Stretch before exercise? Have you pulled it right?

Stretch before exercise? Have you pulled it right?

Static stretch is what we often call stretching. Under general concepts, we will say that static stretching should be done before exercise

But in fact, if a person who is healthy and has no injuries and whose muscles are not tight, he does not need to do stretching before exercise, but will have adverse effects!

This is related to a magical thing called muscle spindle.

What is a muscle spindle?

It is a proprioceptor that detects muscle stretching. When muscle stretching is detected, the message is transmitted to the spine, and the spine will immediately send a reflex signal to cause the muscle to contract, but if the stretching continues, the muscles cannot contract, and the muscles are spindle The function will be suppressed, and the function of the muscle shuttle is suppressed, so the SSC (extension and contraction cycle) cannot be used in explosive movements such as running and jumping, causing the explosive performance to decline!

Don't you understand the meaning? It doesn't matter, we use a simpler way to explain

We stretch the rubber band, and in order to prevent us from continuing to stretch until it breaks, the rubber band feels that the rubber band is resisting our tension, but after a long time, the rubber band will gradually loosen and the tension weakens, which means it loses elasticity.

The rubber band is like a muscle. When the muscle shuttle detects that it is stretched, it will activate the protection mechanism, generate the force to resist the tension, and then gradually weaken.

So this is why static stretching can relax tight muscles after exercise (the muscles are in a contraction state after exercise, and stretching can restore the muscles to their original length and maintain elasticity).

However, if we put static stretching on warm-up, it will cause our subsequent exercise training to lose the muscle contraction ability, and the exercise performance will be affected and will easily be injured.

It is recommended to do dynamic stretching before exercise

Dynamic stretching can increase the temperature of our muscles and improve the proprioception of the muscles. When the temperature rises, the ductility and elasticity will become better.

So what is dynamic stretching?

As the name suggests: Static stretching is a functional stretching exercise. It uses specialized movements as the body to prepare activities, emphasizing specialized movements rather than individual muscles. This exercise can be the closest to the movements required for the special exercises. For example, raising the legs high imitates the knee lifting movements in sprint running.

We do some bare hands such as: opening and closing jumps, chest expansion exercises, half-squats that are not bearing weight, raising leg running, etc., awaken our muscles and increase the temperature.

So we recommend dynamic stretching during warm-up to achieve the warm-up effect we want, without triggering muscle shuttle reactions, and can also improve exercise performance!

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