EL ISLAM EN PAKISTÁN
2.3. Siglos XVIII-XX: declive y renacimiento del islam en la India India
Static stretching is quite a dark and controversial area in the exercise community. Every decade, if not less, opinions change but as with most controversial things in life, I believe you should first listen to different opinions - and after experimenting with them - make your own conclusions. Most people are bored of stretching... And those who hate stretching the most usually have the worst flexibility.
I used to belong to that category but once I experienced all the benefits static stretching provides to my body, I started appreciating it. Stretching can help you be more efficient in your workouts and prevent injuries. They will keep your musculature more balanced and improve your movement quality. I know, a lot of you don’t have the mood or time to stretch your entire body every day but don’t worry, you can still get many benefits from just doing 10-15 minutes of strategic static stretch-ing per day, as long as you do it at least 4 days per week.
Personally, I like to practice strategic static stretching before dynamic stretching when I train, and also at days when I’m very stressed physically and/or mentally, I add another session before I go to sleep, which helps my body calm down.
7.1 Strategic static stretching
There is a tendency for people in the fitness industry, especially in areas like yoga to over-stretch the body. This is not as productive as some of these people may think and can even lead to injuries.
Depending on our lifestyle and genetics, all of us have smaller or bigger muscle imbalances. These imbalances lead to phasic and tonic muscles.
Tonic muscles tend to be short and tight, whereas phasic muscles mostly tend to be weak and elongated. For this reason, it is really important to focus on stretching your tonic muscles and avoid stretching muscles that are already too loose. Typically, your tonic muscles will be the ones that feel really tight when you stretch; muscles you use predominately in everyday life, and also muscles that tighten up quite easy when you are stressed or have bad posture. For example, muscles around your neck. There might not only be specific muscle groups but also specific sides of the muscles groups. For instance, your right hamstring may be tighter than your left; in this case you should even up the flexibility of your hamstrings by focusing more on the tight one. I recommend that you do a full body stretch session, noting down which muscles felt the tightest. These areas of your body that feel tight during the day just by doing regular stuff, should be your main priority in static stretching.
These are some examples of typical tonic muscles in many people:
• Upper trapezius - Superficial muscles on the back of your neck
• Pectoral muscles - Chest muscles, especially in people with rounded shoulders.
• Hamstrings and hip flexors - Common in people who sit all day
• Gastrocnemeus and soleus muscles - Your calve muscles
CHAPTER 7 - STATIC STRETCHING
Personally, I try to do the following 6 stretches before I start warming up for my training sessions.
They focus on all of the muscles that tend to tighten up a lot from the strength exercises I use, and the muscles that tighten up from sitting a lot on a desk. Stretch in every exercise for 20 - 30 seconds and repeat it one or two more times depending on how you feel.
7.2 My personal stretching routine
1. Doorway chest & shoulder stretch. Stand under the middle of a doorway with one foot straddling the threshold and your hands gripping the inside of the doorway, on each side. Shift your weight on the forward foot until you feel a pull in your shoulders and chest (pic. 45). Keep your hands at chest height first to focus more on the chest. After that, place your hands just above your shoulder’s height to focus more on your anterior deltoids (front part of the shoulder). To isolate arms separately, face your body a bit towards the opposite side of the arm you want to focus on.
2. Shoulder dislocations. This exercise is explained in detail in the warming up chapter and is a dynamic stretch. However, I like to include it in my static stretching routine as well, because it helps release a lot of tension around the neck area (pic. 46).
Picture 45 Picture 46
3. Neck stretching on a chair. The musculature around our neck is one of our most sensitive areas.
These muscles are also called stress-muscles due to the fact that whenever people get stressed, they tend to fire up, stiffen and also be the cause for headaches. Observe yourself when you are typing on your computer on a busy day or even when you are washing the dishes having stressful thoughts flying around your head. You can notice many times your neck musculature stiffening up while doing the easiestt daily tasks that require no use of these muscles. Long term stiffness in this area can cause all sorts of problems which can get worse with exercise if you don’t learn to relax them. Dealing with a lot of tightness around the neck myself, I have found the following exercises to be the most efficient to loosen up these muscles.
Body positioning. To begin with, sit in your chair with good posture, spine elongated, and chest out. If you tend to have rounded shoulders perform a shoulder roll backwards with both of your shoulders while you gently slide your shoulder blades down along your spine. This will help keep your chest open and is in general a good exercise to perform whenever you feel your shoulders hunched. Try to remain in this position relaxed. Reach down on the right side and grab the bottom of the seat with your right hand (pic.47a).
Now follow the next three steps:
a. Tuck in your chin.
b. Tilt your head bringing your left ear towards your left shoulder until your feel a bit tightness on the right side of your neck.
c. Lean your body towards the left side, keeping your right shoulder down and stable by holding the seat underneath you as described in body positioning (pic 47a,b).
Picture 47a Picture 47b
A lot of people tend to pull their head with their other hand to increase the intensity of the exercise but if you maintain proper posture in this exercise, that will not be required. Your neck has some really sensitive muscles, so avoid pulling your head that way and putting excessive force in these stretches, especially in the beginning. In situations when you feel specific smaller muscles tight on one side of your neck and you need to isolate them, you can do the following variations as well:
If you want to isolate the upper trapezius after tucking in your chin down and tilting your head to-wards the side you are stretching, turn your head a bit toto-wards the same direction before you lean your body to initiate the stretch.
To isolate the levator scapula after tucking your chin down and tilting your head away, turn your head towards the opposite side you are going to lean to. Take into account that sometimes just stretching these muscles won’t be enough. It is really important to develop daily awareness of these muscles and prevent them from tightening during the day due to stress and neurotic holding pat-terns you have developed over time, in all sorts of different physical and psychological situations.
4. Desk stretch for lats and chest. You can use your desk, a windowsill, a kitchen counter or any kind of ledge about waist height. Sit on your knees, bend over and place your hands on the surface just a bit wider than shoulder width. Gently lower your torso until you feel the stretch on your lats and chest (pic 48). You can also isolate one arm at a time.
5. Hamstring stretch with bike tube. Using again the bike tube, an elastic band, or even a wide belt, lie on your back, keep your left leg on the floor and bend your right leg so that your foot rests flat on the floor. Loop your elastic band around the upper part of your right foot, holding onto an end of the band with each hand. Straighten your knee and pull the leg slowly towards your chest (pic. 49). You will feel in a stretch in the whole back area of your right leg. Pull your leg really slow so you don’t end up straining your hamstrings or anything else. Do the same for the other leg. This stretch is ideal for people with a sedentary life styleν where these muscles tend to be quite tight.
Picture 48 Picture 49
6. Hip flexor stretch. Lay face down on the floor, with your hands placed outside the top of your shoulders. Bring one right leg up and close to your body by bending the knee and let the left leg rest on your thigh relaxed, without squeezing your left glute (pic. 49a, b). Imagine that your left leg is para-lyzed and anchored on the ground. Now pull yourself towards the front using your hands, without moving your left leg until you feel a stretch in the hip flexor area of the left side. Repeat for the other leg as well. Do this 2-3 times for every leg, keeping the stretch from 20-30 seconds.
Try to get into your stretching routine for a week or two, even if you are utterly bored of it.
Later on you will notice the benefits and it will become a pleasant habit.
Picture 50a
Picture 50b