SELF CARE/RECOVERY STRETCHING: Stretching is a vitally important part of the conditioning aspect of your training. Stretching helps in the recovery of muscles. It lengthens and realigns shortened muscle fibres after activity, helping to prevent injury and minimise muscle soreness while helping to maintain optimal length and power resulting in better positioning in the water throughout your strokes to support/allow for more efficient and effective training. The end result being stronger results at competition. Stretch warm muscles only. Stretches should only be applied after warm up or activity. Stretching for Recovery: NEVER stretch into pain. If pain is felt or if you can t feel the stretch properly, reposition your posture so you can feel a stretch without causing pain. Play around with it so you get the best stretch for you. Everyone is different with different levels of flexibility. For those of you who are naturally tighter, you may need to extend the amount of time within each stretch. You can also help the muscles relax more by occasionally coming out of the stretch and giving your muscles a bit of a shake before continuing. For those of you who are hyper mobile (have an excessive range of movement in the joints), you need to take extra care when stretching to ensure you don t over extend your joints. Take your time to work out what s best for you e.g. It may be better for you to employ more self massage techniques and to work with a physio on strengthening exercises to support the joint. Stretching takes time so please give yourself enough time to do the process correctly to ensure the best results. Static Stretching: Start by lengthening the muscle. Use 3 deep breaths to relax and oxygenate the muscle. On the last out breath, move into the length a little more to feel a slight stretch. Breath until the muscle has relaxed into its new length and the stretch is no longer felt. Repeat 3 times, each time going into the stretch a little more than the last. Static stretching can be done alone or with a partner. It is critical to maintain communication throughout any partner stretching so that over stretching injuries/strains do not happen. Respect your partner s boundaries while you re assisting them. PNF (Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation) Stretching: This is a stretch method often used in partner stretching to not only lengthen the muscles, but to also wake up the neuromuscular pathways, activating (or switching on ) the muscles being worked. Therefore it s a great type of stretch to do after initial warm up before training and competition. PNF follows the basic principals as static stretching with added resistance (contraction of muscle) and rest between the stretch phases. From the lengthened position the person stretching contracts the muscle, pushing with about 20% force into their partners resisting hands. The contraction is held for between 6 10 seconds. At the end of this time (and on the out breath), the stretchee relaxes the muscle to allow their partner to take them into a stronger stretch lasting 20-30 seconds. Allow another 20 seconds of rest between the stretch and next contraction. Repeat 3 times.
SELF MASSAGE TECHNIQUES: Myofascial release techniques are used to break the adhesions that build up between the muscles and the surrounding fascia (connective tissue that surrounds the muscle) to allow the muscles to move more freely. Incorporating MFR with a stretch can achieve a greater (and faster) result. Starting with the muscle in a relaxed position, place hand/s on the muscle about to be stretched using a moderate pressure. As you lengthen, move the hand/s in the opposite direction along the length of the muscle from the moving part (joint). Although friction is required for this technique, use a little massage medium i.e. moisturiser to avoid excessive friction burns. This technique can be used by yourself or as part of partner work. It s a great release technique for upper traps, pecs and lats etc and therefore fantastic to use during competitions. Trigger points are congested tissue commonly referred to as knots. They inhibit a muscle s normal function producing weakness, and pain when pressed into. An active trigger point will produce pain that radiates out to a greater area. Trigger Balls can be used to roll through sore muscles and to do more specific stationary work to treat trigger points. It s as easy as placing the ball under the area that triggers pain. Using your body weight, relax onto the ball and stay in that position until the pain disappears. Remember to use your breath to facilitate the process. It is important to understand that trigger point therapy is an aggressive technique, so do not over do it. Working with a pain scale between 1 and 10 with 1 = no pain and 10 = excruciating, do not exceed 6 ½. When you first begin, only work the point once. As you build up you can rework the area, repeating the technique x 3. You will find that as the tissue improves you ll be able to press deeper. Trigger balls are particularly useful on areas such as the glutes, hips, upper back, and shoulder blades (areas hard to reach). Tennis balls can be used as substitutes for trigger balls. Foam Rolls can be used to massage most parts of the body. FM s are particularly great for the ITB (outside of the thigh), an area very difficult to stretch properly and an area that when tight can cause issues for knees, hips and lower back. They re also great for the lats, lateral rotator (back of shoulder), glutes, legs, and back. To use, just roll the area being worked back and forth over it while supporting your weight with the rest of your body. The faster you roll and less weight you relax onto the FM, the lighter the depth achieved. The slower you roll and more weight you use, the deeper the layers affected. It is always a good idea to first release the more superficial layers before going deeper to gain a better release without bruising tissue! Pool noodles can be substitutes for the foam rolls, however the noodles are not as dense as the FR s and will have to be replaced regularly as they flatten with use. MET or Muscle Energy Release Technique is similar to PNF but uses 6% muscle activations and has a 20 sec resting phase between activation and stretching. This is a great technique to help thoracic rotation (best performed with a partner). You can use activation techniques in correlation with your work with Trigger Balls, and Foam Rolls to gain faster, more effective releases. Eg. While rolling through you thoracic (upper back), bring your shoulder blades toward your spine using 6% effort, hold for 6 secs and then on your out breath, relax your rhomboids for 10-15 secs while slowly rolling through area before continuing. Repeat 3 times.
STRETCHES Please remember to work within your boundaries. One side may feel tighter than the other this is normal. Some days you will feel tighter than others and on such days you may need to stay within the 1 st and 2 nd progressions of sequence. These stretches can be applied as both recovery static stretches, and some as pre activity PNF stretches. 1. Wide Knee Forward Bend 2. Butterfly Adductor Stretch This is a stronger adductor stretch than the wide knee forward bend. Therefore only practice if you are comfortable with WKFB. 3. Possibly add flutter movement to either posture. Soles together, knees toward ground Add forward bend 3. Hip Opening Forward Bend Heel to groin, heel to heel 4. Lats Stretch Seated with forearms on ground (if Chest forward toward ground you feel stretch by leaning forward before forearms touch ground, stay there) PNF Stretch: activate through lats
5. Seated Hamstring Progressions 6. Straight leg, forward bend 7. Lying Glute Stretch Holding arch of foot to initiate rotation of spine 3 Continue spinal rotation while initiating lateral stretch PNF Stretch: activate hamstring to create slight bend of knee *Hamstrings generally need more time, so repeat a number of times between other stretches PNF: resist against hand PNF: resist against hands 8. Seated Glute Stretch 9. Seated Twist for Spinal Rotation PNF: resist in opposite direction 10. Lying Twist for Spinal Rotation
1 11. Hip Flexor/ Quad Stretch PNF Stretch: activate hip flexor by pressing knee forward and down into towel *Remember to tuck tail bone under to activate glutes to assist hip flexor stretch 2 Adding quad to strengthen stretch PNF Stretch: as above, plus press foot into hand to activate quads 3 Add torso and lat stretch 12. Front of Ankle Stretch 3 Start by sitting on feet Add towel to increase stretch If flexible enough to stretch comfortably, lean back into hands while bringing knees up to create a greater stretch through the front on the ankle and anterior compartment of the leg