all i know to be true (for me), is: my morning vs evening quad flexibility is significantly different. In the morning, I can't get my heel to butt while performing a standing quad stretch .. It takes a while of light progressive stretching to get me to that ROM. There's quite a bit of tightness in my quads. At night however, I can easily get my heel to my butt, even just using one hand to hold my ankle. My leg naturally folds so easily at night. I haven't noticed much of a difference for other muscle groups.. hamstrings/upper/calves are about the same. So, in the morning, it takes me a LONG TIME (if at all) to get my legs feeling "snappy" (lots of bounce). So running in the morning feels very different than evening. In the evening, I can basically just start going right into fast runs and light sprints with tons of bounce.. I don't really need to progressively increase the intensity - though I do just to be safe. The difference in speed/power is drastically different.. For example, in the morning I might start off with crappy runs of 6-7 min/mi for ~100m .. At night, I can basically jump right into sub 5 min/mi pace. So in the mornings, i've been trying to figure out how to get that "bounce" feeling.. Sometimes I get close to it if I do lots of light quad stretching an ~hour before my morning runs. Sometimes it's also nutritional.. I've noticed that if I eat a ton of watermelon (sugar/hydration) prior to my mornings runs, i've had some serious PR's.. So that definitely has been a good addition, but, it just gives me more energy instead of making me feel as good as I do in the evening. Morning = tight/powerful Evening = bouncy/snappy/loose/fast/powerful Basically I feel like an elite kenyan in the evening. wtf. dno, just something i'm experiencing. pc!!
Thanks for sharing that. The quad stretch issue is really common. I believe it is to do with the squat to lunge ratio being out and the upper quad being weak. I am doing a video at the moment on 'hip hinge: flexion' which will explain it a little better but I do share your experience too. It takes a lot to get the quads back in balance.
i didn't understand the part about the bend to squat to lunge ratio. 1) i know what a squat and a lunge is, but what is a bend? 2) what do the percentages mean? Good video. I run and i lift squat and deadlift too AND i stretch too. i understand what you said about the vicious cycle. In fact, i feel the need to stretch my lower back, hamstrings and archilles tendon every morning.Can't wait for the follow up for your suggested strengthening and lengthening exercises! Thanks for your funny and meaningful video! 👍
Bend is just the bend pattern. So any pure hip hinge pattern. e.g deadlift, weighted bridge, etc. This video explains it better. th-cam.com/video/kkFdyLR3FhI/w-d-xo.html
the thing about reseting the golgi tendons seems interesting. I'll definitely look for more information tho. btw: is static stretching ALWAYS recommended after a sprinting session? or should it be done depending on the session? the other thing is that I agree. since I started sprinting I have to do a warmup just to run a 100m in 15 seconds when in highschool I didn't have to stretch, not even before doing hurdles
Sorry for commenting a lot of questions so soon. But your becoming one of my favorite youtubers! Lately I have been running about a mile in a half at a fast pace. Going faster than jogging. And I feel that it makes me feel better than running 2 to 3 miles at a slow pace. Would you reccomend training like this? I hear that too much running at a slow pace is bad for your joints and lowers tsteosterone. Is this true?
Hi Ricky. Glad you like the channel. Jogging is a great question. It all depends what you are trying to achieve. If you are just trying to burn calories or stress release, then jogging 2-3 miles at a comfortable pace is great. If you are trying to get faster and improve then 1.5 miles at a fast pace is better for that. If you are trying to get a lot faster then read the protocol idea that I gave to Ash under this, (which you probably have now I come to think about it). The bad for joint issue I think is more to do with bio mech. If people have dodgy bio mech, then repetitive strain will cause problems but so will higher intensity. If you have sweet gait, then fast or slow, it's all good. Re testosterone, I have found that to increase testosterone requires higher intensity which will mean longer recovery like intervals. However as you saw in my HIIT v LIT vid, it is absolute high intensity not relative. As in, performance is key. 40kgs squat may be tough for someone but that weight is not going to elicit a big testosterone surge. As long as you are getting some high intensity somewhere, that will raise your T levels. The reason I am against the blanket statement of sprints get you jacked is because sprinting is the most complex pattern so gets you injured normally before it gets you jacked and it depends how fast you sprint. No one is rippling at 15secs for 100m. If you prefer long distance, then train more maximal strength in the gym for anabolism. Hope that helps. This is such an interesting topic, I want to get back around to it for a vid.
