Does it help recovery? I couldn’t say objectively, but it does feel good and it is relaxing. And that may be all it needs to be. If you need some science to help you out there’s this: To Compare the Effect of Vibration Therapy and Massage in Prevention of Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS).

But there isn’t much research on percussion massage guns specifically. I was skeptical at first because they are not cheap, and they are called guns that you have to point at yourself and trigger.

How Percussion Massage Guns Work

At the top of the range for percussion massage guns, like the $599 Theragun Pro, have some serious specs: 60 lbs of force, 16 mm amplitude, Bluetooth, OLED screen, and wireless charging.

And if you are paying six hundred dollars to get pummeled you do need to consider the specifications. You want over 40 lbs of force so that you can apply more pressure and not stop the massager from working because it stalls.

You want higher amplitudes, 16 mm being the top of the range, because that is the amount the head of the massager moves out and you need higher amplitudes for deeper massages.

You also want speed, how fast the massage head moves, with the mid-range of speeds being about 2,500 RPM. In that regard, the Njoie Nforce hits the mark. And it squeezes in under $100.

That goes a long way to making up for its lack fo muscular specifications to compare with the big boys. I guess the only way you’d know the difference in performance is if you have devices at both ends of the spectrum to compare directly on your skin.

Good Vibrations, ROM and DOMs

The benefits of massage are tangbile for everyone from hardcore lifters to casual users. The premise of massage is that it moves muscles and tissues around, releases toxins by creating better circulation, throughput of oxygen and overall release of tension and stress.

It can help loosen you up after a heavy lifting session and keep you flexibile. It can help you sleep better which anyone who has ever had a massage session in a spa can attest to.

I can say, unequivocally, that everyone in my family fights over using the Nforce at nights and that it’s pretty cool to pummel yourself with it before you go to bed.

Just the vibrations across your skin are enough to relax you. Still, you have to be careful to keep the gun away from your neck or sensitive parts of your body. Maneuvering it on your own can be challenging unless you have expertise as a contortionist.

It builds grip strength, though, especially at higher RPMs. And if all it does is give you a sense of relaxation then it’s worth the hundred bucks you pay for it. That’s probably no more than one professional massage session in a spa worth of cost.

Which brings me to my ultimate recommendation for the Njoie Nforce: you get what you pay for. This is an entry level product or a low-cost alternative to more powerful percussion massage guns.

The experience is enjoyable on a casual basis but if you are someone who sees a massage gun as a component of your training and recovery then you might want to consider something more powerful.

The post Njoie Nforce Percussion Massage Gun Review appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

On the other hand, mobility is your active range of motion. For example, have someone raise your leg up and now can you lift your leg up and out of that person’s hand? No, then lower the leg and see where you can lift it up to without the assistance of your partner. The height you were able to lift it on your own is your mobility.

There are no scientifically conclusive flexibility training routines. There are a number of factors that impact your flexibility including your age and your stiffness, how tight your muscles are is maybe another way of saying it.

Your flexibility does impact your mobility in so far as it provides a range of motion that while static is a marker of sorts. But, in order be mobile you need to have muscle strength in order to freely move through your range of motion, while also wanting to have a full range of motion to be as mobile as possible.

Everything is also related to your specific activity or sporting preference. An Olympic weightlifter is going to have a different level of flexibility and mobility than an Olympic gymnast, although I train both weightlifters and gymnasts.

Which brings me to why I don’t see any separation of flexibility and mobility, and I don’t even see any separation by sport because who doesn’t want to move as freely as possible, whatever their activity?

In my Gymnastics Strength training program, one of the athletes, Stanley Cecil Bastien, demonstrating the movements is a weightlifter, his picture is the top of this article.

When someone gets injured, it’s not always easy to tell whether the injury is the result of some limitation in movement or overuse. If the athlete’s ability flexibility and mobility are optimal it does give the athlete more reasons to avoid injuries that can arise from sudden changes in direction, bad form or just plain bad luck in an active situation.

Mobility is end range strength training. Having strength in end ranges will open up an athlete’s ability to do more movements and they are less likely to sustain an injury if they have better control of their joints ranges of motion.

The post Don’t Separate Flexibility and Mobility: You Need Both appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

This movement list isn’t exhaustive, but it’s a great place to start. Each position focuses on a different movement pattern that you need to perform at your best. Through these movements, you might come to understand it’s your ankle mobility that is affecting your squat or your hamstring flexibility that is hindering your back position during deadlifts. You might realize that your back pain is caused by tight hip flexors and hamstrings, or that the rotation in your shoulders is limited. Understanding these limitations can help you push past them to improve position and, ultimately, performance. 

Let’s Get Started

Before you dive into this test, you’ll need to warm up. Below are some suggested warm-ups which will get the body warm without altering your movement pattern in any significant way.

• 400m run
• 20 standing hip circles, 10 each direction
• 5 arm circle, each side and forwards and backwards
• 2 minutes jump rope

• 100 jumping jacks
• 20 lunges, alternating
• 10 bear crawls
• 5 arm circle, each side and forwards and backwards
• 50 jumping jacks

• 250m row
• 10 donkey kicks
• 10 burpees
• 10 donkey kicks
• 250m row

Here are a few tips before you get started with the assessments.

