Performance

Flexibility Boosts Performance. By: J.W de Wit

Active Isolated Stretching; The Mattes Method part 2

There was a brief discussion of some physiological and psychological aspects of AIS (Active Isolated Stretching), as well as the benefits one can give you when commit in a correct stretching technique. I will elaborate a bit on these aspects, and we’ll be looking at some different perspectives on human movement and flexibility. We’ll all know that human movement can only be more enjoyable when the body is flexible and capable of performing without restrictions. There’s a vague theory stating that too much of flexibility and “overstretching” can inhibit once performance, I’ll briefly tell you why that cannot be true and why you should be on the ropes everyday.

Specific movements help to relieve symptoms of physical and psychological stress. Stress touches the daily life of any athlete, only by training and putting strain on the body. As well as preparations for events, traveling prolonged distances and inherent confidence levels. Gentle stretching movements can invigorate the circulatory, respiratory, and neuromuscular systems, which help alleviate many of the symptoms of stress.

Flexibility is not a general factor, for instance when you are able to touch you toes it means that you’re flexible, or you are able to do acrobatic and gymnastic movements at ease. These things cannot be classified as optimal flexibility; neither would these things be very important for optimal performance and recovery.

Flexibility is very specific to each joint. Sport produces repeated overuse of the same muscles day after day and confines joints within a restricted range of motion and tends to reduce flexibility. Every activity requires unique flexibility characteristics. And a flexibility program developed into one kind of exercise may not be adequate for utilization in another activity.

You can now stretch properly without endangering the joints, muscles or connective tissues. Athletic performance and science have converged and established flexibility as the prime determinant among top athletes. Understanding the anatomy and attachments of individual muscles, their effects upon the joint coordinating movement provides the basis for optimal speed, agility, coordination and flexibility.

Athletic achievements and records have been elevated to new heights through the knowledge of kinesiology and resulting increased flexibility. It is of no surprise to us that flexibility provides for maximal strength performance factors, such as momentum acceleration, force, inertia, levers and angles of muscle contraction and stretch. Additional, flexibility is possibly the most important factor in the longevity of you as an athlete and is a key in the prevention and recovery of sports injuries.

What can be the key factors why you’re not flexible?

Incorrect stretching techniques, and a misperception of the meaning of optimal flexibility, as stated earlier, you do not need to be able to do super moves, but you do need to asses each individual muscle in you lower limbs correctly and biomechanical correct, to trigger the muscles into a much healthier state,
You can have some underlying physical conditions, resulting from overstraining injuries, unfortunate accidents, inflammations, overuse of muscles and joints and fascia, muscle, tendon. Ligament and joint tightness.
Muscle imbalances, leading to one muscle group being stronger than the other. Leading to one muscle group that is trying to accelerate the movement while the opposing imbalanced muscle tries to decelerate the movement of the limb.
Aging. Yep, that’s true once you’re getting older you tends to stiffen up a bit, with the only probable reason for that being the fact that you start to move around less and less.
Youngsters can have incredible stiffness resulting from rapid growth periods during adolescence, These are only to mention a few of the primary obstacles one have to deal with once you started a flexibility program.

AIS: The Mattes Method follows a simple physiological protocol:

Identification of muscle and supportive connective tissue
Isolate the muscle in the most relaxed state
Continue gradual stretch with less than 2.5 kg of pressure towards the end point of your range of motion, giving a controlled return back to the starting position
The entire duration of the gradual, gentle stretch should be no greater than 2.0 seconds.
Continue repeating this same isolate stretch up to 10 times, with each subsequent stretch to achieve incremental gain of a few degrees of motion without eliciting a contraction of the opposing muscle
Always return the area being stretched back to the starting position before continuing the prescribed repetitions. This ensures a continuous supply of blood, oxygen, lymph and nutrition, while stimulating waste removal and enforcing the neural process.
Exhale during the stretching phase and inhale during the recovery phase (during the return to the starting position). Oxygen is an important fuel for muscle action
Monitor the stretch reflex carefully as the tissue is stretched to the point of light irritation, then release the tension to prevent reversal contraction of the musclefascia stretched.

What is wrong with the old school way, putting the leg on the table and lean in?