can you help settle an argument we have in my area with surrounding coaches. We coach Jr. Kids ages 13 to 15. Where some coaches at their schools focus more on weights (3 times a week..dead lift, squat, and bench as a focus) and others focus more on agility, quickness and speed training. When we get together and discuss we never settle on what is better for these adolescent students. and the coaches that are more into footballball love the weights program because they attribute the wins in 8th grade to weights as where in 7th grade the teams struggle because they are not strong enough.
Hi Essop, excellent video. I must ask, do you think Yoga (performed correctly not these fad classes and the such) is detrimental to a sprinter or power-based track athlete? Ryan Giggs once attributed Yoga as the key factor in his long and injury-free career.
From what I can see, Yoga is just an organised system of stretches. When most sports people say they do Yoga, from what I can see they are basically doing what an athlete calls 'stretching'. However the fundamental difference is they are focusing on relaxing and breathing correctly rather than chatting and getting ready to run for their lives in a session, which is a big difference. ;-) I think you have hit the nail on the head. Yoga performed correctly is beneficial for the majority of people who do no strength training. It retards the creep of old age because there is an isometric strength component to the poses which maintains and can even build strength. It will also highlight imbalances left to right and front to back. Similar to your point, I also think that a multi million £ footballer probably isn't going to his local yoga class with some girl who spend 6 weeks in an ashram in her gap year. He is getting an amazing practitioner who will work with him 1 on 1 for as long as he needs and will tailor it to his requirements. However for a sprinter, I think that unless the yoga programme has been created for him/her individually, it is the equivalent of weightlifting for masses. Most don't lift weights and so will get novice gains when they start regardless. Most that do weights don't get the returns they were promised or hoped for after the initial period and eventually it ends up causing more problems that it is solving. I think Yoga is the similar. I don't think Yoga is detrimental to a sprinter because sprinters are basically doing Western Yoga. But I do think it is not as helpful to a sprinter as those 'non sprinting yogis' would have everyone believe. Hope that helps.
Essop Merrick thanks for the insightful reply sir ! I'll definitely keep this in mind..my mum's been practicing yoga 30+years (her mothers indian), so I think we can devise something for my tightness. Thanks again !
I know I shouldn’t stretch before my workout but how about after. I’ve been stretching first thing in the morning, after workout and before i go to bed and I feel fine. should I keep doing this?
When talking about the bend > squat > lunge ratio, where would you place a weighted bulgarian split squat? IMHO its much better a lift for a sprinter than a full squat.
It's a great exercise. It is a definitely a squat pattern though and not just because of the name. It is actually 'the anti lunge'....that would be a good video title! It is lengthening the hip flexor complex on descent but contracting the hip flexor complex rather than lengthening it on ascension. I agree that it has more direct transfer to sport due to the 1 foot nature. I like it as a way of putting stretch strength into the hip flexors. It is a great squat pattern exercise that works well with the lunge.
Hey Essop, I wanted to ask you if I needed to run 1.5 miles under 9 mins. How should I train for it? Assuming at the moment I can't even complete the whole course. Can you give me some tips? Would you recommend I try to finish the distance first before working for speed? Or Go for Speed as long as I can and for me to increase the time I can go at that speed until I can do 1.5 under 9 min?
