Lecture 6 - flexibility

Focus on Flexibility - Stretching for Better Health

Importance of flexibility

  • What: ability to move a joint or a group of joints through their complete range of motion (ROM)

    • ROM (how far you can move or stretch a part of your body such as a joint or a muscle)

    • How easy it is to do the following:

      • Flexion / hyperextension extension

      • Abduction / adduction

      • Outward / Inward rotation

  • How: through stretching

  • Importance:

  1. Everyday task and pain free movement (ex. Bending, twisting, reaching, etc)

  2. Stress Relief, posture improvement, injury prevention and better balance

    1. Stress: chronic stress from sitting?

  3. Significance to aging process: Flexibility reduces over time

    1. reduces hunching and prevents falls

  • Also: Speeds up recovery time post-cardiorespiratory exercises

Factors influencing flexibility

  • Joint structure

    • Types:

      • Hinge joint: only one plane; one direction

        • Allows for flexion and extension

        • Ex. elbow, knee cap

      • Ball and socket joint: allows all range of movement, except gliding (can bend, flex)

        • Ex. hip, shoulder joint

          • The shoulder joint is the most flexible joint in the body

          • Able to rotate shoulder joint in all planes

          • Hip: flexibility and prevent lower back pain

      • Gliding joints : aka plane joints

        • Ex. foot

        • Allows foot to slide against each other??

      • Others: saddle joint (thumb), pivotal joint (neck: bone rotation), condyloid joint

    • Important to know type bc various joints can perform various activities

  • NSA (nervous system activity)

    • Proprioceptor / sense receptors

      • Communicates with other parts of body

      • Proprioceptor receptors In muscle: stretch receptors

    • Golgi tendon organs - sense receptors in the tendon

    • Stretch receptor role:

      • Detect, coordinate, and pass information about the state of the muscles to the CNS

    • Sensitive to forceful stretching

      • Muscle spindle senses stretching and send info to spinal cord

      • Golgi tendon: when senses forceful stretching, it helps the body to relax?

    • Stretch reflex - reflexive contraction of the muscles

      • Responses to any forceful stretching

  • Age and sex

    • Regular exercise delays the natural aging process activity that limits flexibility (ACSM, 2014)

    • On average, women are more flexible than men (especially in hip joint flexibility)

      • Females have more elastin fibers in hip joints vs more collagen in men for strength

  • Activity status

    • More active = more flexible

  • Muscle elasticity (ME) and compliance (C) properties

    • Elasticity: degree to which a material resists deformation and quickly returns to its normal shape

      • How easy it is to stretch / react in the body

      • Increase elasticity = increases flexibility

    • Compliance: the ease with which a material is elongated or stretched

      • = Increased flexibility

    • Soft tissues:

      • Muscles, tendons, ligaments, joint cartilage, fat, skin

      • Most important to flexibility: muscle

        • Why? The elasticity, compliance to flexibility?

    • Tendons

      • Muscles are held together by connective tissue: tendons

      • Regular stretching of connective tissues= muscle elasticity and compliance

      • Chronic disuse leads to less elasticity and compliance

        • Prone to injury and lower back pain

      • Holds muscle to bone

      • Tendons recoil back

    • Muscle temperature

      • Warmer: prevents injury and improves flexibility

Assessing flexibility - key

  • Sit and reach test:

    • Establishes which joints will benefit from stretching

    • Process:

      • Warm up 5-15 minutes before

      • Lay on ground, with sit and reach box/ test at feet, stretch as far as possible to push scale

      • At least 2-3 trials; take the best or average

    • Asesses:

      • Hamstring and lower back flexibility

        • Allows hips to stretch forward

      • Upper back flexibility

Designing your stretching program

  • Types of stretching exercises:

    • Active: requires you to apply the force for a stretch; done mainly by yourself

    • Passive: requires the assistance of a device or trained partner to apply the force of the stretch

  • Methods of stretching:

    • Static stretching

      • Slowly elongating a muscle to the point of slight tension / mild discomfort (NOT pain) and holding it at that position

      • Hold for 15 - 60 sec

      • Best practices after a sufficient warm up, aerobic or resistance training workout