When you place your leg on a table, step or bar, the back and buttock muscles are in a state of eccentric (lengthening) contraction while the leg is lifted and held in a position as the body leans forward. Pressure is placed on the back, hip adductors, tensor fascia latae, and posterior thigh muscles. Resort to AIS for maximal efficiency in stretching. As for you efforts in touching your toes, this is especially bad for people with lower back or hamstring problems. We call this a composite movement involving all the muscles of the posterior body. The neck, long back, buttock, hamstring, and calf muscles perform a lengthening contraction to stabilize body segments. Pressure is placed on the back, hip and lower leg areas. How can you try to effectively stretch a muscle, when the muscle needs to contract to maintain posture? …

The following illustrations are only to stretch the hamstring muscles, Hamstring is only a group name of the posterior muscles in the upper leg, note the different ways one should turn your limbs to asses all these muscle fibers properly, decreasing the risk of injury notably.

Bent Knee Hamstring stretch:

This is a very good stretch for the distal end of the hamstring muscles. (Closer to the knee joint) From a supine position, place one hand under your knee or in front of active knee to maintain flexed hip. Bend uninvolved leg, especially when the hamstrings are tight. Contract Quadriceps (Front thigh) and extend knee of leg to be stretched slowly to full extension. Always straighten your leg totally, keep knee away from chest if a full extension is not possible. Repetitions: Two sets of 10, alternating legs after each set.

Straight leg hamstring stretch – Neutral.

From a lying position, lock knee and slowly lift one leg using the quadriceps muscles. Give gentle assistance with rope at the end of the movement, as muscles continue to lift the leg. Walk your hands up the rope, hand over hand, as you lift leg upward. Release to starting position and repeat. Flex the non-exercising leg slightly until a range of motion of 90-100 degrees had been attained. Repetitions: 2 sets of 10, alternating legs after each set.

Straight leg “inner hamstring stretch”.

This is a more specific stretch of the medial oblique muscle and fascial fibers, following the straight leg neutral stretch; the medial hamstring muscle may require greater isolated stretching. From a lying position, rotate the entire leg inward. Place the rope under the foot with both strands around inside of lower part of leg to help maintain the leg in an internal rotated position. Loch knee by contracting quadriceps muscles and lift leg. Walk hands up the rope, and repeat. Repetitions: 1-2 sets of 10.

Straight leg “outer hamstring stretch”

From a lying position keep leg extended as straight as possible and rotate the entire leg outward. Move leg to the center of opposite shoulder by contracting the inner thigh. Place rope under foot, and then loop both strands around the outside of the lower leg to help maintain the leg in an outward rotated position. For extreme tightness or those with back pain the free leg may bend. Keep the knee and foot of non-exercising leg rotated inwards. Do NOT allow leg to bent during stretch. Repetitions: 2 sets of 10, alternating legs after each set.

Sport Performance

The efficiency, precision and freedom with which the athlete is able to move will help regulate athletic performance. Efficiency is dependent upon training and conditioning. Facilitated stretching allows for more intense training. Restrictions from pain, spasms, and tension inhibit freedom of movement. Without freedom of movement, precision is adversely affected. The Mattes method with Active Isolated Stretching reduces many of these restrictions.

There are a lot of beneficial effects of a program in AIS, The Mattes Method, including:

AIS improves oxygenation and nutrition of myofascial structures promoting growth and repair, and a much quicker ability to adapt and change with a intense training program.
AIS stimulate drainage of metabolic wastes and toxins from the body.
AIS improves flexibility and health of muscles, tendons, and ligaments
AIS breaks down friction between fascial sheaths
AIS separates fibrosis and helps in the breakdown of adhesions caused by trauma, injury and inflammation
AIS realigns collagen fibers, and the body
AIS reduces muscle spasms
AIS reduce the risk of muscle strain and tear and other injuries.
AIS helps athlete’s to achieve peak performance quicker and sustain their condition longer
AIS helps in expanding the duration of competitiveness of any athlete
AIS reduce any delayed onset of muscle pain.

FLEXIBILITY BOOSTS Performance BY: J.W. De Wit

There are a number of components with regards to exercise and I have chosen to devote this article to an area of exercise which I believe is sorely neglected but perhaps one of the most fundamental aspects to exercise and boosting one’s performance. In fact over the past year it has been my experience while treating some of the top athletes in South Africa that flexibility plays a greater role in performance than supplementation. It’s a shame that many of these individuals, including allot of professional and amateur cyclists have little, if any, idea about stretching and the role it plays in performance enhancement. The notion that taking the latest ergogenic aid or steroid will be all that is necessary for maximum performance is absurd. I hope that this will entice the professional athlete, regular sport enthusiast, or anybody suffering from musculoskeletal disorders to make stretching a major part of the exercise or recovery program. Obviously the kind of stretching adopted for maximizing flexibility plays a vital role in determining what degree one will experience increased performance. Being an active sportsman myself, I have had the opportunity to experience and experiment with various forms of stretching, and over time it has become clear to me that Active Isolated Stretching stands out as the safest and most effective stretching technique.

