Research has shown that resistance training can provide benefits equivalent to stretching.Alexandr Dubynin/Getty Images
Stretching is a polarizing topic in fitness, like seed-oil consumption or how seriously to take pickleball. Some exercisers stretch several times a week, others don’t stretch at all – without apparent issue.
This reveals a level of fuzziness around the practice: We have clear expectations for strength and aerobic training – through sets, reps and pace – but less clarity about stretching for general health.
When I ask David Behm, a professor at Memorial University’s School of Human Kinetics and Recreation for some clarity, the first thing he does is set me straight on vocabulary. He prefers the term “range of motion” over “flexibility.” The former can be measured – and accounts for the structural limits of our joints. The ball-and-socket joint of the hip, for example, can only be moved so far before you’re bone on bone. No amount of stretching will change that – only a total hip replacement.
“Stretching is what you do,” he says. It’s not an outcome, it’s a method – but not the only one.
His team’s research has shown that resistance training can provide benefits equivalent to stretching. The same goes for Pilates and other methods that load tissues through a full range of motion.
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Whatever your method, Behm emphasizes that it’s important to warm up beforehand. This can be as simple as performing the same movement with lighter weight; the goal is to increase the temperature of the tissues being worked.
“There’s this fancy word called ‘thixotropic’ effects,” Behm says. “And what thixotropic means is that you decrease the viscosity of the muscle. So, if you have a ketchup bottle and you open it up and you put it upside down, the ketchup doesn’t come out. But then if you shake it up … you decrease the viscosity of the ketchup.”
The warmth in warm-ups is what makes the difference for your tissues. Sixty per cent of the energy in a muscle contraction is lost to heat, and it’s that heat that makes stretching more effective, Behm says.
What is enough range of motion?
You don’t need to do the splits or sit cross-legged on a stack of pots. Behm says that two to three sets of 20 to 30 seconds in a warm-up or two to four minutes of stretching in a separate workout are enough to provide meaningful benefits.
Many people are restricted in their range of motion, often because of injuries or genetics. Or aging itself, since we retain the strong collagen in our tissues but elastin – a beautifully self-explanatory term – dissipates over the years, Behm says.
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When it comes to how much is enough, many people overlook simple abilities, such as touching their toes whenever they want, says Lucas Hardie, a Halifax-based personal trainer who applies resistance-training methods to improving ranges of motion (and vice-versa). He looks for obvious deficits in his clients or whether someone is avoiding a range of motion.
For maintaining general health, he suggests a couple of seemingly simple movements. The first is hanging from a bar – a stretch loaded by your body weight. The second is a forward fold, where you begin in a standing position and finish by staring at your kneecaps. To progress these challenges, add time and resistance – how long you’re able to hold that position and under what additional loads.
Hardie, a former powerlifter, shifted his fitness approach away from more numbers-driven strength performance for functional reasons. “The real thing that pushed me into this was when we had kids. I realized I was going to be on the floor with them.”
What about dynamic versus static stretching?
There is a common apprehension around static stretching – where you hold a position for more than 60 seconds as part of a warm-up – because it’s associated with a lowered ability to produce strength or power.
This is all but dogma among athletes, but Behm offers an important caveat: Your range of motion may be a higher priority than your absolute output. He points to the longer (often three to 10-minute) stretches held by gymnasts and figure skaters.
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If you’re really concerned about how hard you’re hitting your tennis serve or how far you’re hitting your golf ball, break workouts up between your primary sport and supplementary stretching sessions, Behm says. However, the decrement in performance may only be about 5 per cent, so if time or energy are limiting factors for exercise, the trade-off may be worth it.
Hana Lukac, the founder of Mula Yoga in Toronto, makes a different case for taking things slow. Mindfulness can play a role in fine-tuning your range of motion, she says.
“When there’s just so much noise, it’s incredibly hard to even hear your own breath, let alone become aware of that tiny little muscle in your right hip that externally rotates. We need some quiet to really tune in and feel.”