OK. Let's have a shot at this. You are looking to average 16km/h or 9mph for 9 minutes. This is an aerobic event. The simplest way to improve aerobic max capacity is 3-5 minute intervals at 82-78% of maximal aerobic power. The easiest way to determine that is to do a ramp test. Start at walking speed and go up .5km/h every 30 second until you can't complete the 30 seconds. That speed is your maximal aerobic power. (It's not really but this is a youtube comments section so it's as good as... :-)) Then next session, work out 82% of that speed and complete 3 minutes x 3-5 efforts at that speed. (don't do blood and guts routine. it has to be clean sweet running. Great form. In control). The recovery is equal to the interval but if you need more to complete the rep with great form, take it. (Form always trumps time in my book.) Then session after that do 80% of max speed for 4 minutes 3-4 times. Then session after that do 78% of max speed for 5 minutes 3 times. Then go back to session 1 and do 83%, them session 2 at 81% then session 3 at 79%. If you can then do session 1 for the last time at 84%, session 2 at 82% and session 3 at 80%. Then re test your ramp test. Get a new figure and repeat session 1 with the new figure. After you have ramp tested but before you start the new cycle, maybe run the 1.5 mile and see how it has improved. You could maybe do 2 of these sessions a week at a real push. Better 1 every 5 -6 days. I would then on the other days just jog/walk (fartlek) the 1.5 miles. Now all of this is assuming that you are a good runner with good biomechanics and the only thing that is holding you back is aerobic capacity. However if there is another reason why you can not complete the 1.5 miles like injury, this is not the way to do it. I hope there is something useful in there for you.
I am 15 years old and have a 11.5 sec PB in the 100m and 1.75m in highjump. Currently at school, I took weightlifting class to improve strength and overall body weight balance. However, I am flatfooted and often have higher chances of getting injured. I am abt 5'11 and 150Lb. What exercises do you think would be good for me as I wont want my Sprinting workout to interfere with my highjump performace, and I wont want to get injured this year.
Bro this makes sense but I still think stretching is a little more important then you’ve made it sound. Doesn’t stretching make more room for muscle growth? And were you saying something like a guy that squats ass to grass 225 is probably stronger than a guy that half squats 225, if so why
Hi Essop, as someone getting back into running and who's not very flexible, how do you know how far you should push a stretch? Do you stop when you feel the stretch or do you keep going until you physically can't go any further?
Is that Jo Unruh from TG? It depends what you are trying to achieve. I personally don't think that stretching to improve flexibility for athletes is the best thing. I think strengthening the muscle with a stretching movement makes them long and strong. You would go to the point where you can maintain perfect biomech and no further. So let's say you can't touch your toes and you want to be able to. If you just stretch to the point where you feel it, it will shorten again afterwards. If you stretch to the end point, you will weaken it and disrupt the neural firing signals around the joint But if you do the stretch as an exercise with load that you can handle then as you are doing reps, not static hold, the distance will improve over the reps. Then when the muscle recovers, it now is stronger and it is longer. Once you have a normal operating length (e.g. you can now touch your toes with good alignment let's say) then when you come back from a run, the stretch is to get back to touching your toes with good alignment. You don't increase it because you don't need to. Hope that helps.
Yeh, it is Jo Unruh from TG. I was watching one of your other videos when you talked about how you used to train as if you were in a Rocky film and thought to myself, "that seems familiar". I am trying to increase my flexibility to help with running stride length while keeping everything balanced (I guess that is biometrically correct?). I have pretty weak achillies and that goes back to when I was young, so I want to avoid overstriding and putting stress on them. I more or less stick to a 180 cadence. Also I am not going fast, when I'm doing 400m reps they are over 90s. So it seems that stretching for stretching sake is a bit of a waste of time, either there is no long term benefit or you're weakening and/or disrupting things. Can you point me in the direction of some stretching exercises with load that I can read up on? Is this eccentric training? Thanks in advance and is it ok to look you up on other social medial?
You are wrong regarding why children never injure themselves. It is the equivalent of why toddlers or very young children can fall and not hurt themselves while a full grown adult would snap his shit up. Or why babies can walk on their knees while it is very painful for adults to do so. As we get bigger, we get heavier, taller and stronger. Square cube law comes into play. Our bones, muscles tendons, etc. are made of the same materials as children's meaning as we get stronger, those same materials have to sustain all that increased intensity. Our bodies lose structural integrity.
I never said children never injure themselves. That would be a ridiculous statement. I said kids don't stretch and they are fine. i.e. they go out to play and muck about and they don't have to stretch. If you want to put it all down to square cube law, that's fine but I think you are ignoring physiology in favor of a maths principle applied to biomechanics for small and large animals. Your example of toddlers and very young children falling and not hurting themselves depends on what they fall on. Carpet, they are fine. Concrete, there is some damage. In the same way, your view that an adult would get injured depends on the adult. A Wrestler? A judo player? Even a healthy 20 something playing rugby with their friends in the park is fine. However, get any of those sports people to start lifting weights and they'll find they need to stretch and injury in their chosen sport goes up. Your example also doesn't fit with the fact that falls in old age cause much more damage than the same fall in your 30's despite the square cube law. (Old people get smaller not bigger) While yes the muscles are the same material, the size and strength of the muscles and bones change as we develop meaning they can accommodate the increasing intensity demanded of them. I'm suggesting that in the same way an old man with poor mobility, movement patterns and weak hip muscles will break a hip if they fall because of poor neuro muscular patterning but an old man with good mobility, movement patterns and strong hip muscles will not, the same concept is happening much earlier on for athletes that have to spend a lot of time stretching after weight training. The ratios are wrong, the stabilisers become weaker relatively to the prime movers and the neural pattern becomes compromised from weights and stretching.
No dislikes, coz he knows what he's on about. Keep up the good work
can you do a video on calisthenics vs weights for sprinting?
This Channel is a gold mine!
🥇
god!! your video are so helpful thx essop👌👍😃
Great stuff, keep it coming
1:38 so true 😂
Predator: ima kil u
Me: hold on lemme stretch first
Predator: ok ill wait
😂
Hey man! Can you make a video showing some specific exercises to lengthen and strengthen muscles please?
all i know to be true (for me), is: my morning vs evening quad flexibility is significantly different. In the morning, I can't get my heel to butt while performing a standing quad stretch .. It takes a while of light progressive stretching to get me to that ROM. There's quite a bit of tightness in my quads. At night however, I can easily get my heel to my butt, even just using one hand to hold my ankle. My leg naturally folds so easily at night.
I haven't noticed much of a difference for other muscle groups.. hamstrings/upper/calves are about the same.
So, in the morning, it takes me a LONG TIME (if at all) to get my legs feeling "snappy" (lots of bounce). So running in the morning feels very different than evening. In the evening, I can basically just start going right into fast runs and light sprints with tons of bounce.. I don't really need to progressively increase the intensity - though I do just to be safe. The difference in speed/power is drastically different.. For example, in the morning I might start off with crappy runs of 6-7 min/mi for ~100m .. At night, I can basically jump right into sub 5 min/mi pace.
So in the mornings, i've been trying to figure out how to get that "bounce" feeling.. Sometimes I get close to it if I do lots of light quad stretching an ~hour before my morning runs.
Sometimes it's also nutritional.. I've noticed that if I eat a ton of watermelon (sugar/hydration) prior to my mornings runs, i've had some serious PR's.. So that definitely has been a good addition, but, it just gives me more energy instead of making me feel as good as I do in the evening.
Morning = tight/powerful
Evening = bouncy/snappy/loose/fast/powerful
Basically I feel like an elite kenyan in the evening. wtf.
dno, just something i'm experiencing.
pc!!
Thanks for sharing that. The quad stretch issue is really common.
I believe it is to do with the squat to lunge ratio being out and the upper quad being weak. I am doing a video at the moment on 'hip hinge: flexion' which will explain it a little better but I do share your experience too. It takes a lot to get the quads back in balance.
cool thanks! looking forward to it as usual!!
Great vid thanks
awesome stuff
Many thanks. I haven't forgotten about the natural athlete vid. It will come in 3-4 vids from now hopefully.
bro.like your vids.man
thanks to your videos I'm going to be the first man to run 30 mph. don't worry when I get famous I'll give you a shout out
Love your vibe bro!
Many thanks
We have to stretch up to an hour before every training session and we don't even lift. We mostly just run but we do body weight exercises.
i didn't understand the part about the bend to squat to lunge ratio.
1) i know what a squat and a lunge is, but what is a bend?
2) what do the percentages mean?
Good video. I run and i lift squat and deadlift too AND i stretch too. i understand what you said about the vicious cycle. In fact, i feel the need to stretch my lower back, hamstrings and archilles tendon every morning.Can't wait for the follow up for your suggested strengthening and lengthening exercises!
Thanks for your funny and meaningful video! 👍
Bend is just the bend pattern. So any pure hip hinge pattern. e.g deadlift, weighted bridge, etc. This video explains it better. th-cam.com/video/kkFdyLR3FhI/w-d-xo.html
Thanks! will take a look at your referenced video and then re-view your video again. :)
the thing about reseting the golgi tendons seems interesting. I'll definitely look for more information tho. btw: is static stretching ALWAYS recommended after a sprinting session? or should it be done depending on the session?
the other thing is that I agree. since I started sprinting I have to do a warmup just to run a 100m in 15 seconds when in highschool I didn't have to stretch, not even before doing hurdles
Sorry for commenting a lot of questions so soon. But your becoming one of my favorite youtubers! Lately I have been running about a mile in a half at a fast pace. Going faster than jogging. And I feel that it makes me feel better than running 2 to 3 miles at a slow pace. Would you reccomend training like this? I hear that too much running at a slow pace is bad for your joints and lowers tsteosterone. Is this true?
Hi Ricky. Glad you like the channel. Jogging is a great question. It all depends what you are trying to achieve. If you are just trying to burn calories or stress release, then jogging 2-3 miles at a comfortable pace is great. If you are trying to get faster and improve then 1.5 miles at a fast pace is better for that. If you are trying to get a lot faster then read the protocol idea that I gave to Ash under this, (which you probably have now I come to think about it). The bad for joint issue I think is more to do with bio mech. If people have dodgy bio mech, then repetitive strain will cause problems but so will higher intensity. If you have sweet gait, then fast or slow, it's all good.
Re testosterone, I have found that to increase testosterone requires higher intensity which will mean longer recovery like intervals. However as you saw in my HIIT v LIT vid, it is absolute high intensity not relative. As in, performance is key. 40kgs squat may be tough for someone but that weight is not going to elicit a big testosterone surge.
As long as you are getting some high intensity somewhere, that will raise your T levels. The reason I am against the blanket statement of sprints get you jacked is because sprinting is the most complex pattern so gets you injured normally before it gets you jacked and it depends how fast you sprint. No one is rippling at 15secs for 100m.
If you prefer long distance, then train more maximal strength in the gym for anabolism. Hope that helps. This is such an interesting topic, I want to get back around to it for a vid.
can you help settle an argument we have in my area with surrounding coaches. We coach Jr. Kids ages 13 to 15. Where some coaches at their schools focus more on weights (3 times a week..dead lift, squat, and bench as a focus) and others focus more on agility, quickness and speed training. When we get together and discuss we never settle on what is better for these adolescent students. and the coaches that are more into footballball love the weights program because they attribute the wins in 8th grade to weights as where in 7th grade the teams struggle because they are not strong enough.
short version. what is a good weights vs speed training program for adolescents on a weekly basis
Hi Essop, excellent video. I must ask, do you think Yoga (performed correctly not these fad classes and the such) is detrimental to a sprinter or power-based track athlete? Ryan Giggs once attributed Yoga as the key factor in his long and injury-free career.
From what I can see, Yoga is just an organised system of stretches. When most sports people say they do Yoga, from what I can see they are basically doing what an athlete calls 'stretching'. However the fundamental difference is they are focusing on relaxing and breathing correctly rather than chatting and getting ready to run for their lives in a session, which is a big difference. ;-)
I think you have hit the nail on the head. Yoga performed correctly is beneficial for the majority of people who do no strength training. It retards the creep of old age because there is an isometric strength component to the poses which maintains and can even build strength. It will also highlight imbalances left to right and front to back.
Similar to your point, I also think that a multi million £ footballer probably isn't going to his local yoga class with some girl who spend 6 weeks in an ashram in her gap year. He is getting an amazing practitioner who will work with him 1 on 1 for as long as he needs and will tailor it to his requirements.
