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Stretching FAQ 2.3.2 - Why Contortionists Should StrengthenStretching FAQ 2.3.2 - Why Contortionists Should Strengthen
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Subject: 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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