      • Ex. see photo

      • Passive or active stretching

    • Ballistic stretching

      • Dynamic stretching that utilizes a bouncing motion to move a muscle beyond its normal range or motion

        • Only after warm-up

        • Fast movement / pulsing

        • Takes muscle from controlled state to

        • Controls stretch receptors

      • Only recommended under proper supervision or advanced training experience

    • Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation (PNF) stretching

      • Utilizes the nervous and muscular systems to enhance flexibility

        • Use characteristic of golgi tendon to cause the forced muscles to relax

        • Further stretches muscles to improve flexibility flexibility

      • 6 sec contraction followed by 30-60 sec assisted stretch

      • Supervision from professionals

        • Process: Hold Relax (HR) technique to Hamstrings

        • Passively stretch the muscle until they feel it

        • Contract the muscle and go against the stretch

        • Isometric contraction for 10 sec then stretch further

        • Gradually increase stretch

Frequency, Intensity, Time, Type of Flexibility

  • Type: static, ballistic, PNF

  • Frequency

    • Exercises that stretch the major muscle group should be performed 2 - 3 days a week

    • Stretching 3-5 days a week for even greater progress and benefits

    • Each stretch should be completed 4 times, allowing 30-60 seconds between each stretch

  • Intensity

    • Slowly apply stretch to muscle to the point of slight tension/ mild discomfort

    • Select stretching exercises that stretch the major muscle groups of the body

    • Don't hold your breath at any time during stretch

  • Time:

    • The best time to stretch the muscle is after the body is warmed up

    • 5-10 minutes of aerobic exercise/ joint rotation before stretching

Common Stretching Exercises

  • Choose exercises that stretch the major muscle groups of the body

    • Includes: Neck, arm, shoulder, hips, legs

  • Multiple-joint stretches or exercises is recommended over single joint stretches

    • ex. hamstring muscles, quadricep muscles, calf muscles

      • See pics on slide

  • Principle PF benefit = enhanced flexibility, muscular fitness, and neuromotor fitness

Yoga: aka “union” (in sanskrit)

  • Union between the body, mind, and spirit

    • Creating balance in the body through developing strength and flexibility

    • Most common type is hatha yoga

      • Each posture should be held for a full breath; some up to 5 breaths

    • Combination of posture is called sun salute

      • Series of 12 postures intended to be done in flowing routine

      • Concentration of mind and body’s rhythm

Tai Chi

  • Derived from martial arts

    • Combination of yoga and meditation

    • Performed slowly, softly, and gracefully with smooth and even transition between them

    • Maintains flexibility and mind-body harmony

    • Relieves stress: neuromuscular tension

Addressing Low-back Pain

  • Estimated that 80% of americans will experience some degree of low-back pain over the course of their lifetime

  • Cause: weak core muscles and limited hip flexibility

  • Muscles of the trunk

    • Pectoralis major

    • External oblique

    • Internal oblique

    • Reduc abdominis

    • Transverse abdominis

  • Preventative measures

    • Curl up exercise to strengthen abdominal muscle

      • Ex. crunches

    • Hip flexibility exercises to stretch the hamstring muscles, hip flexors, and back extensors

      • Helps us do basic body movements

      • Ex. standing lunge, cat and camel stretch, knee to chest stretch (hamstring)

Concept connections: flexibility and physical activity relationship

  • Good flexibility contributes to overall physical fitness and preventive health care

  • Joint structure, muscle elasticity and compliance, nervous system activity, activity status, age and sex can influence range of motion around joint

  • Always apply the FITT principles to design a stretching program based on your individual needs/capacity

  • Multiple join stretching exercise are recommended

Flexibility vs mobility (STUDY maybe)

  • Flexibility

    • Ability to stretch muscles/ joints/ muscle groups through complete range of motion

    • Has to do with range of motion

  • Mobility

    • Ability to actively move joints, controlled bodily movement (ex. Bending)

    • “How easy is it to do the stretches”

    • Has to do with movements

  • Intertwined concepts

MIDTERM 2:

  • 80% mc

  • 20% short answer

  • Cumulative: FITT principle

    • Recurrent topics

    • Overarching themes: not details

    • Longevity