Stretching in Sports Training

Stretching! In the gym, I can see stretching being ignored very often. People spend either no or a minimal time doing stretching exercises.

Every exercise should be preceded by a warm-up the purpose of which is to prepare your muscles, circulatory and respiratory apparatus for the subsequent workout. The warm-up creates an optimal coordination of your body functions. It shortens the duration of your movement reactions, prevents damage to your muscle fibers (especially those caused by cold), improves your overall coordination and performance. Stretching exercises or just “stretching” have become an integral part of sports training in recent years. I have integrated it in the final part of my trainings.

The Purpose of Stretching

• increasing performance (reflected in increasing the effectiveness of the moves)
• maintaining elasticity of muscles and tendons
• preventing muscle imbalance (stretching of shortened muscles or stiffened muscle areas build due to muscle shortening, and balancing of one-sided muscle loads)
• improving joint mobility
• help with maintaining a proper body posture, proper breathing, and even efficient and economical movement
• decreasing muscle tone and bringing overall relaxation
• preventing muscle and joint injuries (mainly reduces the risk of so-called blunt injuries such as torn muscles, tendons and muscle insertions)
• improving the response, readiness and overall focus on further activities

The Rules of Stretching

• Choose exercises to reach the desired joint range, but don't force yourself to get over pain.
• Don't use a too narrow range of exercises. Try different angles and variations of exercises so that your body doesn't automate them.
• When performing static stretching, don't swing in the utmost position.
• While exhaling, always push the particular body part into a limiting, painless (or very slightly painful) position. While inhaling, release the tension slightly.
• Stretch shortened (tonic) muscles after every strain, but also in the days when you don't perform any exercises.
• Don't stretch torn or stretched muscles.

Static vs. Dynamic Stretching (at the beginning of a training – during the warm-up)

• Most studies today tend to prefer dynamic stretching over static stretching (especially in sports focused on strength and speed).
• Static stretching can negatively affect performance when strength and speed are important. Dynamically stretched muscles produce greater strength primarily due to increased activation of motor units.
• Dynamic stretching further increases the subsequent performance and activation of the nervous system.

Dynamic Stretching

• Different types of lunges, light jumps, squats, backward leg extensions, forward bends, movement around the room (not staying in one place), light press-ups, faster initial warm-up before the performance.

Static Stretching

• Head bends, push-ups, forward bends, trunk extensions, leg stretching, side bends, joint releasing, rotations, stretching the arms upward or to the sides, yoga elements, etc.