1. You can start with any of the movements on this list. Just make sure you test both sides.
2. The best way to perform this test is with a friend so he or she can compare your positions to the photos below and help guide you in the right direction.
3. For each movement, carefully follow the steps on how to properly execute the position. This will ensure a more accurate test.
4. You may repeat each movement, holding for 30 seconds, up to 3 times. On the third attempt, you can log your results. This will allow any stiffness from previous workouts to subside.
5. Each movement has a different set of questions for you to answer that will help guide you in a direction towards improving your mobility.
6. If you are injured in any of the areas below, skip that movement.

Internal/External Rotation

Start seated on your shins. Grab your right elbow with your left hand and draw your elbow as far behind the back of the head as possible. Keep your right elbow where it is as you extend your left arm out to the left. Turn your thumb down and begin to reach around your lower back and up towards your right fingers. If touching your right finger tips is not possible, reset and grab a strap or band and start the process over again, this time holding onto the strap with your right hand. This will give you something to grab onto once you reach your left arm around.

[All photos courtesy Stephanie Ring]

1. Are you able to grab your finger tips?
2. Where do you feel this the most? In your triceps or the front of your left shoulder?
3. Is there any pain? If so, where?
4. When you perform the test on the other side, do you notice a difference between the two?

Results: If you have trouble drawing your right elbow in towards the midline, you should focus on stretching your triceps and lats and using a foam roller on those areas 2-3 times a week. If drawing your left fingers up the back to reach for the right fingers is impossible or just feels tight, then the muscles of your rotator cuff are tight. You can use the movement you just performed to improve internal rotation.

Spinal Rotation

Start on your back with your legs extended out in front. Draw your right knee into your chest. Shift your hips to the right as you draw your right knee over to the left. Extend your right arm out to the right.

1. What are you feeling?
2. Do you feel a stretch in the front of your shoulder or in your lower back?
3. When you perform the test on the other side, do you notice a difference between the two?

Results: Lack of spinal rotation can mean issues for the lower back and shoulders as they pick up the slack. We want the knee to get to ground, even if the shoulder lifts up. You will want to focus your attention on stretches that encourage twisting and extension like the one you just performed and on positions like upward-facing dog, which encourage spinal extension.

Hamstring

Start on your back. Wrap a band or strap around the arch of your right foot and extend your leg. Keep your arms long and your shoulders relaxed. Drive your right heel up as you draw your shin towards your face.

1. Can you straighten your leg?
2. Is your leg vertical to your hips?
3. When you perform the test on the other side, do you notice a difference between the two?

Results: If your leg is not stacked vertically over the hip and at the same time your shin is not close to your face, you will need to spend time stretching your hamstrings, not just through static stretching but dynamic stretching as well. Movements like good mornings, inchworm, and bear crawls will encourage functional hamstring mobility and serve as a great warm up to almost any workout.

Hip Flexor

Step your right foot forward and drop your back knee to the ground. Press down into your right big toe and hug your outer right hip in towards the midline. Soften your hips down.

1. Where do you feel this stretch?
2. Does it look as though there is a straight line from the bottom of the front knee to the top of the back knee, as seen in the photo?
3. When you perform the test on the other side, do you notice a difference between the two?

Results: This is a test of feel. Most athletes carry tightness in their hip flexors because of a combination of training and sitting. So regardless, always try to work the hip flexors into your new stretching routine. Stretches like this one are a great place to start.

Ankle

Step your right foot forward and drop your back knee to the ground. Lay your torso on your thigh and scoot your back knee forward to allow your right knee to move forward of your right toes. Keep your right heel down. This test is best done without shoes.

1. Can you get your front knee beyond the plane of your front toes?
2. Does the heel immediately come off the ground?
3. Do you feel a bigger stretch in your calf or your Achilles?
4. When you perform the test on the other side, do you notice a difference between the two?

Results: Ankle mobility is a large factor in improper squat mechanics. It is helpful to know where you’re feeling the tightness. If you feel a deep stretch in the calf muscle, then foam rolling and calf stretches post workout are recommended. If your ankle feels stuck, then you will want to focus on banded distraction stretches and stretching your ankles like the movement above.

Now Keep It Up

Now that you have a better understanding of your mobility and flexibility in these key areas, it’s time to do something about it. Check back in a few weeks for an article with stretches for these major issues. In the mean time, stretch well, stretch often and with purpose.

How about some stability to go along with your mobility?

Build a Resilient Spine: Start Here

The post How to Assess Your Full-Body Flexibility appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

When I took a step back to look at my training as a whole, I realized a few important things were holding back my progress:

• All of my training injuries, some of which took months to recover from, could have been avoided. In training, as opposed to competition, I control all of the variables. Most of my training injuries were the result of a poor length-tension balance throughout the skeletal muscle and fascia in my body.
• Having tunnel vision when it comes to chasing maximal strength without regard to maintaining or improving flexibility actually results in slower progress in the long run. You will quickly find yourself injured if you try to force strength gains, rather than taking a slow and steady well-rounded approach in developing different physical qualities.
• Making significant, lasting changes to your flexibility after years of neglect requires that you prioritize it over all of your other types of training. You will make faster progress by working on your weak points than you will hammering away at the areas that are already strong.

