For a few years, sports medicine has recognized the "art of" muscle lengthening, otherwise called stretching (from the "English" to stretch "), an" indisputable efficacy, both in the prevention of osteo-articular diseases, both in the prevention of injuries, and in the rehabilitation therapy.
It has been noted that in athletes subjected to daily stretching sessions, the incidence of trauma decreases and the economy of the gesture improves. The ability of muscles to contract is directly proportional to their ability to stretch, in other words the more a muscle is able to stretch, the more it is able to contract, the more it is able to contract, the more it is capable of developing strength.
Thanks to this recognition, numerous techniques have been born which, while proposing stretching as a basic element, differ substantially in the approach, which can be global or analytical.
The former include the so-called "postural" techniques (Mézières, Closed Field, Alexander method, global decompensated muscle lengthening, etc.) which stretch not muscles, but muscle chains; the second includes various stretching methods, including:
Static stretching
C.R.A.C.
Ballistic Stretching
It is the earliest known type of stretch and is typically not used in sports centers, gyms, and clubs because it is dangerous as it triggers the reverse myotatic reflex.This is an unconditional reflex that causes the muscle, subjected to a sudden stretching tension, to react with a rapid contraction, making the risk of muscle-tendon trauma high, a characteristic that has made other types of stretching preferable to this one. ballistic stretching is very simple, you get to the position of maximum stretch and then you try to go beyond this position with a sharp and violent movement.
Dynamic stretching
Dynamic Stretching involves movements whose articular excursion increases progressively, as well as the speed of execution, or both. This type of stretching should not be confused with ballistic stretching!
Dynamic stretching s "is mainly used in the warm-up, in fact with controlled oscillations, one arrives gently and progressively at the limits of one's ability to articulate excursion (think for example of the lower limb bar oscillations in classical dance, the flexion-extensions of the torso on the legs in football training, etc.). Ballistic stretches try to force a "joint." beyond its possibility of excursion, dynamic stretching is used to warm up a muscle or a group of muscles and to mobilize the joints on which they pass, it also improves dynamic flexibility, which is why it is particularly suitable to be inserted in the warm-up phase of a workout .
Other articles on "Stretching: Types of Stretching"
- Static stretching and static-active stretching
- PNF Stretching and C.R.A.C.
- Global stretching
