'Do I Have to Stretch?'
Written by Talha Hussain on 2:14 AM
It feels good, but can it really make me look long and lean?
By Martica Heaner, M.A., M.Ed., for Benighted89 Health & Fitness
Q: How important is stretching and how often should you do it? I've heard that you should stretch as much as possible to minimize over-development of muscles and stay long and lean. I've also heard that you don't need to spend much time stretching, and that too much can hurt you. And, to further the confusion, some experts recommend "static" stretching and others "dynamic."
When I do stretch, I feel limber. But soon afterwards I get tight again, and I've never noticed my limbs getting "longer." Why doesn't the body stay stretched?
A: There's almost nothing that feels better than a long satisfying stretch when you've been in a cramped-up position for an extended period. But, is stretching the cure-all body transformer that some stretching-advocates claim? No.
Stretching is the act of elongating a targeted muscle group to release muscular tension and improve the flexibility, or range of motion, around the associated joints. So, if you stretch your hamstrings, you'll feel loose in the back of your thigh, and can improve the mobility of the knee and hip joints near this muscle group. But you will not make your legs longer, nor transform muscular legs into thinner legs.
How can you get "longer" or avoid bulking up?
The only way to get longer limbs is to lengthen the size of your bones (and this physiologically impossible, unless you are a growing child or adolescent). The only way to make bulky or muscular limbs look leaner is to decrease body fat from the area. And you achieve that by eating more healthfully and burning more calories from cardiovascular workouts.
Some people can appear leaner, even if they are muscular, if their muscles are "defined." That is, there is little surrounding fat obscuring the muscle. Heavy, progressive weight training can help shift body composition in this way so that you decrease body fat and build muscle. But if you have many pounds of fat to lose, weight training alone won't likely do the trick; more cardio and fewer calories consumed are the way to go.
Will stretching while you lift weights prevent you from bulking up? No way. Stretching can't prevent a muscle from getting larger because the two processes are separate. Stretching temporarily lengthens a muscle group. But muscle size is affected by how hard a muscle contracts, whether a person has a genetic tendency to build muscle easily, and whether they are eating more than normal to fuel this anabolic process.
How do dancers get long and lean?
The reason that many ballet dancers look so long and lean isn't because they spend all their time stretching. It's because they often spend hours a day burning calories from their dance training, and they either under-eat, or cannot easily eat enough to match their energy expenditure. So their body fat percentage is very low and, while their muscles are strong, their muscular growth is kept to a minimum.
Also, the professional dancers you see on stage are selected precisely because of their look. There are plenty of short, squat, muscular dancers who stretch all day but don't get long and lean because they eat well and their body type is more muscular. Consider this: Gymnasts are just as flexible, if not more so, than dancers, but they tend to be extremely muscular. This, too, is because they also self-select according to their genetics—shorter gymnasts are more aerodynamic, and shorter limbs tend to look more muscular when trained. For both dancers and gymnasts, plenty of stretching certainly helps them perform, but it doesn't affect the way they look.
How can you make that elongated feeling last?
Muscles don't stay stretched because the minute you move from an elongated position, muscles contract again. And, while one muscle group is stretching, the opposing muscle group is shortening. Take your thigh, for example. Your quadriceps are the four muscles in the front of your thigh. Your hamstrings are the three muscles in the back of your thigh. If you bend your knee to stretch your quads, the hamstrings shorten. If you straighten your leg to stretch the back of your thigh, the quads shorten. You can neither stay bent nor straightened permanently—or you wouldn't be able to move!
Muscles get tight for a variety of reasons, including over-exercise, mental and physical stress, or from weaknesses in surrounding muscles. Stretching can temporarily provide the physical release of some of the tension, but if the underlying cause is not addressed, then the tension will return.
Should you try to become more flexible?
The more you stretch, the more flexible you become, but how flexible you should become is up for debate. Flexibility lessens with age, so it's certainly a good idea to do what it takes to stay flexible. But you can go too far: There is some concern that being hyper-flexible may make your joints unstable and more susceptible to twists, sprains and strains.
What's the best way to stretch?
There are many ways to stretch including "static," which means holding an elongated position for two or three seconds, or much longer. Or you can do "dynamic," or ballistic, stretching where you stretch while moving. This tends to be riskier since it's easy to push the body too far and stretch too fast. Specialized stretching techniques include proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation (PNF), where you contract a muscle first and then stretch it immediately as you release the contraction. All these forms of stretching improve flexibility.
But you can also improve your flexibility, or how supple your joints are, from moves other than stretching. Even a walk around the block or doing a set of exercises with weights can improve the flexibility, or range of motion, of certain joints. That's why sometimes any activity at all can help your body feel looser.
Official recommendations from the American College of Sports Medicine are to perform stretches for the major muscles and/or tendon groups at least two to three days a week, doing three to four repetitions of stretches that last 10 to 30 seconds. Keep in mind it's always better to stretch when your body is warmed up. So stretch at the end of your cardio or weight-training routine, and if you are only stretching, perform some general cardio activity for at least five minutes to warm up before going into deep stretches.
By Martica Heaner, M.A., M.Ed., for Benighted89 Health & Fitness
Q: How important is stretching and how often should you do it? I've heard that you should stretch as much as possible to minimize over-development of muscles and stay long and lean. I've also heard that you don't need to spend much time stretching, and that too much can hurt you. And, to further the confusion, some experts recommend "static" stretching and others "dynamic."
When I do stretch, I feel limber. But soon afterwards I get tight again, and I've never noticed my limbs getting "longer." Why doesn't the body stay stretched?
A: There's almost nothing that feels better than a long satisfying stretch when you've been in a cramped-up position for an extended period. But, is stretching the cure-all body transformer that some stretching-advocates claim? No.
Stretching is the act of elongating a targeted muscle group to release muscular tension and improve the flexibility, or range of motion, around the associated joints. So, if you stretch your hamstrings, you'll feel loose in the back of your thigh, and can improve the mobility of the knee and hip joints near this muscle group. But you will not make your legs longer, nor transform muscular legs into thinner legs.
How can you get "longer" or avoid bulking up?
The only way to get longer limbs is to lengthen the size of your bones (and this physiologically impossible, unless you are a growing child or adolescent). The only way to make bulky or muscular limbs look leaner is to decrease body fat from the area. And you achieve that by eating more healthfully and burning more calories from cardiovascular workouts.
Some people can appear leaner, even if they are muscular, if their muscles are "defined." That is, there is little surrounding fat obscuring the muscle. Heavy, progressive weight training can help shift body composition in this way so that you decrease body fat and build muscle. But if you have many pounds of fat to lose, weight training alone won't likely do the trick; more cardio and fewer calories consumed are the way to go.
Will stretching while you lift weights prevent you from bulking up? No way. Stretching can't prevent a muscle from getting larger because the two processes are separate. Stretching temporarily lengthens a muscle group. But muscle size is affected by how hard a muscle contracts, whether a person has a genetic tendency to build muscle easily, and whether they are eating more than normal to fuel this anabolic process.
How do dancers get long and lean?
The reason that many ballet dancers look so long and lean isn't because they spend all their time stretching. It's because they often spend hours a day burning calories from their dance training, and they either under-eat, or cannot easily eat enough to match their energy expenditure. So their body fat percentage is very low and, while their muscles are strong, their muscular growth is kept to a minimum.
Also, the professional dancers you see on stage are selected precisely because of their look. There are plenty of short, squat, muscular dancers who stretch all day but don't get long and lean because they eat well and their body type is more muscular. Consider this: Gymnasts are just as flexible, if not more so, than dancers, but they tend to be extremely muscular. This, too, is because they also self-select according to their genetics—shorter gymnasts are more aerodynamic, and shorter limbs tend to look more muscular when trained. For both dancers and gymnasts, plenty of stretching certainly helps them perform, but it doesn't affect the way they look.
How can you make that elongated feeling last?
Muscles don't stay stretched because the minute you move from an elongated position, muscles contract again. And, while one muscle group is stretching, the opposing muscle group is shortening. Take your thigh, for example. Your quadriceps are the four muscles in the front of your thigh. Your hamstrings are the three muscles in the back of your thigh. If you bend your knee to stretch your quads, the hamstrings shorten. If you straighten your leg to stretch the back of your thigh, the quads shorten. You can neither stay bent nor straightened permanently—or you wouldn't be able to move!
Muscles get tight for a variety of reasons, including over-exercise, mental and physical stress, or from weaknesses in surrounding muscles. Stretching can temporarily provide the physical release of some of the tension, but if the underlying cause is not addressed, then the tension will return.
Should you try to become more flexible?
The more you stretch, the more flexible you become, but how flexible you should become is up for debate. Flexibility lessens with age, so it's certainly a good idea to do what it takes to stay flexible. But you can go too far: There is some concern that being hyper-flexible may make your joints unstable and more susceptible to twists, sprains and strains.
What's the best way to stretch?
There are many ways to stretch including "static," which means holding an elongated position for two or three seconds, or much longer. Or you can do "dynamic," or ballistic, stretching where you stretch while moving. This tends to be riskier since it's easy to push the body too far and stretch too fast. Specialized stretching techniques include proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation (PNF), where you contract a muscle first and then stretch it immediately as you release the contraction. All these forms of stretching improve flexibility.
But you can also improve your flexibility, or how supple your joints are, from moves other than stretching. Even a walk around the block or doing a set of exercises with weights can improve the flexibility, or range of motion, of certain joints. That's why sometimes any activity at all can help your body feel looser.
Official recommendations from the American College of Sports Medicine are to perform stretches for the major muscles and/or tendon groups at least two to three days a week, doing three to four repetitions of stretches that last 10 to 30 seconds. Keep in mind it's always better to stretch when your body is warmed up. So stretch at the end of your cardio or weight-training routine, and if you are only stretching, perform some general cardio activity for at least five minutes to warm up before going into deep stretches.
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