I could no longer use the excuse of “hard training” being the cause of my injuries. While there are many other factors besides flexibility, when it comes to avoiding injury (appropriate intensity, volume, recovery, and nutrition), it is definitely the factor that is the most neglected by the average gym rat or strength/power athlete.

Below I’ll outline the strategies that have gotten me back on the right track and have allowed me to see the best progress in flexibility that I’ve ever had.

Your state of mind is as important as the stretches you perform.

1. Learn to Love Static Stretching

Good ol’ static stretching has gotten a bad rap over the years. When the studies came out proving that long-duration static stretches temporarily decrease muscular strength, a lot of people threw it out of their programs entirely, despite the multitude of positive benefits. When static stretches are utilized, they are seen as somewhat of an afterthought.

Over time, athletes tend to develop chronic injuries when the body is out of balance, and when they reach a point where the pain starts hindering their performance or affecting their daily life, they will start looking for solutions. Initially I had an aversion to static stretching because I thought it would take too much time. However, the first time I took it seriously and loosened up my chronically tight hip flexors, the instant relief I felt in my hips and lower back was enough to change my mind. If you are looking to introduce some serious stretching into your routine, keep the stretches basic, only use a moderate intensity, and warm up the area ahead of time with light exercise.

2. Prioritize Flexibility Workouts Over Strength Workouts

I’ve found it easy to become enamored with chasing strength gains as opposed to maintaining balance throughout my body, even though I knew better. This led to many injuries that could have easily been avoided if I had put more time into stretching and increasing my healthy range of motion.

It wasn’t until I made stretching a priority that I started to bring my body back into balance. In my stretching workouts, I like to include some traditional strength training movements, but they are there more as a means to assess my mobility in between stretches, and they are performed with moderate to light weights only. Remember, strength can be regained much faster than the time it takes to develop flexibility, so don’t worry if some of your lifts drop temporarily. Besides, your long-term progress will be greater once you have addressed your flexibility deficits.

3. Understand Stretching to Loosen Up vs. Deep Stretching

Short duration stretches (less than 15 seconds) and mobility drills (hip circles, arm circles, windmills) can be used during a warm up routine to increase range of motion and loosen up before training, but this type of stretching is primarily meant to help you reach your current maximum range of motion, not increase it beyond that. If you want to make lasting changes to your flexibility, long duration deep stretching where you take the time to relax as much as possible will have a greater benefit.

Deep stretching takes time and patience and can be performed after these shorter duration stretches and exercises, or after a brief workout where you are not particularly fatigued. I generally spend 45-60 minutes (including warm up) in sessions like these before I feel like I’ve hit my limit for the day. Trying to cover all of the joints in the body would take hours, so I generally choose to spend most of my session on a particular region of the body like hips/glutes/adductors or shoulders/arms/spine. Experiment and see what feels good for your body.

4. Relaxation (Mental and Physical) Is Key for Deep Stretching

When you are stretching to create lasting changes in flexibility, your state of mind is at least as important, if not more, as the stretches you are doing. If you feel stressed, impatient, or irritable, you’ll have to clear your mind before you can reap the benefits of the stretch.

But don’t let stress be an excuse to skip your stretching sessions. Sometimes the best way to get rid of stress is to just get started, focus on the sensations you are feeling, and how the feel of the stretch changes as you adjust your posture.

5. Don’t Let Poor Workplace Posture Reverse Your Progress

Consider how much time you spend each week sitting at your desk at work, sitting on a couch, staring down at a cell phone screen, or commuting. This can easily amount to eight or more hours per day, or 56+ hours a week. Even if you perform some type of manual labor at your job, you are still susceptible to chronic injuries and tightness from these sedentary habits.

Now think about how much time you dedicate to training, stretching, and working out the imbalances in your posture. If you are the typical recreational athlete, you are probably allotting between 4-12 hours a week to focused training or sport. Even if you are at the top end of that range, you probably spend about five times more time being sedentary in postures that are having a negative effect on your flexibility.

You need to mitigate the damage. Take breaks at work at least once an hour to stand up and stretch to avoid some of that stiffness by the end of your workday. You’ll feel better, reduce your mental fatigue, and be more productive. The hip flexors, quads, glutes, adductors, pecs, and shoulders are the areas to focus on as they tend to get especially tight from spending an extended time sitting. Adjustable desks that can be used as either a standing or seated desk are great options for reducing stiffness and taking pressure off of the lower back.

Dynamic stretching and deep stretching both play a role in developing flexibility.

6. Use a Different Stretching Sequence

If you ever experience a pinching pain in or around the joints while stretching, stop. You should never experience pain, especially sharp pain, while stretching. If the affected area is injured or inflamed, it’s probably a good idea to lay off stretching the area for the time being.

