Module 15: Stretching Fitness

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Module 15: Stretching Fitness In this module you will learn: The importance of warming up and stretching before exercising What happens to your muscles while stretching How to stretch without causing

1 Module 15: Stretching Fitness In this module you will learn: The importance of warming up and stretching before exercising What happens to your muscles while stretching How to stretch without causing injury How to stretch different parts of the body 15.1 Introduction Why do Gym teachers at school or college, personal trainers or sports coaches, ensure you warm up your body and do stretching techniques before exercising? It is for exactly the same reason that career athletes and sports professionals take their time to stretch and warm up before a practice or a match. The stretching will help greatly to prepare your body for the exercise that it is about to experience The Importance of Warming up Before one stretches, it is usually vital, or at the least preferable, that you warm up first. Warming up does imply that you are preparing to exercise, just like getting ready. For example,

2 in cold weather a car needs to be started and warmed up, before you move off in the car down the road. Manufacturers advise us to do this because starting up and immediately driving off is potentially damaging to the engine the same logic applies to your body. Warming up will help to increase the temperature of your body to an optimum, while also preparing your muscles to be ready for exercise. Thus, warming up will actively help to prevent injuries to muscles, which may otherwise occur if you just start from cold and exercise. Warming up properly will increase your heart rate. This will deliver more blood and, therefore, more oxygen to your muscles while readying the body to burn more energy. Ideally, five to ten minutes of warming up should be sufficient. You can warm up while doing the same movements that you will be doing for exercise, but just at a slower pace. If you are going to run, then simply jog for those minutes to warm up, before building to your maximum and sustained effort. Preferably, for all sports activities, after your body has warmed up, it is time to stretch. It is important to get into this habit because if you stretch cold muscles it can lead to injury. Maybe even a debilitating injury. If you have prepared your muscles and they are warm, stretching correctly will reduce injuries and long term stress. You will also improve flexibility, have a greater range of motion, better posture and coordination. The benefits are important and long term for your overall musculature What is happening when you stretch the muscles?

3 The question here is what does stretching actually do, and why can it sometimes hurt? How should stretching make you feel? You know that it is important to stretch, and that you feel the benefit after having stretched. You need to find the reasons why, and what happens to your muscles (and to your body overall) after a stretch session. It is all to do with flexibility. Your inherent ability to flex will come from many factors, i.e. the joints, the ligaments, the tendons and the muscles of your body. Some people are simply born with loose ligaments and with more mobile bone joints. This is not something which you need to work on altering, as the ligaments connect the bones and are vital for the overall stability of the body. If you try to lengthen the ligaments, you will certainly face problems. Your attention whilst stretching is actually on the muscles, and equally on where the tendons and the muscles meet. Remember, the tendons connect the muscle to your bones. The tendons and the muscles are the important main physical structures for your flexibility efforts. It is that interface with which you are concentrating on. Along with the bone joints and the ligament structures, the muscle mass (i.e., what strength you have) will affect how supple you are and how far you can stretch. Training and conditioning greatly affect your flexibility.

4 15.4 Focus on your muscles. How do they Work? Muscles vary greatly in their shape and size, and they serve many different functions. Most of the larger muscles, such as the hamstrings and the quadriceps, control your motion. The other muscles, such as the heart and muscles of your inner ear, perform different functions. However, at the microscopic level, all of the muscles of the body do share an intrinsic basic structure. At their highest level, the (whole) muscle is made up of so many strands of tissue, known as fascicles. You see these strands of muscle when red meat or poultry is cut. Each fascicle is made up of fasciculi, these are bundles of muscle fibres. These muscle fibres are, in turn, made of several tens of thousands of thread-like myofibrils, these contract, relax, or elongate. The myofibrils are also made up of millions of bands laid end to end and known as sarcomeres. Each individual sarcomere is composed of overlapping thin and thick filaments known as myofilaments. The thin and thick myofilaments are, in turn, composed of contractile proteins, which are primarily actin and myosin. The nerves connect your spinal column to the muscles in the body.

5 The point where the nerve and muscle connect is known as the neuromuscular junction. When electrical signals cross the neuromuscular junction, they are transmitted deep inside your muscle fibres. Subsequently, inside your muscle fibres, the electrical signal stimulates a flow of calcium which then causes the thin and thick myofilaments to slide across each other. When this happens, it signals the sarcomere to shorten, and this generates force. Therefore, when the billions of sarcomeres of the muscle shorten simultaneously, it results in a contraction of the whole muscle fibre. If a muscle fibre contracts, it completely contracts. There is no event known as a partially contracted muscle fibre. The muscle fibres are not capable of varying in intensity during their contraction, relative to the load against which you are imposing. Then, the point to consider is, how does the force of a muscle contraction result in a variance of strength from weak to strong? What occurs is that the muscle fibres are recruited, as and when required, to perform the work requested of them. The more the muscle fibres are recruited by your central nervous system, the stronger the force that is generated by the muscular contraction Fixator Muscles

The following explanation will give you a better idea as to the complexity of what is actually happening in your body when there is movement within the body.

