It is in these unstable ranges where injury often occurs. The way we see it, if you’ve only had 160 degrees of shoulder flexion for the past decade, and you quickly get to 180 degrees through stretching and mobility exercises, you have 20 degrees of unstable range of motion. Here is a key concept: when you gain range of motion, you have to learn to be strong in this newly gained range of motion. So the range of motion requirement should match the demands of the sport. The amount of required shoulder rotation for a baseball pitcher or a quarterback is going to exceed normal shoulder rotation. You may be in a sport that requires more than functional range of motion. The second bucket is more for performance. In other words, this is the motion required for normal everyday tasks such as walking, getting out of a chair, reaching your kitchen cabinets, etc. The first bucket is “normal”, or functional range of motion. If your hip flexors are so tight that you are bent at the waist when you stand, you need to stretch. If you’ve just had a knee replacement, and you can’t straighten your knee, you will benefit from the right stretches. ![]() So how do we know when to stretch? It comes down to range of motion. ![]() This has become a known issue in the dance community and is the reason that the Australian ballet has stopped passive stretching all together (Ransom, 2019). However, the overall effect is to loosen the hamstring more causing more of a problem and predisposing it to tearing. The tendency is to stretch it, which may make it feel temporarily better because you are stimulating the nervous system. Often a loose or over-lengthened hamstring will feel painful. If we became better at descriptors, maybe it would be easier to know when to stretch. If it’s tender to the touch, we call it tight. We tend to use the word tight for anything that doesn’t feel right in a muscle. One reason that it is difficult to determine if it’s appropriate to stretch is due to the brain’s perception of “tightness”.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |