2.3.2 - Why Contortionists Should Strengthen
Description
This article is from the Stretching FAQ, by Brad Appleton Brad_Appleton@ivhs.mot.com with numerous contributions by others.
2.3.2 - Why Contortionists Should Strengthen
You should be "tempering" (or balancing) your flexibility training with
strength training (and vice versa). Do not perform stretching exercises for
a given muscle group without also performing strength exercises for that
same group of muscles. Judy Alter, in her book `Stretch and Strengthen',
recommends stretching muscles after performing strength exercises, and
performing strength exercises for every muscle you stretch. In other words:
"Strengthen what you stretch, and stretch after you strengthen!"
The reason for this is that flexibility training on a regular basis causes
connective tissues to stretch which in turn causes them to loosen (become
less taut) and elongate. When the connective tissue of a muscle is weak, it
is more likely to become damaged due to overstretching, or sudden, powerful
muscular contractions. The likelihood of such injury can be prevented by
strengthening the muscles bound by the connective tissue. Kurz suggests
dynamic strength training consisting of light dynamic exercises with
weights (lots of reps, not too much weight), and isometric tension
exercises. If you also lift weights, dynamic strength training for a
muscle should occur *before* subjecting that muscle to an intense
weightlifting workout. This helps to pre-exhaust the muscle first, making
it easier (and faster) to achieve the desired overload in an intense
strength workout. Attempting to perform dynamic strength training *after*
an intense weightlifting workout would be largely ineffective.
If you are working on increasing (or maintaining) flexibility then it is
*very* important that your strength exercises force your muscles to take
the joints through their full range of motion. According to Kurz:
Repeating movements that do not use a full range of motion in the
joints (e.g., bicycling, certain techniques of Olympic weightlifting,
pushups) can cause a shortening of the muscles surrounding the joints
of the working limbs. This shortening is a result of setting the
nervous control of length and tension in the muscles at the values
repeated most often or most strongly. Stronger stimuli are remembered
better.
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