Stretching in a different sequence might be all you need to do to alleviate the pain. For example, if you experience pain in the front of the shoulder while performing a lat stretch that brings the arm overhead, try stretching the biceps first, and then return to the lat stretch and see if you have improved. Stretch the hip flexors and rectus femoris before targeting the glutes, adductors, and hamstrings, if you experience a pinching sensation in the front of the hip.

Other benefits of varying the sequence is being able to get a deeper stretch on the areas that are last in the sequence. Working from the extremities to the center by stretching the calves before the hamstrings, or the forearms before the elbow flexors can help you to achieve a deeper stretch on the areas targeted second.

7. Put in the Work

I have benefited from therapies like acupuncture, foam rolling, massage, and ART at one point or another. However, my main attraction was the belief that I could see someone for an hour and they could fix my issues so I could get right back to training. The reality was that while these therapies did provide some relief and increased range, without working to build on the improvements on my own time, I would quickly revert back to my original condition.

If you have access to a quality therapist, seek treatment and follow up with a stretching program as a way to accelerate your progress.

Make Your Flexibility Gains Stick

Flexibility is a critical component to a well-rounded training program, and is essential for maintaining quality of life as we age. Once you treat your flexibility gains with the same seriousness as you do your strength gains, the freedom of movement, decreased pain, and lessened tension throughout the body will have you hooked. Now that you have these strategies, it’s time to get to work!

You’ll Also Enjoy:

• Flexibility Is Like Any Other Discipline – It Takes Discipline
• 5 Stretches to Regain Hip Mobility and Flexibility
• Cell Phone Ergonomics: How to Avoid the “Smart Phone Slump”
• New on Breaking Muscle Today

Photos courtesy of CrossFit Emperical.

The post A Guide to Regain Your Flexibility appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

I’m a female bull rider looking to tweak my training routine. I’ve been lifting for a couple of years, but getting into bull riding now I know I need to focus more on a combination of bodyweight strength and flexibility (yoga type stuff). Can you give me an idea of how I should program my training for maximum relative strength, and explosive flexibility? I’m 5’4 at 135 pounds and roughly 18% body fat. I can do 5 strict chin-ups, 15 pushups, hold a handstand for over a minute – nothing crazy, but a good foundation. How do I work progressing to one arm push ups/pull ups, handstand pushups, front levers etc. into a routine?

Well, that’s one I hadn’t heard before! But while this question catches the eye with its uniqueness, the issues it addresses are far more universal – and often ignored.

Breaking the Question Down

There are two questions involved in this reader’s email:

1. How to build combined bodyweight strength and flexibility
2. How to work more advanced bodyweight exercises into your routine

The answer to the second is about time and practice. As you build strength, you can move toward modifications of more advanced exercises, eventually evolving them to their full realization. Try using a wall to help with stabilization, or find a workout buddy and spot each other as you move forward. Be careful, be patient, and have fun.

The first question, on building combined bodyweight strength and flexibility, invites more discussion. There’s a series of thoughts in the reader’s question, all heading in the right direction, but not quite reaching their logical conclusion. “Training for maximum relative strength and explosive flexibility” and doing “yoga type stuff” are in the realm of a concept that many tend to have selective hearing about in the strength-training world – adaptability.

Adaptability Versus Strength

Adaptability and strength are not necessarily the same. The fact that our bull rider friend is asking this question indicates she’s well aware of this fact. We like to think that if we bulk up our muscles we’ll be strong enough for any task, but that’s not necessarily true. For optimum performance in athletic activities, as well as day-to-day living, we need functional strength. Strength that integrates our muscles while maintaining mobility allows us to adapt to situations as they come, leading to optimum performance under changing conditions.

Bull riding is almost too perfect an example of this. When you’re being thrown every which way, with minimal predictability, your main goal is being able to adapt to the rapidly changing conditions. Our questioner has the right idea in using bodyweight exercises to train for this kind of adaptability. Because bodyweight exercises demand the body to work as an integrated whole, rather than breaking it into isolated parts, they train it to be strong in a functional, adaptable way.

“The idea of using ‘yoga type stuff’ to train for adaptability is spot on. Yoga is all about adaptability, mentally and physically.”

When it comes to training for adaptability, though, not all bodyweight exercises are created equal. The idea of using “yoga type stuff” to train for adaptability is spot on. Yoga is all about adaptability, mentally and physically. The following yoga-inspired guidelines can help you develop a training program to enhance functional strength and adaptability, so you can take on whatever life throws at you (or, in the case of our bull riding friend, whatever way you find yourself thrown).

1. Choose Integration Over Isolation

One area where yoga practice excels is in integrative strength training. Isolating muscles in split training programs is a popular strength-training method, and with good reason. It allows you to absolutely fatigue muscle groups, knowing they’ll have time to recover the next day. There is a major downside to this, though. Isolating muscles often means they don’t learn how to work together, leading to astounding strength in individual muscles, but a lack of functional, full-body strength.

