STATIC STRETCHING AND STATIC-ACTIVE STRETCHING

Static stretching

It is the best known stretching system, the one codified in 1975 by Bob Anderson (author of the drawings below), who was inspired by yoga.
In static stretching, you take a position that you can hold without pain. This position must be reached slowly, so as not to stimulate the inverse myotatic reflex in the antagonist muscles.
Once the position has been reached, this must be maintained for a time ranging from 15 to 30 seconds, or until the stretching tension is felt to decrease, after which the tension itself is increased, and held for another 15-30 seconds, and so on. saying.
Read about static stretching:

Maintain a constant stretch, without springing, for 10 to 30 seconds.

Never exceed the pain threshold.

Precede the stretching with a general warm-up.

Use comfortable clothing.

Practice this type of stretching in an environment that is as quiet as possible, well heated, and on a non-cold floor.

Pay attention to what you are feeling throughout the execution of the movement.

Adapt the position you take to your real possibilities and not to a model you have in mind.

Do not interrupt the breath, and indeed make the movement follow the breath, rather than the other way around.

Alternate the extension of the agonist muscles with that of the antagonist muscles (in technical jargon, "compensate" a position with its opposite).

Program the positions to be assumed in the training session following a logic (for example that of compensation).

This type of stretching is suitable for all phases of a workout, but it is more instinctive to use it when the muscles are already warm.

Static active stretching

Active static stretching involves positions of great joint width, which are maintained only thanks to the strength of the agonist muscles (in the illustration below, for example, the right leg is held high against the strength of the antagonists without any help, as is the case instead. in the photo above, in which it is supported with the help of a belt; the same thing happens for the square position, below it is actively maintained, against the force of gravity and the antagonists, above the force of gravity is in favor) The tension of the agonists, in an active stretch, helps to relax the muscles that are being stretched (the antagonists) through mutual inhibition.
Active stretching increases active flexibility and strengthens the agonist muscles. Active stretches are usually quite difficult to hold for more than 10 seconds and rarely need to be held for longer than 15 seconds.
Many movements (or stretches) that are found in various forms of yoga, in the mat-work of Pilates, in dance, as well as in many figures of artistic gymnastics, especially male, but also female, and in general in artistic sports, are static stretches active.