The muscles are, by nature, extremely pliant, and they can stretch up to one and a half times their own length, whereas your tendons may be damaged permanently if they are stretched by just four

6 The following explanation will give you a better idea as to the complexity of what is actually happening in your body when there is movement within the body. Fixators are the muscles that provide you the necessary support that assist in holding the rest of your body in place while movement happens. Fixators are sometimes also called stabilizer muscles. The muscles are, by nature, extremely pliant, and they can stretch up to one and a half times their own length, whereas your tendons may be damaged permanently if they are stretched by just four percent beyond their natural length. When you are stretching a muscle, this means that it stretches out from the centre of the muscle belly, out to the point where the muscle and tendon meet Over-stretching means tissue damage A gentle stretch will relax your muscles, allowing them to release and grow longer. Yet, too intensive a stretch can actually produce an inflammatory response. This means that your body is trying to repair some damage. Any time you cause yourself pain, then you are actually causing tissue damage. You do not want to create any form of pain or discomfort when

7 you are trying to increase your mobility Let your mind and body relax In order for a stretch to reach the complete length of a muscle, and reach deep into the muscle-tendon connections, it is preferable that you hold each stretch for about one minute but don t push it. Work up to this optimum: Your stretches should be gentle. Try not to bounce when stretching, as this can damage your muscles. Stretching must never hurt you, so definitely stop if you start to feel pain. Holding a stretch for seconds will help your muscles lengthen. Your flexibility work, if done correctly, will produce a calming effect, and even stretching before bed will help your mind and body relax, and produce a better sleep too. Equally, your gentle stretching will aid the body to recover and regenerate. Do not stretch if you have any injuries. Keep breathing during your stretches. Correct breathing ensures that your muscles get the oxygen required during stretching. Ensure that both sides of your body are equally stretched. It might feel natural to you to focus on a dominant side, yet one s focus should be to stretch all muscles equally. Some experts propose that water is important for your flexibility, and you should drink plenty of it, as an increased water intake is thought to contribute to better

8 mobility, as well as enhanced total body relaxation. Take a Quick Recap Test 15.8 Stretching your neck Tilt your head forward, but don t rock it from side to side as this may be dangerous. Alternatively, stretch your neck to the left, then the right, go forward and backward, and return to centre. Angle your head with the ear towards a shoulder, then tilt your head backwards and roll it from left to right, then from right to the left in a 30 degree motion. Ensure that when the head is tilted backwards, you keep the jaw relaxed and even let your mouth fall open a little Stretch the shoulder Put an arm on the chest. Grasp your forearm with the other arm. Pull the arm until you feel your shoulder is stretching. Push the arm that you are stretching the opposite way so to contract the muscle if you notice that the chest is stretching instead of the shoulder Static Stretching Static stretching is a traditional type of stretching that most people are more familiar with. For example, bending over and touching your toes is a great static stretch

9 for your hamstrings and your lower back. With static stretching you will want to go to just at the point of discomfort and then hold this stretch, if possible, for seconds. Go slowly at first, do not push yourself to the point of excruciating pain and so risk pulling or tearing any muscles. As you become more habituated to stretching, your pain threshold will increase and you will be able to maintain any stretches for longer, and be able to stretch deeper. Here are some static stretches that you can do easily. The Chest. Shoulders and Biceps Extend an arm and grasp a pole or other sturdy stationary object with one hand. Then slowly rotate the body away while keeping your posture upright. Keep going until you feel a good stretch in the chest, shoulders, and biceps. Hold this and then repeat it with the other arm. Try to do this stretch at least twice for each side. Upper Body Stretch This stretch is quite easy. Grasp a chin up bar and hang from it for as long as your strength will hold. You will probably feel the stretch throughout your entire upper torso. This can be repeated several times with different grips (e.g. wide, underhand, narrow, and overhand). Lats/Chest Stretch Grab a bar or machine handle that is about waist high. Simply extend back until you feel a good stretch in the lats and chest. Hold this for seconds, take a quick rest and then repeat again. Quads Stretch Using a leg extension or seated leg curl machine, set the foot roller pad so that it is just lower than the height of your

10 backside. Put the pin in the full weight stack so that the pad does not move. Then hook your foot over the pad. Lean back and down until you feel the stretch throughout the quads. Hold this for seconds and then repeat with the other leg. Do this stretch at least twice for each side. Hamstrings Stretch Extend your leg on a weight machine, rack, or some other object that is a bit higher than waist height. Straighten your leg and lean forward until you feel the stretch in the hamstrings. Try to grab your toes if you are flexible enough, if not then just reach out as far as you can. Hold this for seconds and then repeat with the other leg. Do this stretch at least twice for each side. Lower back/hamstring Stretch This is pretty straight forward, just bend over with your legs straight and touch your toes. Hold this for seconds, take a quick rest and then repeat again. Once the stretching is over, you are now ready to begin with the main body of your exercise routine. Module Summary Lessons learned Warming up before exercising helps to prepare your muscles and prevent injuries. You should warm up for 5 to 10 minutes. Stretching can improve flexibility, give you a greater range of motion, a better posture and coordination. A fixator muscle acts as a stabilizer of one part of the body during movement of another part. Static stretching is used to stretch muscles while the body is at rest. For example, touching your toes is static stretching. You should hold these stretches for

11 at least 30 seconds. [Tweet I just completed Module 15 of the Fitness Diploma Course ]

Lesson Sixteen Flexibility and Muscular Strength

Lesson Sixteen Flexibility and Muscular Strength Objectives After participating in this lesson students will: Be familiar with why we stretch. Develop a stretching routine to do as a pre-activity before