Strength training for adaptability means training the body to work together as the well-oiled machine it is so beautifully built to be. Cohesive, integrated muscle movement creates functional strength. One 2013 study published in the Journal of Strength and Condition Research suggested that integrated training may provide a larger increase in performance than isolated strength training. This is because “activities of daily living, as well as recreation and sport, involve a combination of attributes including strength, speed, balance, and coordination through multiple planes.” Isolation exercise doesn’t offer these benefits. Integrated training does.

“You can reap the benefits of this integrated strength training through bodyweight exercises that require the whole body to work as a whole.”

Integration exercises have also been shown to be key to increasing core strength, which is vital to improving stability, reducing injury, and maintaining mobility. In one recent study, integration core exercises resulted in greater core activation than isolation exercises.

You can reap the benefits of this integrated strength training through bodyweight exercises that require the whole body to work as a whole. Variations on planks and push ups, inversions such handstands or headstands, and yoga-style arm balances are all great places to start. Anything that challenges balance, such as one-armed push ups or pistol squats, will also have a similar effect.

2. Stretch and Strengthen at the Same Time

When we’re discussing adaptability, it’s better to think of flexibility as “mobility” and strength as “stability.” While maximum performance means cultivating both, it also means keeping the two in balance. Too much mobility without any stability is a recipe for disaster. To picture this, imagine a toddler stumbling about. She has enviable mobility, touching her toes or putting her legs behind her head like its nothing. But she tends to tumble and fall all over herself, displaying a notable lack of stability.

Too much stability with little mobility is the other extreme. It’s one you may be more familiar with in your own body, especially if you frequently weight train. Those who are extremely muscular, but have neglected mobility training tend to get tight muscles and ligaments. They are extremely stable, but if they come under stress in the wrong direction, they tend to break rather than bend.

“A 1991 study of female collegiate athletes across eight weight-bearing sports showed that those with strength and flexibility imbalances were more prone to injury.”

Balance between mobility and stability (flexibility and strength), then, is key, both for adaptability and injury prevention. In fact, you could say adaptability is injury prevention. The ability to respond to changing conditions means the body can accommodate stress, rather than strain under it. Science backs this up. A 1991 study of female collegiate athletes across eight weight-bearing sports showed that those with strength and flexibility imbalances were more prone to injury.

Yoga practitioners consciously cultivate this balance by bringing strength and flexibility together. They deliberately support flexibility exercises with strength and imbue strength-based movements with flexibility. You can find this same sense of balance through intentional, concentrated stretching, and mobility training.

Try this basic hamstring stretch as an example:

1. Sitting on the floor with your legs extended, reach forward to try to touch your toes.
2. Make sure your pelvis isn’t tilted backward, keeping your spine long and extended from your tailbone through your neck. Sitting on the edge of a folded towel can help with this. If necessary, bend your knees.
3. Exhale to engage your lower abdominals, finding support as you pull the navel toward the spine.
4. Inhale to fill the rib cage, scooping the navel forward and up to draw you further into the stretch.
5. Notice how this almost-isometric contraction brings a strength element into this common flexibility exercise.

3. Train Your Brain

Adaptability is mental as well as physical. Take a hint from the yogis, and bring some mindfulness into your bodyweight workout. The result will be a calmer, steadier mind that deals better with stresses and stimuli – including careening about on a bull.

While it may seem like pure hippie stuff, mindfulness practice is getting a lot of attention in the always-skeptical scientific community. Your brain can be trained just like a muscle. An article published in the May 2012 issue of the Medical Hypotheses Journal postulated that yoga practices help increase vagal tone. The vagus nerve is the largest cranial nerve in the body, and is responsible for regulating major bodily functions, including breath, heart rate, and digestion. It also determines our ability to process our experiences, helping us manage whatever life throws at us.

“Try pairing your movements with long, even inhales and exhales. Move slowly and consciously, placing all of your attention on the task at hand, rather than letting your mind wander.”

Low vagal tone leads to poor digestion, increased heart rate, and messy moods. It’s associated with depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and chronic pain. Yoga has been shown to improve all these conditions. It pays to exercise your brain.

You don’t need to sign up for a yoga class to tone up your vagus, though. Bringing the yogic mindset into your bodyweight training can work wonders. It’s a simple as drawing your attention to your breath, keeping it calm, slow, and steady as you work. Try pairing your movements with long, even inhales and exhales. Move slowly and consciously, placing all of your attention on the task at hand, rather than letting your mind wander.

Don’t Get Thrown

Adaptability is worth the effort. Build your program with these guidelines and avoid getting thrown, whether you’re riding a bull or just moving through life.

Finally, to our bull-riding hero: Good luck! Hope this helps!

More Like This:

• Understanding and Analyzing Your Movement Environment
• Don’t Be a Specialist: Your Routine Needs Variety
• Create Muscular Balance With Unilateral Training
• New on Breaking Muscle Today

References:

1.DiCarrado, Stefanie. “Research Review: Effects of Integrated vs Isolated Training on Performance and Neuromuscular Control.” Brent Brookbush. 2014. Accessed September 1, 2015.

2. DiStefano, L., DiStefano, M., Frank, B., Clark, M., and Padua, D. “Comparison of integrated and isolated training on performance measures and neuromuscular control.” Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research/National Strength & Conditioning Association 27, no. 4 (2013): 1083-1090.

