Charlie Brown On Skates

The subject of stretching has come up in recent days, and it’s very close to my heart since it is one action I am taking to try and alleviate some of my chronic back issues. One thing I have realized is that even knowledgeable athletes make mistakes when stretching or coaching others to stretch.

I’m not a fitness expert. But like anyone else, I can learn and pass it on. There are three sources I would credit in the last year that have taught me about stretching. First, Tony Horton from the P90X home fitness workout program, which I completed over the summer (and will be doing again.) Second, Barry Publow and his book Speed on Skates as well as his Breakaway Speed DVD. And lastly, my MYO Pain physical therapist who has been working on me for the last month.

Stretching is not rocket science, but it should be done properly. Here are my suggestions for stretching to get the most benefit out of the process without causing injury:

1. Warm up the muscles to be stretched. It’s a bad idea to stretch cold muscles. The cold muscle is less pliable and ready to stretch than the warm muscle. It doesn’t take long to warm up. Before working out in my P90X program, there is generally a 3-4 minute warmup session consisting of knee raises, running in place, jumping jacks and moving lunges.
2. Stretch the muscle for a minimum of 15 seconds. Any less isn’t doing you any good. The muscle has a built in defense mechanism that will resist the initial stretch, and you can feel this. It takes about 15 seconds for the muscle to relax and allow itself to be stretched - and if you are warmed up as well, you’ll get a better stretch. I always try to go 20 seconds on each stretch to be sure.
3. Do not bounce. Don’t stress your muscle by bouncing up and down, this is a great way to hurt yourself. Stretch the muscle slowly and consistently.
4. Don’t cause yourself pain. If what you are doing hurts, your body is telling you that it’s not a good idea. Stretching should not cause pain. If it does, don’t do it and seek out a therapist who can look into the problem. Possibly you are trying to stretch too much, no harm in just easing off. Stretching is a slow and methodical action that you should feel, but not cause pain.
5. Breathe. Don’t hold your breath when you stretch - I see people do this all the time. You want to be relaxed while stretching the muscle. Take slow controlled breaths. This will help you extend the muscle and stretch more effectively. Holding you breath simply makes you tense up and will inhibit your attempts to stretch properly.

Follow these principles and you should get a worthwhile stretch. I have certainly found in my experience that post-activity stretching is far more efficient than pre-activity. Certainly this is due to the fact that your body has fully warmed due to the exercise and gotten loose on its own. It’s at that point where you can really get a good stretch.

I’m not saying stretching before a workout doesn’t have a benefit, I just find it far less effective. As for skating specific, Barry I think rightly mentions the hip area as a crucial part of where the skater needs good range of motion. And by the way, that is one of the real benefits of skating - improving our range of motion. This allows us to get lower, extend better (and without struggle) and in general relax and skate more comfortably.

So as a skater, we ought to make sure we stretch the glutes, the hamstrings, IT band, quads, anything that relates to your hip movements really helps. It also helps to do your groin, adductors and calves. And in his DVD, Barry made a good point in that we should stretch both ends of the quad. We all do the standing up stretch and grab our ankle, but the other end close to our pelvis needs it as well (often referred to as the hip flexor stretch) it stretches the illiopsoas muscle.

You can stretch this by kneeling in a lunge. Like so:

If you don’t feel the stretch there, you can reach back and grab your ankle and pull it up. If you Google “hip flexor stretch” you can get a lot of examples.

Happy stretching!