts to hold ourselves to the standards of professional athletes. If you practice flexibility, it is to relax and improve back pain caused by sitting for a long time. If you can easily bend down to tie your shoelaces and raise your hands to reach the top of the locker, it is enough. There is no need to compete with the splits.

To be honest, many people have misunderstandings about the pain of stretching. They think that "pain means it is useful." This is really the biggest misunderstanding. It is necessary to distinguish between two feelings: one is the soreness and swelling of the target muscles. For example, when you stretch the hamstring muscles on the back of your thighs, you will feel a dull soreness and even a little numbness in your hamstrings. This is normal, just keep it. ； But if there is tingling or pulling pain in the joints, such as pain in the knee socket when pressing the legs, or pain in the lumbar spine when bending to touch the ground, then the posture must be wrong. Stop it quickly and don’t bear it. I always made a mistake when practicing CrossFit before. When I stretched my hamstring muscles, I liked to slump my waist. Every time I pulled my waist, my waist would be sore for a long time. Later, the coach gave me a trick: before stretching, I should retract my core, sit my butt back and bend my hips as if I were sitting on a stool. Instead of pressing my upper body against my legs, I immediately found the right feeling, and I never had any pain again.

There are also many people who stretch just as a formality. They shake their legs twice before running, then press for 30 seconds and then leave. They say they have stretched, but it is actually useless. Different stretching methods are suitable for completely different scenarios: for activation before exercise, you do dynamic stretching, such as raising your legs high, kicking your legs back, and lunging left and right. Just do each action 10-15 times, which can help you open up your joint mobility and avoid sports injuries. ； To relax after exercise, hold each action of static stretching for 20-30 seconds and repeat 2-3 groups to truly relax the tense muscles. ； If you specifically want to improve your flexibility, you can try PNF (Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation) stretching. When you reach the soreness position, you first contract the target muscle for 6 seconds, and then relax and stretch for 10 seconds. The effect is much faster than simple static stretching. I have practiced it for three months, and my forward flexion in the sitting position has increased from -2cm to +8cm. I have personally tested it and it works.

By the way, there’s another point that many people don’t pay attention to: flexibility will change with time and physical condition. When you first wake up in the morning, the joint fluid has not been secreted, and flexibility is the worst. Don’t force your legs to do splits as soon as you get up, as it is easy to get injured.； When women have pelvic congestion during their menstrual period, do not press your waist or hips too hard, otherwise it will easily aggravate the soreness and swelling. There is also the effect of temperature. In the winter, the room is cold and the muscles are tight. It is best to do jumping jacks for 3 minutes to warm up the body before stretching. If you are already sweating in the summer, it is no problem to just pull. There is no need to stick to the dead rule of "you must warm up for 10 minutes before stretching" - oh yes, this is actually controversial in the industry. Some schools believe that stretching itself is part of the warm-up. As long as the intensity of the movements is appropriate, there is no need to warm up in advance. You can do it according to your own body feeling. You don't have to listen to a certain school.

In fact, to put it bluntly, flexibility training is meant to serve you. It is not used to post material on social media, nor is it a KPI that needs to be met. When practicing, paying more attention to how your body feels is more effective than memorizing any number of precautions. If one day you are tired and your muscles are tight, it’s okay if you skip two sets. Don’t force your body to complete the task and make it better than anything else.