3. Knapik, JJ, CL Bauman, BH Jones, JM Harris, and L. Vaughan. “Preseason Strength and Flexibility Imbalances Associated with Athletic Injuries in Female Collegiate Athletes.” American Journal of Sports Medicine 19, no. 1 (1991): 76-81. Accessed September 1, 2015.

4. Streeter, C.C., P.l. Gerbarg, R.B. Saper, D.A. Ciraulo, and R.P. Brown. “Effects of Yoga on the Autonomic Nervous System, Gamma-aminobutyric-acid, and Allostasis in Epilepsy, Depression, and Post-traumatic Stress Disorder.” Medical Hypotheses 78, no. 5 (2012): 571-79. Accessed September 1, 2015.

5. Wilson, Angela. “Scientific Research: How Yoga Works.” Yoga International. October 9, 2014. Accessed September 1, 2015.

6. Wortman, Joshua. “Science Says “Integration” Exercises Activate Muscle More Than Isolation Exercises.” Breaking Muscle. Accessed September 1, 2015.

Photos courtesy of Shutterstock.

The post Lessons From Bull Riders: How to Train Strength and Flexibility appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

What the research says:

• Subjects who did a twelve-week flexibility program got weaker in the bench press.
• Strength training did not seem to negatively affect flexibility.

Study Design

Dynamic stretching involves more motion than static stretching, so it tends to be a better warm up. The authors of the study used trained individuals who employed dynamic stretching in the same session as a strength workout to mimic many real-life situations. The researchers wanted to see how strength training affected flexibility, since results of previous research have been mixed.

There were 28 female subjects, and each of them was placed in one of four groups:

1. Strength training only
2. Flexibility training only
3. Strength training followed by flexibility training
4. Flexibility training followed by strength training

Everyone exercised on alternating days for 48 sessions over the course of twelve weeks. The strength training was comprised of eight compound and isolation exercises, for three sets of 6-12 reps. The flexibility training was all dynamic stretches, meaning each stretch was performed with movement, rather than just held at the end of the range of motion. The participants did dynamic stretches for the whole body, in three sets of thirty reps for each move. It took sixty minutes total to complete the flexibility training session.

The subjects performed two flexibility tests before and after the twelve-week period. They took the standard sit-and-reach test and a test for the goniometry (which is the measure of joint angles) of ten different joints. The subjects also completed two strength assessements at the end of the study, with a ten-rep-max test on both the bench press and leg press.

Results

Bench press strength increased in all of the groups that did strength training, but not in the flexibility-only group. The most significant improvements were, in order:

1. Strength-only group
2. Strength and flexibility group
3. Flexibility and strength group

Table 1 shows how dynamic stretching affected the bench press and leg press in each group.

These results suggest that an hour of dynamic stretching cuts into your strength gains, especially if the stretching is performed first.

Perhaps more surprising, leg press strength increased in all groups, even the flexibility-only group. In fact, as you can see in the table above, the effect strength (ES) of the results in the flexibility-only group was about as large as the strength and flexibility group. The flexibility and strength group actually outperformed both of them, and the strength-only group saw the biggest improvement by far (+207 lbs).

So Did They Get More Flexible?

Flexibility, on the other hand, didn’t improve at all in any of the groups. Perhaps this was due to the fact that the training was performed using dynamic stretches, while the tests were static, but that is not clear. Ultimately, the researchers warned against training any kind of flexibility concurrently with strength training:

For populations desiring maximum strength development, strategic use of flexibility training should be considered to secure the value but avoid the negative effect on strength adaptations.

A few question marks remain, but what is certain is that there was very little improvement in flexibility over the course of the program. And while dynamic stretching may not always work, the good news is that strength training doesn’t seem to have a negative impact on flexibility levels.

References

1. Thalita Leite, et. al., “INFLUENCE OF STRENGTH AND FLEXIBILITY TRAINING, COMBINED OR ISOLATED, ON STRENGTH AND FLEXIBILITY GAINS,” Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research 2014, DOI: 10.1519/JSC.0000000000000719

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The reason why cryotherapy, or the use of ice as treatment, works for improving flexibility is a bit confusing. The accepted theory is the reverse of what you might think. Essentially the cold will cause vasodilation, or the widening of your blood vessels. Vasodilation allows for greater blood flow and higher temperature inside the muscle. This has a soothing effect on the musculature, which in turn reduces its resistance to being stretched.

Anyone who has ever used ice to treat an injury or to improve recovery may think this odd. Ice is generally used to lower tissue temperature and induce vasoconstriction (the opposite of vasodilation), which inhibits swelling. Swelling is the enemy of injury repair and exercise recovery. But for flexibility, ice is used for the opposite effect. If you’ve studied biology, you will know that this is the standard reaction of the body to external cold: to reduce blood flow to the superficial (near the surface) blood vessels, while increasing blood flow underneath to prevent heat loss.

