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2006/01/15, 02:05 PM
I was just listening to an audio interview with Dan Fichter, while doing other things, and he said something that made a lot of sense to me...
He was talking about increasing recovery rates, and one of the most effective ways to do this is to relax the muscle immediately after your workout, to halt cortisol production, begin recovery, and return the muscle to its normal length.
One of the ways many people do this is through passive stretching.
Dan's reasoning here, and this makes a lot of sense to me, is that this is no different than performing an isometric contraction. Anyone that has researched flexibility will know that what prevents you from stretching entirely is the stretch reflex. This is a reflex from your CNS that doesn't want the muscle to stretch past its range of strength, so it contracts the muscle. Essentially, stretching is a form of isometric contraction that further stimulates the golgi tendon. Fichter believes there is no reason for further stimulus of the CNS, and that all PWO activity should be geared towards taking the stress off of the CNS.
However, the most effective time for stretching is PWO, and for a variety of reasons.
In addition, stretching a muscle, while causing an immediate stimuli for the CNS, is temporary, and results in a longer period of relaxion afterwards...
I want to hear some thoughts, so lets discuss this...
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Pain is only temporary, it is in your mind. If you can still walk, then you can still run.
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Quoting from 7707mutt:
The squat cage is holy ground.
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2006/01/15, 09:15 PM
http://muscle.ucsd.edu/musintro/contractions.shtml
Wrestler isn't passive stretching mostly eccentric? which is different from isometric(which is in constant place within ROM)?
"
Normally, the handful of fibers that stretch during an isometric contraction are not very significant. The true effectiveness of the isometric contraction occurs when a muscle that is already in a stretched position is subjected to an isometric contraction. In this case, some of the muscle fibers are already stretched before the contraction, and, if held long enough, the initial passive stretch overcomes the stretch reflex (see section The Stretch Reflex) and triggers the lengthening reaction (see section The Lengthening Reaction), inhibiting the stretched fibers from contracting"
from
http://www.cmcrossroads.com/bradapp/docs/rec/stretching/stretching_4.html....(I suggest people visit this site)
I think very light stretching within ROM of the muscle might be helpful....however going beyond that is counter productive....the point is to calm down CNS, not to further stimulate it.....so I am thinking maybe isometric holds would be most beneficial?...and won't result ina stretch reflex...
http://www.cmcrossroads.com/bradapp/docs/rec/stretching/stretching_4.html#SEC36
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2006/01/15, 09:46 PM
Any type of stretching initiates the stretch reflex. Passive/static, dynamic, AIS, and especially PNF.
I believe he may be right in his theory, however I disagree with the practice. It sounds right to say, but I think it is insignificant. I think that the 2 hours your workout may be more important than the extra 5 minutes spent stretching.
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Pain is only temporary, it is in your mind. If you can still walk, then you can still run.
============
Quoting from 7707mutt:
The squat cage is holy ground.
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2006/01/15, 09:56 PM
I think the little things only start to matter when you become elite...otherwise it's not necessarily important....however if you're elite lifter or athlete then every tiny difference matters so in that case 5 minutes may make a big difference....you can say lifting is a game of grams....eventually that tiny difference is compounded and becomes significant...
what do you think is a better recovery tool...directly PWO?
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2006/01/16, 04:53 PM
Excellent point.
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Pain is only temporary, it is in your mind. If you can still walk, then you can still run.
============
Quoting from 7707mutt:
The squat cage is holy ground.
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