There is no universal stretching program. There are guidelines to which everyone must adhere to be successful, but success also requires understanding of individual requirements. As discussed in the last issue, every individual has two sets of flexibility needs: universal and specific. The universal requirements are those that apply to all human beings regardless of the physical activities in which they choose to engage as recreation or profession. The specific requirements are dependent on the nature of the demands involved in those physical activities.

The protocol for developing individual flexibility training programming includes a few steps. First and foremost, we must define and understand the program's goal, which we did in the last issue: achieving optimal flexibility to reduce performance impediments and the risk of injury as much as possible. Next, we must determine the requirements to define the individual's optimal flexibility. Once we know our requirements, we can develop the actual training methods to satisfy them. Of course we then must actually implement our program consistently. And finally, we must continue re-evaluating our flexibility status and adjusting our training accordingly.


Universal Requirements

The universal flexibility requirements are simple and few, but not necessarily easy to achieve. The first and second requirements are the abilities to maintain proper spinal curvature through the entire range of motion of two movements: a full-depth squat and hip flexion to a minimum of 90 degrees relative to the legs. The third requirement is the ability to achieve a proper overhead position.

In the last issue, we discussed the various problems arising from hypoflexible hip extensors and hypermobile lower backs. Inflexible shoulder girdles are another commonly overlooked cause of lower back injuries and pain. If the shoulders are unable to open fully (extend the arms vertically), the overhead position is not actually overhead. Therefore, when attempting to lift the arms overhead, the lumbar spine tends to hyperextend, rotating the torso backward to allow the arms attached to the partially opened shoulders to extend vertically. The ability to fully open the shoulder, then, is integral to long-term functionality and injury prevention.


Specific Requirements

In addition to the universal requirements, each athlete will have sport-specific requirements. The degree to which sport-specific requirements differ from the universal requirements is dependent on the nature of the sport. It's possible that your sport-specific requirements are less than the universal requirements; in the case of running, for example, the sport-specific requirements are far less than the universal.


The Compromises of Multi-Sport Athletes

For a single-sport athlete, determining optimal flexibility is simple. But for the multi-sport athlete, the process becomes more complicated. As we discovered previously, sport-specific optimal flexibility will vary dependent on the demands of the sport. Multiple sports mean multiple sets of demands, not all of which will necessarily be identical or even remotely similar. If an athlete's sports are long-distance running and cycling, the variation in sport-specific optimal flexibility is minimal. If, however, an athlete is a gymnast and weightlifter, contradictory flexibility requirements arise: the greater degree of flexibility required for gymnastics may increase the risk of injury during weightlifting.

Unfortunately, multi-sport athletes must compromise. That is, they must decide what their priorities are: a balance of performance and safety in all their sports, or an imbalance that provides greater potential performance and injury protection for a particular sport at the cost of a degree of those things for the other sports.

This decision may best be made based on the respective injury risks of each sport as the athlete intends to engage in it. That is, our multi-sport athlete may decide that the risk of injury during weightlifting is greater than during gymnastics both because of the sports' individual natures and because he is a competitive weightlifter but only a recreational gymnast, and he would therefore benefit more overall from optimal flexibility that favors weightlifting and may reduce somewhat his performance capacity and injury protection for gymnastics.

In short, it must be accepted that participation in multiple sports may increase on average an athlete's risk of injury, and may negatively affect performance in one or even all sports.


Determining Specific Requirements

Your specific flexibility requirements are simply a product of the positions and ranges of motion of your sport or sports. If you're uncertain what those things are, give up now.

Assessment

Now that we have the universal and specific guidelines described, we need to determine our present flexibility's relation to them. The closer an athlete is to optimal flexibility, the more difficult assessment becomes. For instance, if a new weightlifter cannot in a squat lower his hips below his knees, it's obvious he falls short of the universal squat requirement and a crucial sport-specific requirement. On the other hand, if a long-time weightlifter can squat to full-depth and has been doing so with great loads for a considerable amount of time, but experiences a slight loss of lordosis near the bottom of the squat, it most likely goes unnoticed or ignored. These are the athletes for whom optimal flexibility offers the most protection—they are engaging nearest their bodies' biomechanical limits at the greatest intensities.