In this study the researchers focused on the hamstrings. This group of muscles is large enough that the cold from cryotherapy can’t penetrate the whole muscle. This creates a steep temperature gradient, meaning that the muscle near the surface is much cooler than the muscle deep down. The deeper muscle then experiences increased blood flow, and theoretically, the muscle’s resistance against stretching is reduced. In fact, the researchers rejected anyone with too much leg fat, which could interfere with this gradient effect.

The researchers were also interested to see if different applications of icewould also have different effects. They used both crushed ice in a bag, which is a therapeutic standard, and the same crushed ice with water. Water conducts the warmth of the body away faster than air and ice alone. The researchers hypothesized that the combination of water and ice would yield superior flexibility benefits.

To test flexibility, the researchers used a slightly different type of PNF stretching than you may have heard about. If you’re not already familiar with it, PNF stretchingtypically utilizes an effect called autogenic inhibition, which is a fancy way of saying it makes the muscle you’re stretching tired. You stretch a muscle like the hamstrings and then periodically flex the hamstrings as well. In this study they used standard PNF, but followed it by a contraction of the hip flexors, which is intended to create a further inhibition of the hamstring muscles.

There was no substantial difference between the two types of ice, but the ice was definitely effective at improving flexibility. In fact, the ice alone increased flexibility by about six angular degrees before the stretching even began. Stretching alone improved flexibility by ten degrees, but stretching and ice together (both kinds of ice therapy) improved flexibility by about fourteen degrees.

There was a small, insignificant trend for the wetted ice to work better, but essentially there’s a big point of diminishing returns somewhere around plain old ice in a bag. However, icing large muscles prior to flexibility sessions is a tool coaches and athletes should be employing where flexibility is a concern.

References:

1. Chelsea Larsen, et. al., “Effects of Crushed Ice and Wetted Ice on Hamstring Flexibility After PNF Stretching,” Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, DOI: 10.1519/JSC.0000000000000340

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Before I continue, let’s get the definitions straightened out. Many people confuse active and passive flexibility with dynamic and static flexibility.

Active stretching – This occurs when either the agonist or antagonist muscles are working during the stretch. You may have heard of PNF stretching, which is an active form of stretching where the antagonist muscle (the muscle being stretched) also contracts.

Passive stretching – In contrast, this when some other force engages the stretch. This is the sort of stretch that most people think of when they hear the word “stretching.” Either gravity provides the force or unrelated muscles help, such as when you do a standing hip flexor stretch.

Static stretching – This is when you hold the stretch in place. The intensity is usually measured by how long you hold the stretch.

Dynamic stretching – This is when you move into the stretch, and these are often counted in repetitions. To use a previous example, PNF stretching is not just active, it’s also static, because you hold the stretch while the muscles work.

Active flexibility often has a lower range of motion than passive flexibility. The reason is generally because many forms of active stretching rely on the agonist muscles to engage the stretch, and they become too weak at extreme ranges of motion to overcome the increasing tension of the muscles being stretched. This is not a problem in passive stretching. However, active flexibility may be required for many of the activities in your sport.

One major reason for this study is the lack of evidence showing how our stretching programs actually affect our sports performance. Take a recent article I wrote on hip flexibility as an example. The participants who engaged in a stretching program actually experienced reduced hip flexibility while running. In today’s study, the stretching programs focused on both traditional stretching as well as sport-specific stretching in a group of dancers.

The dancers were divided into one of three groups. There was a strength group that worked the agonist muscles on the tested stretches. The strength exercises focused on the hip flexors. There was also a low-intensity stretching group that performed static, passive stretches focusing on the hamstring, gluteal, quadricep, and calf muscles. Finally, there was a high-intensity group that did the same stretches as the low-intensity group, but stretched pretty hard, although not quite maximally. The researchers indicated that the latter method was used most frequently by the dancers before the study.

All three groups improved passive range of motion over the six-week period, with no significant difference between the groups. However, for active range of motion, both the strength training group and the low-intensity group outperformed the high-intensity group.

It’s possible that since high-intensity static stretching was the most common method before the study, the participants were already adapted to it. Nevertheless, this research seems to indicate that athletes of all types should begin incorporating more relaxed stretching methods and agonist-strengthening exercises for improved results.

References:

1. Matthew Wyon, et. al., “A Comparison of Strength and Stretch Interventions on Active and Passive Ranges of Movement in Dancers: A Randomized Controlled Trial,” Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 27(11), 2013.

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When you think yoga probably a few words come to mind – flexibility, stretching, and breath. For those of you who might not be able to touch your toes, this can be very discouraging. I can’t tell you how many people tell me they can’t do yoga because they are not flexible, so they don’t try it. But what people actually know about yoga might be limited to that pretzel yoga pose they saw on the cover of Yoga Journal.

So I showed up to teach the first day of beginner yoga class and discovered fifteen students with that new-to-yoga, deer-in-the-headlights look. I announced to the class that this would be a beginner gentle class and we would start off slowly. The class almost immediately seemed relieved and took a deep breath. Several students in the class had little flexibility and required modifications. I always encourage my students to start off where they are and sometimes I share my own personal struggles. I know as yoga teachers we say it doesn’t matter if you touch your toes, but we mean it. If you are breathing, you are practicing yoga.

