i will begin with saying that gaining flexibility is a challenge when weight lifting, and especially if you, never in your life during your growth years had ever tried to achieve above average flexibility. as an infant you are born naturally flexible…babies come out with their feet basically behind their ears. as we grow, atleast for a majority of us we lose our flexibility because our bones are growing longer and faster than our actual muscle mass, causing them to tighten.
being a gymnast myself, and also coaching, there tend to be 3 types of athletes. the extremely flexible athlete who has very low strength, an athlete with adequate flexibility and immense strength, and a extremely strong athlete with virtually no flexibility. you are genetically predisposed to flexibility. some of you are born with short tendons such as the achilles and some are born with long flexible tendons which are those freaks that you remember from highschool that can turn their feet all the way around ew…. you will know for instance if you have short tendons especially in the achilles when you can not squat all the way down to the ground with flat feet. this is something you can do nothing about because once you stretch a tendon it does NOT go back and injury may happen so be careful!, but you can stretch muscles! this is where you can gain flexibility!
i will not explain specific stretches to you because it is too complicated, i will do a video sometime soon. what i can do though is explain the process of gaining flexibility and what you SHOULD know!
gaining flexibility is a LONG process and it takes alot of patience. if you truly want to gain flexibility thats great. it will improve your performance, range, and look of your physique! plus you wont feel so tight and bulky.
to gain flexibility you must stretch TWICE a day morning and night. (scenario) say you only stretch in the morning after a workout then you go to bed and wake up to do it all over again, guess what? you have to go back where you started with your stretching. as you lift weights and your muscles become sore what happens is you put tiny tears in your muscle fibers which then repair themselves and become tight. so all that stretching you did in the morning for your muscles has almost had no effect because your muscles were repairing during the day as you eat and fuel yourself for anabolic activity in your body. this is why you must also stretch at night too.
also know that stretching should NEVER hurt. no, it is not suppose to be comfortable but it shouldnt be painful either. it should be tolerable. one should never push down with a grimacing face of pain or bounce, this can cause pulling and injury to your muscles. if you go all out on a stretch right off the bat you can trigger severe muscle reflex which will work against what your trying to acheive. start out with a small stretch and wait till it becomes somewhat comfortable with no pulling, i usually count to 30 and by then for me my muscles will allow me to go a little farther. therefore, I push a little farther and count to 30 and so on. listen to your body it will tell you if you went to far, just relax and your muscles will slowly give.
if you do this twice a day religiously you will slowly but surely acheive flexibility to your own personal ability…and remember everyone is different!
goodluck and i hope this helps
patience is a virtue right?!
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