Active and Passive Flexibility

Passive flexibility is the static flexibility limit attainable with external assistance, e.g. you or someone else pulling a limb as far as it will travel with no muscular assistance from that limb. Active flexibility is the static flexibility limit of agonist muscles attainable with only the power of antagonist muscles, i.e. how far a limb will travel being pulled by only the muscles that control it.

There are existing arguments that the gap between your active and passive ranges of motion should be reduced as much as possible, predicated on the idea that if your passive ROM is greater than your active ROM, you essentially have a realm of movement through which you have inadequate muscular support. The possibility of problems arising from this and those potential problems' severity is both equivocal and variable dependent on activity: there may not be any risk at all associated with large differences in passive and active ranges of motion. However, there are certainly no problems with having no difference between the two, provided of course the shared ROM meets the athlete's flexibility requirements.

The disparity between passive and active ranges of motion is a function of inadequate strength, not hyperflexibility. Unless an athlete is currently hyperflexible, the solution is not related to stretching, but to strength training; that is, that athlete needs to improve the strength of the antagonist muscles, particularly in their inside ranges of motion, not reduce the flexibility of the muscles being stretched. In the case of a hyperflexible athlete, the excessive flexibility should obviously be eliminated, but some degree of strengthening will likely remain necessary.


Universal Requirements

The assessment process here is quick and easy: if you can't perform a full-depth squat with proper lordosis, bend at the hip 90 degrees with proper lordosis, and achieve a genuine overhead position, you have work to do. That work is a flexibility training program comprised of the stretches you determine to be necessary based on your assessment.


Specific Requirements

With specific requirements, you're pretty much on your own. Identify any potentially challenging positions or ranges of motion and evaluate your ability to achieve them. If all of your require positions and ROMs are attainable, continue with business as usual. Otherwise, determine the appropriate collection of stretches and associated parameters to remedy existing hypoflexibility.


Getting Stiff

As touched on above, while uncommon, there are athletes who may determine that they're hyperflexible. In these cases, static stretching of the hyperflexible muscles should be discontinued. Dynamic stretching during pre-training activity and active stretching following training should continue. When optimal flexibility has been achieved with the reduction of hyperflexibility, static stretching may need to be reintroduced at an appropriate dose to maintain it.


Training

The flexibility training protocol will depend primarily on your sport or sports and the gap between your present flexibility and optimal flexibility. If your assessments have placed you at or near optimal flexibility, your training will be minimal and serve more as a means to preserve rather than develop flexibility. If you're instead nowhere near your requirements, your training may be more aggressive and frequent.


Warming Up

Warming up adequately is the most important pre-training activity. Increased body temperature produces positive effects such as improved blood flow in muscles, improved sensory nerve sensitivity and accelerated nerve impulses. Even dynamic stretching alone is not a sufficient warm-up, particularly in cold conditions. Were it not ignored so commonly and completely, it would seem absurd to clarify the obvious, but warming up literally means raising your body temperature. Failure to do this is not warming up.

As you already know, static stretching should never be performed prior to training or athletic activity, and is therefore not a part of appropriate pre-training activity. Dynamic Range of Motion (DROM) stretching can and should be, although it should be performed only following an adequate warm-up.

Warm-ups should generally begin with some type of low-intensity monostructural activity such as rowing. Particularly in cold weather, rowing is a much better option than running or even jumping rope, at least initially, because of the impact involved in the latter two—that impact is better saved until after the body is already somewhat warm. Following this general warm-up, DROM stretching and more training-specific warming up can take place before and during training.


Judgment

A certain degree of judgment will need to be exercised by the coach or athlete in terms of whether or not certain movements in the athlete's training should be modified based on inadequate flexibility. For example, if it's determined that the athlete is incapable of achieving a full depth squat with perfect lordosis, it must be decided whether or not it's necessary to restrict and how to restrict the performance of the squat by that athlete: Should the athlete perform only bodyweight squats until adequate flexibility is attained, or should the athlete be permitted to perform weighted squats even with his compromised bottom position?