However for a sprinter, I think that unless the yoga programme has been created for him/her individually, it is the equivalent of weightlifting for masses. Most don't lift weights and so will get novice gains when they start regardless. Most that do weights don't get the returns they were promised or hoped for after the initial period and eventually it ends up causing more problems that it is solving.
I think Yoga is the similar. I don't think Yoga is detrimental to a sprinter because sprinters are basically doing Western Yoga. But I do think it is not as helpful to a sprinter as those 'non sprinting yogis' would have everyone believe. Hope that helps.
Essop Merrick thanks for the insightful reply sir ! I'll definitely keep this in mind..my mum's been practicing yoga 30+years (her mothers indian), so I think we can devise something for my tightness. Thanks again !
So how would you approach for example increasing quad flexibility? Are there any exercises?
I know I shouldn’t stretch before my workout but how about after. I’ve been stretching first thing in the morning, after workout and before i go to bed and I feel fine. should I keep doing this?
When talking about the bend > squat > lunge ratio, where would you place a weighted bulgarian split squat?
IMHO its much better a lift for a sprinter than a full squat.
It's a great exercise. It is a definitely a squat pattern though and not just because of the name. It is actually 'the anti lunge'....that would be a good video title!
It is lengthening the hip flexor complex on descent but contracting the hip flexor complex rather than lengthening it on ascension. I agree that it has more direct transfer to sport due to the 1 foot nature.
I like it as a way of putting stretch strength into the hip flexors. It is a great squat pattern exercise that works well with the lunge.
Hey Essop, I wanted to ask you if I needed to run 1.5 miles under 9 mins. How should I train for it? Assuming at the moment I can't even complete the whole course. Can you give me some tips? Would you recommend I try to finish the distance first before working for speed? Or Go for Speed as long as I can and for me to increase the time I can go at that speed until I can do 1.5 under 9 min?
OK. Let's have a shot at this. You are looking to average 16km/h or 9mph for 9 minutes. This is an aerobic event. The simplest way to improve aerobic max capacity is 3-5 minute intervals at 82-78% of maximal aerobic power.
The easiest way to determine that is to do a ramp test. Start at walking speed and go up .5km/h every 30 second until you can't complete the 30 seconds. That speed is your maximal aerobic power. (It's not really but this is a youtube comments section so it's as good as... :-))
Then next session, work out 82% of that speed and complete 3 minutes x 3-5 efforts at that speed. (don't do blood and guts routine. it has to be clean sweet running. Great form. In control).
The recovery is equal to the interval but if you need more to complete the rep with great form, take it. (Form always trumps time in my book.)
Then session after that do 80% of max speed for 4 minutes 3-4 times.
Then session after that do 78% of max speed for 5 minutes 3 times.
Then go back to session 1 and do 83%, them session 2 at 81% then session 3 at 79%.
If you can then do session 1 for the last time at 84%, session 2 at 82% and session 3 at 80%.
Then re test your ramp test. Get a new figure and repeat session 1 with the new figure. After you have ramp tested but before you start the new cycle, maybe run the 1.5 mile and see how it has improved.
You could maybe do 2 of these sessions a week at a real push. Better 1 every 5 -6 days. I would then on the other days just jog/walk (fartlek) the 1.5 miles.
Now all of this is assuming that you are a good runner with good biomechanics and the only thing that is holding you back is aerobic capacity.
However if there is another reason why you can not complete the 1.5 miles like injury, this is not the way to do it. I hope there is something useful in there for you.
I am 15 years old and have a 11.5 sec PB in the 100m and 1.75m in highjump. Currently at school, I took weightlifting class to improve strength and overall body weight balance. However, I am flatfooted and often have higher chances of getting injured. I am abt 5'11 and 150Lb. What exercises do you think would be good for me as I wont want my Sprinting workout to interfere with my highjump performace, and I wont want to get injured this year.
