Overzealous Stretching

There is such a thing as over stretching, or stretching beyond your range of motion.  A good rule for stretching; you can never stretch too often, but you can easily stretch too far! 

The personality type, who enjoys participating in endurance sports, is normally the over-achiever.  A person who tends to believe that if something is good for him or her, then a lot of that something must be even better!  It sounds funny, but how many of you have done six 100-meter strides although your coach only told you to do five?  Pushing your limits is what makes you the athlete you are.  Going beyond expectation is your M.O.  That is GREAT, but those methods do NOT translate into how you should stretch to stay healthy.

Stretching MUST become a part of your warm-down routine after EVERY work out.  Stretching helps to restore those chronically shortened and fatigued muscles back to a normalized resting length so that they can recover properly.  Proper stretching can realign scar tissues on your muscles and connective tissues.  Stretching is also a fantastic way to end your day.  Deep breathing while stretching will optimize your circulation and oxygenation of muscles and tendons as well as help you to produce more of those wonderful endorphins.  But you must know your limits with stretching, or you may be doing more harm than good.

Over-stretching muscles can be characterized by pain, discomfort, or shaking during your stretch.  If you feel any of these symptoms while engaging your muscles in a stretch, back-off until the symptom subsides.  Then hold your position in the less-stretched position and breathe deeply one – three times per stretch.  Pain, discomfort, and/or shaking are indications that you are causing damage to your muscles and tendons.  A stretch should be comfortable and even feel good. 

You may notice that when you attempt to stretch tendons, they hurt or draw back or cause shaking of the muscle attached to them.  Do not aim to stretch your tendons.  Tendons are simply connective tissues attaching your muscles to your bones.  Your tendons are as elastic as they are ever going to be.  Your stretching focus should ONLY be on the muscle itself.  Often, athletes cause micro-tearing of tendons by stretching them.  Yes, you may gain a little more flexibility temporarily.  But within hours, your body will react by forming scar tissue on the newly damages musculotendonous unit.  Then the next time you stretch the tendon, you will have to stretch harder to break up the scar tissue, more damage will occur, and more scar tissue will develop, further decreasing your range of motion at that joint.  Focus stretching muscles, not tendons.

Yoga is a GREAT way to maintain flexibility.  As long as you stay within YOUR range of motion, yoga can be part of your active recovery plan.  If you take a yoga class, please remember that it is not a competition.  Just because the over-weight, sweaty guy next to you can touch his chest to the floor in the pigeon pose, does not mean that you should be able to also.  Remember, especially in Yoga class, the indications of muscle and tendon damage are pain, discomfort, and/or shaking.  If you feel those symptoms, simply ease-off, and hold the pose where you feel comfortable.

Another classic mistake of the overzealous stretcher… stretching cold muscles.  Try to never stretch cold muscles.  “Cherry-pickers” before a run are NOT recommended.  Circulation to the muscles for just 2 – 5 minutes is necessary to warm-up the muscles enough for a nice, mild stretch.  Also remember not to bounce when you stretch.  Ballistic stretching (bouncing) causes micro-tears, damaging muscles and tendons.

Implement proper, regular stretching into your training at least twice a day.  You can certainly stretch more than twice a day, but remember that stretching too far = tissue damage = loss of range of motion = pain = unattained goals.  Stretch correctly and you will feel the benefits!