Obviously the most prudent decision in terms of injury prevention is to not allow an athlete to perform loaded squats if his squat technique is not sufficiently developed. However, there are numerous instances in which the athlete is a high level performer and needs the stimulus of a loaded squat—and may have been performing loaded squats for years already. In these cases, it may be decided that the benefits of loaded squatting, even with somewhat compromised form, may outweigh the risk of injury. It's then necessary to decide how the movement will be modified; with the squat, for example, the athlete can either squat to less than full depth with proper back positioning or squat to full depth with a compromised back position. Again, neither is ideal; these decisions need to be made with the understanding that there are legitimate risks involved with improper movement mechanics and positions.


Putting it Together

A basic training sequence would be a general warm-up, DROM stretching, specific warm-up, training, static stretching. Depending on your present flexibility status, post-training static stretching may be very limited, or fairly extensive.

In the case of significant hypoflexibility, stretching may need to be performed even on non-training days, although without the aid of training's warming effect, non-training day static stretching should be less aggressive than that performed following training. In the absence of training, stretch when as warm as possible, such as following a hot shower or hot tub. Accept the fact that you simply may not be as flexible at these times and don't be spastic.

When presently in possession of optimal flexibility, static stretching can be greatly reduced in both frequency and intensity. Some experimentation and evaluation may be necessary, but essentially the goal is to reduce the volume of stretching as much as possible. If you're able to maintain optimal flexibility stretching two minutes—or not at all—after each training session, don't do more. But if you notice a reduction in flexibility over time with a given protocol, it obviously needs appropriate adjustment, whether in terms of volume, intensity or selection of stretches.

If you're currently hyperflexible in any area, eliminate static stretching of the area in question. Continue training through full, normal ranges of motion, continue including DROM stretching prior to training, but do not continue statically stretching muscles that are already too flexible. When you have returned to optimal flexibility, employ the minimal amount of stretching necessary to maintain it without returning to hyperflexibility.

DROM stretching upon rising in the morning can help improve flexibility throughout the day. The morning is not the time to go for extensive ranges of motion—this should be gentle, incrementally increasing movement nowhere near the ranges of motion you're able to achieve later in the day when warm. DROM stretching is also a good way to break up long hours of sitting at a desk.


Stretching Mistakes

The most pervasive problem with stretching in my experience is the failure of hamstring stretches to stretch the hamstrings and their success in stretching the spinal erectors instead. Consider the stretch of touching the floor with straight legs, the equivalent to the bench press in terms of the movements' use for measuring success within their respective disciplines. The ability to achieve this position is almost universally believed to signal flexible hamstrings. But if you watch the performance of this movement by nearly anyone, you'll notice little pelvic rotation and a great deal of lumbar spine rounding: they're performing back flexion, not hip flexion, hyperflexing the spine and leaving the hamstrings nearly unaffected. This mistake is present in all hip-extensor-related stretches you can think of, from long-sitting to the butterfly to the straddle—the pelvis is not rotated forward, and therefore the hamstrings are not stretched. Worse, the back is stretched even more, contributing to the lumbar spine's existing hypermobility.


The Moves

The most important rule governing all stretches is that they should never place excessive stress on connective tissue. That means never introducing unusual torque on uniaxial or biaxial joints in a direction through which they are not intended to rotate, and never stretching to an extent at which pain is felt in any joint.

Following are descriptions and demonstrations of several stretches that can be incorporated into your training. If you're unsure what a movement stretches, try it—it’s the muscles that get tight. This is by no means an exhaustive list, but for most people, this will be an adequately thorough collection. If you're hypoflexible in some particular way that isn't addressed by these stretches, get creative and find an appropriate stretch, keeping in mind the rules regarding stretches we've discussed.


Dynamic Stretches

As mentioned earlier, DROM stretches can be an effective pre-training activity provided an adequate warm-up has already been undertaken. DROM stretches use movement to achieve the desired range of motion; however, this does not mean limbs are carelessly forced into extreme ranges of motion. The ranges of motion of all DROM stretches are increased incrementally from conservative starting points. In the case of leg stretches, an external brake is applied to arrest movement. This convinces the nervous system that the involved muscles are not in danger and will gradually allow greater ranges of motion to be attained. DROM stretching should never be painful or even uncomfortable.


Arm Circles

Begin by circling a single arm slowly. Shrug as the arm passes overhead. Gradually increase the speed and range as you feel the shoulder loosen. After both arms have been done independently, circle them together, starting again with less speed and range and gradually increasing both. 10-20 reps of each arm in each direction, 10-20 of both arms together in each direction.


