Keys to Success - Flexibility

The need for flexibility is probably obvious. In order to kick above waist high, you must have flexibility in your hips and legs. The stretching exercises that increase flexibility also protect you from injury. In this article, we will take a look at flexibility and see what determines how flexible you are and how to improve your flexibility.

If you look at your skeletal system, it has an incredible range of motion and unless it has been injured, has all the range of motion you need already. Your muscles likely have sufficient length as well. When you were born, your body was extremely flexible, so what happened and why can’t we all do splits now? Scientists believe this loss of flexibility over time is mainly caused by the shortening of the connective tissue in and around your muscles. This shortening is caused by a lack of movement or by exercising exclusively within less than a full range of motion. It’s basically the concept of ‘use it or lose it’.

The good news is this shortening of the connective tissue can be reversed with stretching exercises. When doing stretching exercises, you need to understand that dynamic stretching improves dynamic flexibility. Static stretching improves static flexibility and to a limited degree, dynamic flexibility. So, the types of stretching exercises you will need to do will depend on what you are trying to accomplish. There are 4 types of stretching exercises:

Dynamic Stretching – this type of stretching involves moving parts of your body and gradually increasing the reach, the speed of movement or both. Our leg stretch kicks we sometimes do in our warm-ups are an example of dynamic stretching. When doing these, you should gradually increase the height of your kick each time. After you’ve gotten to your maximum height, you should only do a few more repetitions. Usually, the total number of repetitions should be 8-12.

Static Active Stretching – this type of stretching involves moving into a stretch and holding your body in that position through the tension of an opposing muscle. When we are sitting on the floor and pulling our toes back toward our body, we are stretching our calves and possibly hamstrings by contracting opposing muscles.

Static Passive Stretching (relaxed stretching) – this type of stretching involves relaxing your body into a stretch and holding it there by your body weight or some other external forces. Sitting on the floor and allowing the trunk of your body to relax forward is an example of this type of stretch.

Isometric Stretching – this is the most under-utilized stretching method. Using these types of stretches is the fastest way to increase overall flexibility. More than the other types of stretches, these are strength exercises and should only be done 2-3 days a week. In isometric stretching, you go into a position similar to one of your static passive stretches and add strong tensions of the stretched muscles. You will contract the muscles, hold it for several seconds and release the contraction. If you immediately try to stretch a little further, you will find you are able to do so. This is repeated until you have reached a point where you aren’t able to increase the stretch. You will then do one last contraction and hold it for 30 seconds.

As with all stretching, you should always stop immediately if you experience any pain. It is much better to hold back than to be injured and unable to stretch for weeks.

If you have any questions about stretching, ask one of your instructors. I would also highly recommend the book Stretching Scientifically: A Guide to Flexibility Training by Thomas Kurz. You can click on the title above to order it. Most of the information from this article is based on knowledge gained from reading from this book.

Donnie Chaffin,
3rd Dan