Don’t swear off yoga forever if your forward fold looks like you’re standing in mountain pose. This is where my student says, “I am folding forward!” It can definitely be discouraging if your flexibility feels like a bad joke, but it’s all about baby steps. A marathon runner doesn’t wake up one morning and start running marathons. So, it’s unrealistic to believe that you will be an advanced yogi without practice. As I’ve often heard, slow and steady wins the race. Yoga is definitely not about winning, but it sure feels good when you finally get that favorite yoga pose.

Here are a few beginner tips to get started:

1. Start practicing! Don’t make excuses.
2. Pick one yoga pose and work on it.
3. Got tight hamstrings? Forward fold every day is your friend.
4. If you’re short on time, practice for 5-10 minutes per day.
5. Don’t dismiss breathing and meditation. It works!
6. Find a teacher and class that work for you. All types of yoga exist.

Here’s the skinny on yoga that you won’t know before you go: You will not be required to stand on your head or do other advanced poses. Your teacher will not require you to touch your toes. You do not need to be flexible, nor do you need to wear yoga pants. (I don’t think I have ever seen a guy wearing yoga pants, but I’m sure it exists somewhere. Definitely not in Quincy, Illinois.) You will be able to use modifications. You do not need to be good at yoga or know what you are doing.

All of that is what we yoga instructors are here for and if you have the right teacher, you’ll see just what I’m talking about. Go for it!

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Jon Engum’s Flexible Steel delivers much needed insight into flexibility with authority and real results. There’s no surplus of flexibility in our population these days. Furthermore, I’d argue even those who are in training or performance practices that demand flexibility are often lacking in the ability. To remedy this problem, Jon Engum steps in as an experienced coach with a pedigree and performance markers that can garner your attention.

It won’t take long for you to be convinced of Engum’s expertise. For a simpleton like myself, the picture of him in the book at the bottom of the splits with a 2-pood kettlebell locked out overhead did the trick. If you’re still skeptical, Jon is a Grandmaster with a seventh degree black belt in Taekwando. He’s also a fourth degree black belt in both Hapkido and Kumdo and is a Master RKC instructor. Combining his own real world experience with that of a life-changing set of experiences with the author of Relax into Stretch and Super Joints, Pavel Tsatsouline, Engum delivers a flexibility protocol that makes bold claims and delivers.

Right away, Engum knows he’s got to win over skeptics. The text, then, starts with a simple test of rotational flexibility. He asks you to stand with your feet rooted in the ground with locked out knees. He then asks you to rotate maximally from the trunk and mark your rotational flexibility with a visual marker. Then Engum gives specific cues to retest, not once but twice. Both times I experienced marked improvement.

Still skeptical, I was forced to read on. Here Engum lays the foundation of the text with the Three Big S’s of Stretching: strength, space, and spread. Simply put, strength in this context seeks to utilize strength over gravity to achieve greater ranges of motion, while space looks to demonstrate flexibility by creating space between joints rather than “jam one joint into another.” Lastly, spread refers to an ability to defuse movement over a larger area in the body rather than achieve range of motion from one focal point.

Engum’s flexibility training begins with mobility drills, which claim to aid in creaky joints and even reverse arthritic symptoms. From this general movement prescription, Engum gets specific as he introduces “The Frog” and leads into the splits in the next few chapters. The nitty-gritty of the splits development section of the program involves a series of drills pulled from all the corners of Engum’s knowledge, from solo practice at the beach to partner drills to the use of kettlebells and heavy bags. After addressing a variety of tactics to achieve better side splits, Engum begins to introduce front splits. It’s here that skill transfer drills, like a calf stretch and a kettlebell aided hamstring stretch, for example, help build competency for the front split.

With all the movements and progressions having been addressed, Engum touches on two powerful points in closing the text. The first, more straightforward bit of advice is the use of water as a tool to improve flexibility. Literally, training in water provides a gateway to more remarkable results. And lastly, I thought an incredible point Engum makes it to avoid living in the stance of our sport. Fighters for example operate in constant flexion. Crouched and ready to spring, these athletes often take this posture with them outside of their sport. Balance is critical in our biomechanical habits, and Engum’s point about not living in our fighting stance is duly noted. As a matter of fact, Engum’s “Escape Your Fighting Stance” program could be used as a stand-alone program.

As someone with enough flexibility to remain functional in the movements that I practice, I feel like my sense of urgency around the topic of flexibility is lacking. However, this lack of urgency is to my own detriment. I have a clear picture of which areas I struggle in and my seemingly annual bout with a hip problem is due in large part to specific areas of immobility. Engum’s work is universally relevant, in my opinion. His program will outline tools to help nearly anyone achieve greater flexibility.

It’s worth noting, however, that the program is biased towards the fighting community and the splits, specifically. Given that the reader is motivated and in search of such results, Engum can provide it. The text may be a bit too loose to many folks that need specific structure in their programming, though. All and all, this was a learning experience from a person with the authority to teach it.

Flexible Steel is available at Dragondoor.com for $29.95

Learn more about Jon’s system by trying his four weeks of free workouts.

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