I went from 13 100m then 11.8 100m then 11.3 in three consecutive years and all I did was sprint up hill and plyometrics
Bro this makes sense but I still think stretching is a little more important then you’ve made it sound. Doesn’t stretching make more room for muscle growth? And were you saying something like a guy that squats ass to grass 225 is probably stronger than a guy that half squats 225, if so why
Hi Essop, as someone getting back into running and who's not very
flexible, how do you know how far you should push a stretch? Do you
stop when you feel the stretch or do you keep going until you physically
can't go any further?
Is that Jo Unruh from TG?
It depends what you are trying to achieve. I personally don't think that stretching to improve flexibility for athletes is the best thing. I think strengthening the muscle with a stretching movement makes them long and strong. You would go to the point where you can maintain perfect biomech and no further.
So let's say you can't touch your toes and you want to be able to. If you just stretch to the point where you feel it, it will shorten again afterwards. If you stretch to the end point, you will weaken it and disrupt the neural firing signals around the joint
But if you do the stretch as an exercise with load that you can handle then as you are doing reps, not static hold, the distance will improve over the reps. Then when the muscle recovers, it now is stronger and it is longer.
Once you have a normal operating length (e.g. you can now touch your toes with good alignment let's say) then when you come back from a run, the stretch is to get back to touching your toes with good alignment. You don't increase it because you don't need to.
Hope that helps.
Yeh, it is Jo Unruh from TG. I was watching one of your other videos when you talked about how you used to train as if you were in a Rocky film and thought to myself, "that seems familiar".
I am trying to increase my flexibility to help with running stride length while keeping everything balanced (I guess that is biometrically correct?). I have pretty weak achillies and that goes back to when I was young, so I want to avoid overstriding and putting stress on them. I more or less stick to a 180 cadence. Also I am not going fast, when I'm doing 400m reps they are over 90s.
So it seems that stretching for stretching sake is a bit of a waste of time, either there is no long term benefit or you're weakening and/or disrupting things. Can you point me in the direction of some stretching exercises with load that I can read up on? Is this eccentric training?
Thanks in advance and is it ok to look you up on other social medial?
Great to hear from buddy. Of course it is Jo. I'm on Facebook. I'll try and do a video for you too but if you contact me, I can be more specific.
ALL HAIL ESSOP
:-)
interesting had same thought, kids don't stretch lol
You are wrong regarding why children never injure themselves. It is the equivalent of why toddlers or very young children can fall and not hurt themselves while a full grown adult would snap his shit up. Or why babies can walk on their knees while it is very painful for adults to do so.
As we get bigger, we get heavier, taller and stronger. Square cube law comes into play. Our bones, muscles tendons, etc. are made of the same materials as children's meaning as we get stronger, those same materials have to sustain all that increased intensity. Our bodies lose structural integrity.
I never said children never injure themselves. That would be a ridiculous statement. I said kids don't stretch and they are fine. i.e. they go out to play and muck about and they don't have to stretch.
If you want to put it all down to square cube law, that's fine but I think you are ignoring physiology in favor of a maths principle applied to biomechanics for small and large animals.
Your example of toddlers and very young children falling and not hurting themselves depends on what they fall on. Carpet, they are fine. Concrete, there is some damage.
In the same way, your view that an adult would get injured depends on the adult. A Wrestler? A judo player? Even a healthy 20 something playing rugby with their friends in the park is fine.
However, get any of those sports people to start lifting weights and they'll find they need to stretch and injury in their chosen sport goes up.
Your example also doesn't fit with the fact that falls in old age cause much more damage than the same fall in your 30's despite the square cube law. (Old people get smaller not bigger)
While yes the muscles are the same material, the size and strength of the muscles and bones change as we develop meaning they can accommodate the increasing intensity demanded of them.
I'm suggesting that in the same way an old man with poor mobility, movement patterns and weak hip muscles will break a hip if they fall because of poor neuro muscular patterning but an old man with good mobility, movement patterns and strong hip muscles will not, the same concept is happening much earlier on for athletes that have to spend a lot of time stretching after weight training.
The ratios are wrong, the stabilisers become weaker relatively to the prime movers and the neural pattern becomes compromised from weights and stretching.