Why is stretching so important?

Flexibility and proper stretching have played a very important role for enhancing performance, rehabilitation and wellness. Athletic performance and science have converged and established that flexibility is the prime determinant among top athletes. Athletic achievements and records have soared to new heights through the knowledge of proper stretching resulting in increased flexibility. Flexibility not only provides for maximal strength performance factors, such as momentum, acceleration, force, and inertia but it is probably the most important factor in the longevity of an athlete (or any active individual partaking in any regular exercise for that matter), and is key to the prevention and recovery of sports injuries.

Benefits of stretching:

Improve preparation for athletic activity – muscles respond more quickly and powerfully
Optimize muscle and tendon range of motion up to 1.6 times resting length. At muscle lengths greater than 1.6 times its resting length, muscles will begin to tear and bleed
Facilitate the removal of metabolic waste products. Improved oxygenation eliminates carbon dioxide formation and improved circulation reduces lactic acid buildup
Reduce risk of muscle, tendon, ligament, and joint injuries - Reduce postural tightness due to ageing – kyphosis, scoliosis, and many other postural imbalances are created by tightness of the muscular and connective tissue structures supporting the spine
Rehabilitate muscle, tendon and ligament injuries
Enhance athletic performance
Optimal flexibility requires less energy expenditure in movement allowing for increased stamina and performance enhancement of speed, agility and strength
Maximize potential and level of athletic performance – stretching, in combination with endurance training have promoted higher performance abilities, especially noted un ultra marathon runners and cyclists, as a result of increased muscle endurance and elasticity

Active Isolated Stretching

For years prolonged static stretching was the gold standard for individuals and athletes. However a closer look at the physiological response of the body shows that a stretch greater than 5 seconds actually decreases the blood flow within the tissue creating localized ischaemia (inadequate blood flow to a part of the body) and lactic acid buildup. Ischaemia from a static stretch of greater than 5 seconds potentiates irritation or injury of local muscular, tendonous, lymphatic, as well as neural tissues, similar to the effects and consequences of trauma, overuse syndromes, and metabolic disease states. Many of the static stretch techniques hold to a “no pain, no gain” philosophy which is dangerous as any program which places the joints, muscles, and other connective tissues in jeopardy with prolonged force, multiple joint stretching exercises or improper protocols will endanger the tissues acted upon.

Active Isolated Stretching (AIS) is an innovative technique that promotes functional and physiological restoration of muscles, vertebrae, ligaments, and joints. This method utilizes a gradual stretch of no more than 2 seconds promoting full range of motion and flexibility without activating a reflex contraction of the muscles being stretched (stretch reflex). More so the focus of this form of stretching is to isolate the muscles to be stretched by using precise localized movements and by contracting the opposing muscles to the ones being stretched. The muscles being stretched will be held in the given position for 2 seconds and returned to resting position whereby the process is repeated up to 10 times. This increases local blood flow, oxygen, and nutrition to tissues before and after activity.

AIS is an important part of warm-up, cool down, training or rehabilitation. This form of stretching has proven to be effective for some of the world’s top athletes, and the recreational sportsman as well. I have also had the privilege of seeing some of the most amazing recoveries from ankle injuries to spinal damage from gunshot wounds during my education with Aaron L. Mattes, the inventor of active isolated stretching. A detailed description of the technique itself will require an article of its own, however the technique is simple enough to learn and be applied in a short space of time and my suggestion is that you seek guidelines from a therapist trained in this method.

If being a world-ranked athlete or being part of an international sports team is not your aim, however, your desire is to improve your overall state of health through proper exercise and nutrition my plea to you is that you make stretching an integral part of your quest for better health. For those of you who believe that stretching is for the more serious sports enthusiast please keep in mind that in spite of our best attempts to avoid the inevitable ageing process, we succumb to a constricted posture in our torso and limbs. Fortunately, through proper stretching and restoration of flexibility, we can maintain a healthier, pain free state, and enjoy better quality of life.