By

Ishak Ismail
Ketua Jabatan Pendidikan Jasmani
Over the last decade, lot of
information and misinformation has
been disseminated through the books
and media, coach, lecturer, instructor,
athletes and parents about the good
and the bad of stretching
Introduction

Stretching, It has long been suggested
that performing a warm up and a
cool down before and after sporting
activity can help reduce the incidence
of injury and promote recovery
following training and matches.
In order to understand correct
stretching techniques it is
beneficial to know a little about
the biochemical and physiological
properties of the soft tissues that
are being stretched. All soft
tissues (muscles, tendons, joint
capsules, fascia, skin) are more
extensible when they are warm.
All stretching is ineffective
if it is performed when the
body is cold, and should
therefore be preceded by a
series of warm-up
exercises to increase tissue
temperature
Central to these practices is improving
flexibility through stretching. Here, we guide
you through the science of stretching, explain
the various techniques for the level of
stretching appropriate to requirements, and
provide a comprehensive programe of
stretches.
So let's get started.

Muscles and tendons have a neural reflex arc
that prevents excessive stretching, or tension
developing. Receptor nerves within the muscle
are sensitive to changes in muscle length and
tension. When a muscle is stretched, the muscle
spindles send a message to the central nervous
system to cause a reflex contraction of the
muscle in order to prevent stretch damage.
However, if the stretch is
maintained for more
than 6 seconds the Golgi
tendon organs respond
to the change in muscle
tension by sending a
signal to the central
nervous system which
causes the muscle to
relax. The total duration
of the stretch should be
about 20 seconds.

There are several methods of stretching soft
tissues. If a player has been injured, the
physiotherapist may do the stretches passively.
In the pre-match warm up the players do the
stretching exercises themselves - this is known
as ACTIVE stretching.
This requires relaxation and sustained
stretching of a muscle. The degree of stretching
can be sub-divided as follows:
Simple Stretch
Drastic Stretch
Developmental Stretch

usually used in the rehabilitation of injured
players, rather than with fit players. The player
should feel very mild tension in the muscle and
this should be held for 10 to 30 seconds.
Yet stretching is still an area of training is that
not fully understood as strength, speed, power
and endurance training
Developmental Stretching is performed at the
end of your exercise session. Developmental
Stretches focus on increasing the muscle length
or muscle flexibility. These stretches are held for
an initial 6 to 10 seconds and then the stretch
should be taken a bit further for another 20 to 30
seconds.
The real question is whether the type of
stretching we chose to perform before activity
will have an affect on the performance and
injury levels of our athletes.
4 types of stretching that has been perform
prior exercise:
Static
Dynamic
Ballistic
PNF
Many coaches advocate the use of static
stretching prior to exercise. Static stretching
involves reaching forward to a point of tension
and holding the stretch. Static stretching has
been used through out the years for two main
reasons: injury prevention and performance
enhancement
Does static stretching
prior to activity
achieve the goals of
injury prevention and
performance
enhancement?

Research has shown that static stretching can
be detrimental to performance and doesnt
necessarily lead to decreases in injury. Below
are a few studies done on the topic of static.
PNF is the form of stretching in which a muscle
alternatingly stretch passively and contracted.
The technique targets nerve receptors in the
muscle to extend the muscle length.

Ballistic stretches involve trying to force a part
of the body beyond its range of motion. In
dynamic stretches, there are no bounces or
"jerky" movements. (www.cmcrossroads.com )
The purpose of warm up not only time to
increase body temperature before more
strenuous exercise.
Then jog, jumping or ridding the static bike is
enough.
There should be multiple goals
for the warm-up.
In physiologist to increase the
body temperature therefore to
increase the physiology
activity in our body
In sports , to prepare and to
avoid injuries

Warm up is to gain numerous training
adaptations in many aspects of physical
conditioning: to improve strength,
Flexibility, mobility, muscular endurance,
coordination and correction the of major minor
muscles imbalance (Kovacs, 2010)
Effective warm-up is that can be complete total
body workout for athletes with time contrains;
If performed correctly, this warm up can result
in positive training adaptations.
THIS SHOULD BE DYNAMIC WHICH CAN
FOCUS ON IMPROVING STRENGTH,
POWER. SPEED AND AGILITY.
Once a muscle is lengthened, a contraction
occurs and the muscle, joint, tendons and
ligaments has to provide force in this stretched
position.
Pope monitored over 1600 recruits over the
course of a year in randomised controlled
trials. He found no differences in the
occurrence of injury between those recruits
who statically stretched and those who did not.
(www.pponline.co.uk ; Pope, 2005)
Research has shown that
static stretching decreases
eccentric strength for up to
an hour after the stretch. SS
has been shown to decrease
muscle strength by up to 9%
for 60-min minutes
following the stretch and
decrease eccentric strength
by 7% followed by a specific
hamstring stretch. (Critchell,
2000)

Rosenbaum and Hennig
(1995) showed that static
stretching reduced peak
force by 5% and the rate of
force production by
8%. This study was about
Achilles tendon reflex
activity.
Gerard van der poel (2008)
stated that static stretching
caused a specific decrease
in the specific coordination
of explosive movements.

Three 15-second stretches of the hamstrings,
quadriceps, and calf muscles reduced the peak
vertical velocity of a vertical jump in the
majority of subjects (Knudson et al. 2000).


There is no relationship between static flexibility
and dynamic flexibility. This suggests that an
increased static range of motion may not be
translated into functional, sport-specific flexibility,
which is largely dynamic in most sporting
situations. (Moscov ,1993)

For example, when you run you bend your legs first
then explode forward. In jumping you must bend your
legs first then jump. Soccer requires a lot of eccentric
power. Wouldnt it make sense to have optimal
power, coordination and eccentric strength to succeed
in soccer? If we shouldnt static stretch before a game
or practice then how can we stretch to optimize
performance on the field?
Many of the best strength
coaches support the use of
dynamic
stretching. Dynamic
stretching consists of
functional based exercises
which use sport specific
movements to prepare the
body for movement (Mann,
Douglas & Margaret, 2009)
Mike Boyle (2003) uses a dynamic warm-up with
his athletes. He goes through about 26000
workouts over the course of a summer. In 2002 he
did not have one major muscle pull that required
medical attention.

Another studies showed that dynamic
stretching does increase flexibility. (Kurz & Thomas,
2010)

As a teachers, trainers and parents we all want
our students/athletes to lower their incidence of
injury and increase performance. Dynamic
flexibility has been used successfully by trainers
and coaches to increase flexibility and possibly
lower the incidence of injury.
Strength coaches support
the use of dynamic
stretching. Dynamic
stretching consists of
functional based exercises
which use sport specific
movements to prepare the
body for movement. (Mann,
Douglass & Margarett, 2009)

Kurz, (www.scienceofsports.com), "involves moving
parts of your body and gradually increasing
reach, speed of movement, or both." Do not
confuse dynamic stretching with ballistic
stretching! Dynamic stretching consists of
controlled leg and arm swings that take you
(gently!) to the limits of your ROM
We should change.
We should learning
We should understand
Thank You