Torso Rotation

Begin with torso rotations in an upright position. Allow the foot on the side from which you're turning away to pivot to avoid placing excessive torsion on the knee. Turn your head with the rotations. 10-20 reps.

Next, bend the knees and flex at the hip to an angle as great as parallel with the floor. It's important to flex at the hip, not the back, to maintain proper spinal curvature in this position. Once in position, perform rotations as you did while standing upright. 10-20 reps.


Leg Kicks

In the leg stretches, use your hand to stop the motion of your leg. That means actually kicking your hand. Every time. Holding your hand in the air above your kicking leg without the two ever meeting just makes you look stupid. Don't. And notice I didn't say drop your hand to your leg. Start with your hand at a level you know you can reach. Kick to it and let your hand lift slightly in preparation for the next kick. Continue elevating your hand and increasing the ROM of the kicks. Do not avulse your hamstrings from the bone.

It's critical here to again distinguish back and hip flexion. This is a hamstring stretch—maintain normal spinal curvature throughout the movement, not allowing your pelvis to rotate up with the kicking leg. This will likely reduce your ROM greatly, but this is not Jazzercise and higher kicks due to lumbar spine flexion do not impress women.

Perform kicks to the front, followed by kicks to the side. 5-15 reps each direction and each leg. Don't do so many reps that you fatigue.


Butt Kickers

The most important point of this movement is that the name refers to your own butt. Someone else's may be remarkably gratifying, but it doesn't in this case achieve our goal of stretching the quads, in particular the rectus femoris, and the psoas. In order to hit these effectively, make sure you're striving to open the hip as fully as possible, not just flexing the leg.


Shoulder Dislocates

Despite the name, this movement should not dislocate your shoulders. Nor should it cause any pain; never force yourself through the ROM. Start with a generously wide grip with which you can easily pass through the full ROM with straight arms. Remain at this width for at least a few passes to warm-up to the movement. Then narrow your grip incrementally as your flexibility allows, always shrugging your shoulders as your arms pass overhead. If using this following training, you may want to pause at the tightest point in the ROM and hold as a static stretch. 10-20 reps.


Kip Swings

If you're not sure what a kip is, check out Eva T's instruction (http://www.crossfit.com/cf-video/eva-on-kipping.wmv) Like the other dynamic stretches, ease into it and gradually increase the range of motion. 10-20 reps.


Active Stretches

Active static stretches use antagonist muscle contraction to stretch the agonist muscle. Because of this, the actual stretch produced is minimal if even existent: with the exception of strength imbalances around a joint, it's difficult to produce enough force in this manner to achieve a stretch of any significant degree. That being said, active stretching is not without utility; it's an excellent method of developing static strength at end ranges of motion and for postural purposes. If you decide to incorporate active stretches into your training, perform them like passive static stretches following activity.


Get a Leg Up

Like the DROM leg kick, maintain your spine position while raising your leg in front of you as high as you can and hold. Next, raise it to the side and hold. Finally, raise it behind yourself and hold. If you want to get jiggy and work on some balance, perform all three positions without replacing your foot on the floor. Hold each position for 10-20 seconds.


Overhead Squat

Using a length of PVC or dowel, drop into an overhead squat, maintaining proper spinal curvature and active shoulders (shrug), and hang out. You can also add shoulder dislocates and presses from the bottom position.

If you're beyond the point at which the standard overhead squat offers much of a stretch, narrow your grip and stance incrementally until your feet and hands are touching. Holding your arms overhead without an implement also makes all overhead squat variations more difficult.


Static Stretches

Passive static stretching should never be performed prior to training or athletic activity. Stretched positions should be achieved slowly and gently, and then held for 20-60 seconds. The stretched position should not be painful. Overly aggressive static stretching is counterproductive. Most importantly, no unusual strain should be placed on joint structures.


Lunge

Keep your hips in line with your shoulders, facing forward, and drop them as low as possible while keeping your torso upright—this is more of a hip flexor than extensor stretch, so don't lean forward.


