Flexible like Gumby. .

So people talk about stretching all the time. How to stretch, when to stretch, why to stretch. There's a lot of conflicting ideas out there. Some people will tell you that stretching is bad, and that it is often, in fact, a source of injury, rather than a prevention. Technically, they're right. Others will tell you that stretching to improve flexibility is important for life long range of motion, minimizing injuries during sport, and improving sporting performance. Technically, they're right too. WTF?

Well, here's the real deal. Stretching when cold, or as part of a warm up is likely to cause injury. Why? Because you have stretch receptors in your tendons that freak out when your muscle becomes too elongated and tell that muscle to contract before it gets torn. Stretching desensitizes these receptors. What does that mean? It means when you stretch before competition, then you kick a soccer ball as hard as you freakin can, and your hamstring gets a little to stretched out, your stretch receptors react too late and you gack a hammy.
To make matters worse, if you decide to stretch before you warm up, you're setting yourself up to actually tear a muscle just by stretching it cold. Example: take a rubber band, toss it in the fridge, take it out an hour later and give it a good stretch. So what's the answer? Don't stretch before a workout.

However, stretching after a workout, when you're still sweating and your muscles are pliable and warm, is a great way to improve flexibility and range of motion. These are good because they will allow you to do the things you do in your sport with more fluidity and economy of motion. For us cyclists it's particularly good for letting you get into an aero position on the bike and not have your back seize up mid-race. Stretching at the end of a workout is a great way to improve general flexibility, thereby improving on the bike positioning, thereby improving speed and power output. This guy has really good hamstring flexibility and core strength. That's a big part of how he crushes pedals on a TT bike.

And in my next post, I'll discuss core strength.

Also, as promised, here's a video of a cyclocross race gone right.