Part 1 - Learning about flexibility and stretching
Before you get into the details of flexibility training you need to establish a training framework. In this first article we look at what is meant by flexibility and introduce the subject of stretching.
Before you get stuck in to this article please read the disclaimer.
Welcome to this regular column on flexibility training. I was inspired to start this column because I see time and time again many students struggling to achieve even the most rudimentary levels of flexibility, particularly in the legs and lower body. Over the coming months I am going to provide some guidelines and explanations that should turn painful and unproductive stretching sessions into considerably less painful, highly productive ones.
I do need to point out before we go any further that this series of articles is based on my own experience and research. I do not hold any qualifications, medical or otherwise, in this field so please read the site disclaimer and apply any techniques mentioned here with due caution.
What is flexibility?
Let's get down to basics. What do we mean by flexibility? There is no single answer to this question and you may be surprised to find out that there are several different kinds of flexibility.
The first is passive flexibility. Passive flexibility is what most people think of as flexibility; it is when you are able to adopt an extended posture and hold it. It is passive because there is no movement or muscular tension involved. The classic example of a passive stretch is the splits. It's great to be able to do the splits but you should ask yourself how often as a martial artist do you think you need to get into the splits to perform a technique? We'll come back to that later.
The second form of flexibility is active flexibility. This is the ability to adopt an extended position and hold in position using only the support of your muscles. Doing a high side kick and holding your foot out in the extended position is an example of static flexibility. Again, ask yourself is this a really useful type of flexibility for us as martial artists?
The third and last form of flexibility is dynamic flexibility. This is the ability to move a limb through a full range of motion. Here we can imagine doing any high kicking movement or high leg swings. Is this ability going to be valuable to us?
I posed a few questions there so what are the answers? Of course dynamic flexibility is going to be very useful to us. Even in Lau Gar which traditionally uses low kicks the ability to throw high kicks without risking injury or having to compensate by adopting awkward body positions is a valuable one.
Being flexible doesn't mean you must always kick high
but it does allow you to kick where you want.
At first glance passive and active flexibilities don't look like they're much use to us. In reality I have found that all three forms of flexibility interact and augment each other. None the less I would say that good old passive flexibility training is the quickest and safest way to see an improvement in overall flexibility.
What is stretching?
We improve our levels of flexibility by stretching and, in the same way that there are different types of flexibility, there are different types of stretching. So what are they?
The first is ballistic stretching. This is basically bouncing in a stretch. We NEVER bounce in a stretch. This is definitely the quickest way to see your physiotherapist that I can think of and it will probably turn out to be counterproductive.
Leg swings are an example of dynamic stretching.
The second form of stretching is dynamic stretching. With dynamic stretching you move your limbs towards their full range of motion. We sighted leg swings as a good application of dynamic flexibility and indeed leg swings are a form of dynamic stretching.
Active stretching, the third type, is the application of active flexibility. Adopting a high kicking position and holding it is an example of active stretching.
This is an active stretching exercise. Here I am trying to hold
my leg up with the strength of my muscles. In this example my
hands are positioned to provide additional support.
Passive stretching is what we generally think of as stretching where you hold extended postures in a relaxed fashion with no movement. It is possible to include additional pressure being applied to a part of your body to increase the stretch, for example by having a partner push you into a stretch. Let's face it, passive stretching is going to be the core of what we do.
There are two other forms of stretching: isometric stretching and proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation (better known as PNF). In short they both involve the use of muscular contractions or resistance while in a stretch. I consider these advanced stretching techniques with an elevated degree of risk. Although I use these techniques myself I do not recommend them for beginners. Perhaps in the future I will devote a separate article to them.
Summary
Okay, so now we know what flexibility is (static, dynamic and active) and some types of stretching (ballistic, passive, dynamic, active, isometric and PNF). We have also agreed that passive stretching is likely to form the basis of our flexibility training but that dynamic and static stretching are likely to play their part.
In the next article in this series we are going to look at why it seems so hard to stretch, particularly when you are a beginner. We will also look at the implications of this for the frequency and duration of our flexibility training sessions.
Author: Andy French