The Death Stretch

From the lunge position, you can flex your leg and stretch the quads, but I don't like the pressure on the patella in that position. Instead, I prefer hanging the foot from a box and achieving a similar position. Again, keep your torso upright. This is not only a quad stretch, but a potent hip flexor stretch, primarily for the rectus femoris.

If you are hypoflexible enough that this position is not practical, instead use a standing quad stretch, holding the leg with the opposite hand, keeping your hips square and open.


Butterfly

It never has been the most intense-sounding stretch, but it's a good one anyway. The key is maintaining proper spinal curvature—you're wasting your time without it. If you're fairly hypoflexible, that means you may not even be able to sit perfectly upright—hold your ankles and drive your pelvis forward to get your back in line.


Piriformis

This is basically a butterfly on one side with the other leg behind you, knee pointing to the floor. The stretch is commonly performed in a way that places too much torque on the knees. Keep the leg being stretched in contact with the floor entirely from the hip to the knee to the outside of the ankle. Allowing your hip to rise rotates the femur at the knee joint in a way it's not supposed to rotate. Don't. This may prevent you from rotating your hips all the way over—that's fine.


Lying Hamstring

There's nothing worse than a hamstring that won't tell you the truth. But really. Use something, like an AbMat (http://www.abmat.com/), to maintain lordosis when lying on your back (if you don't have anything, try to hold it yourself—but if you're at all hypoflexible, this will be difficult).

First, bring your knee to your chest and hang out for a bit. Do not let your pelvis move at all—remember, this is a hamstring stretch, not a lower back stretch. Without letting your pelvis or knee position change, attempt to straighten your leg. With your knee at your chest, you may be far from straight—that's fine. Keep your knee where it is. Pulling a straight leg to your face doesn't mean much if your pelvis is coming with it. This is a good stretch in which to use a little PNF love (see Getting Jiggy below).

A good alternative is elevating one foot on a box around knee level while standing. With a slight bend in the knee, flex at the hips—with proper spinal curvature, of course. After holding the position for a while, you can also try turning your hips into the elevated leg—this will shift the emphasis of the stretch to the lateral hamstrings, which are often tighter than expected.


Straddle

Like in the butterfly, proper spinal curvature is critical in this stretch. If you can't achieve anything that resembles a straddle with proper spinal curvature, lose this stretch until your hamstrings loosen up enough.


The Growler

This is a direct method of improving deep squat positioning. Drop into the bottom of a squat and grab your knees. Using your own legs as anchors, rotate your pelvis into position to achieve proper lordosis. Do this while no one is watching.


Getting Jiggy

PNF (proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation) stretching is a reliable method of improving the effectiveness of static stretches. It's generally far more easily accomplished with assistance, although some stretches can be performed alone such as the lying hamstring described above.

There are a number of PNF methods, but we're going to stick with simple and effective. First, achieve the static stretch position in question and hold it for 15-30 seconds. Then contract the agonist muscle isometrically against the resistance, whether from a training partner or yourself, for 5-6 seconds. Each time you relax after a contraction, try gently increasing the static stretch in preparation for the next contraction. Repeat 2-5 times.

PNF stretching is taxing on muscles. Don't be overly aggressive. Keep the volume in each session and the frequency of sessions low: 2-5 sets of the above described protocol 2-3 times each week at the most.


Don't Slouch!

Stretching when, where and how appropriate will unquestionably provide results. But keep in mind how much time in a day you're not moving through your body's full ranges of motion—this is when habits and postures are created. Combat the products of your daily life by remaining vigilant about your posture and positions. If it's good to maintain proper spinal curvature during a back squat, it's good to do so while sitting at a desk.

There's no need to stretch all day long—but try to move as much as possible. If you're stuck at a desk for long hours each day, try setting a timer to force yourself to get up and move around regularly, whether that involves simply walking, going through a series of DROM stretches, or doing a few bodyweight exercises like squats and push-ups.

So here's to injury prevention, performance enhancement, and the end of an article that's far longer than it ever should have been.

Please download the PDF article to view photos of these stretches.


Notes:
[1] Shellock FG, Prentice WE. Warming-up and stretching for improved physical performance and prevention of sports-related injuries. Sports Med. 1985 Jul-Aug;2(4):267-78. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Retrieve&list_uids=3849057&dopt=Citation