Athlete Stretching the Lower Hamstrings
This published article (I only copied the Abstract for you) brings up a couple of great points that we can use in our daily practices. These are:
- Stretching a tendon for 30 minutes gives increased flexibility to the muscle/tendon complex for up to 24 hours.
- Stretching less than 30 seconds gives less than optimal results
- Prolonged stretching up to one minute can stretch the sciatic nerve and lead to rebound tightening of the muscle.
We can assume that this general rule applies to all muscle groups that we want to stretch. I typically want my patients to stretch 20 seconds, so I am going to increase to 30 seconds. Here are some of the other stretching rules I pontificate to my patients:
- Never stretch through pain
- Hold the stretch, do not bounce
- Warm up in some way before you stretch (Don’t Stretch Cold)
- More Flexibility is gained by stretching after you workout
- Remember many tendons need to be stretched in multiple positions (achilles with the knee straight first, and then knee bent for example)
