The cover story in this month's leading professional
fitness journal was on stretching, the exercise
component whose time has come. The article described
several types of stretching exercises and presented
sample programs for improving joint flexibility.
However, the proposed stretching protocols required
about an hour to perform.
While I do not question the effectiveness of such
programs, in my experience few people have time for
sixty minutes of stretching exercise. In fact, most of
our fitness center participants spend about 30 minutes
doing strength training (15 Nautilus machines) and about
30 minutes doing endurance exercise (treadmill, cycle,
stepper, cross-trainer, etc.), leaving little time in a
typical one-hour workout for stretching.
Our latest research has demonstrated the benefits of
including stretching in the overall exercise program,
but our participants attained excellent results from
relatively brief stretching sessions. Consider the
following findings from two of our studies on stretching
exercise.
Study One
Our first study in this area was conducted with 77
golfers (average age 57 years) who did a standard
strength training program (13 Nautilus exercises).
Fifty-two golfers did strength training only, and 25
golfers did a combination of strength training and
stretching exercise. The stretching protocol consisted
of six exercises performed on a StretchMate apparatus (a
platform and steel frame threaded with elastic cable and
resembling a large spider web). Each stretch was held
for 10 seconds, with most stretches performed on both
sides of the body, and the total time requirement was
about three minutes.
Both groups of golfers made impressive improvements in
body composition, adding about four pounds of muscle and
losing about four pounds of fat over the eight-week
training period. However, the golfers who performed
stretching exercises increased their joint flexibility
significantly more than the golfers who did only
strength training. More important to the golfers, those
who did strength training and stretching increased their
club head speed twice as much as those who did only
strength training (5.2 mph vs. 2.6 mph).
Club head speed basically determines driving power, with
each mile per hour increase equivalent to about 2.3
yards more driving distance. The combination of strength
training and stretching exercise produced the greatest
improvement in club head speed, and the total workout
time was less than 30 minutes.
Study Two
Our second study on stretching exercise involved 76
participants from our fitness classes. The small group
fitness classes run hourly throughout the day in our
research center (six members with two instructors). Each
class consists of 12 Nautilus exercises and about 20 to
25 minutes of aerobic activity (treadmill or cycle).
About half of the research participants performed the
standard training protocol, whereas the other half added
stretching exercises to the workout. To save time and to
make the stretches specific to the strength training, we
paired every Nautilus exercise with an appropriate
stretch for the same muscle group. Each stretch was held
for 20 seconds, and most were done right on the Nautilus
machines.
For example, the Nautilus leg extension exercise for the
quadriceps muscles was followed by the standing
quadriceps stretch. Likewise, the Nautilus leg curl
exercise for the hamstrings muscles was followed by the
seated hamstrings stretch. This pairing procedure made
productive use of the rest time between machines, using
20 seconds for single stretches and 40 seconds for
stretches performed on both sides of the body. Although
the total time requirement for the stretches was about
six minutes, the actual duration of the workout was
about the same due to the strategic placement of the
stretching exercises between the Nautilus exercises.
The results of this 10-week study were both anticipated
and surprising. We expected the group that included
stretching exercises to make greater gains in joint
flexibility, and indeed they did. Their hamstrings
flexibility increased 2.4 inches compared to a 1.4-inch
improvement in the group that did not stretch.
However, we also found that the stretching group gained
almost 20 percent more muscle strength than their
non-stretching counterparts. Specifically, the
participants who paired Nautilus and stretching
exercises increased their hamstrings strength by 19.5
pounds, whereas the participants who did not stretch
increased their hamstrings strength by only 16.4 pounds.
So this study also showed superior results by combining
strength training and stretching exercises. It would
therefore seem that muscle strength, joint flexibility,
movement speed, and performance power can all benefit
from a relatively basic and brief exercise program that
includes appropriate strengthening and stretching
components.
Just as our previous research demonstrated that one set
of each strength exercise is as productive as two or
three sets, these studies clearly indicate that a few
minutes of stretching exercise are sufficient for
significantly improving joint flexibility. In fact, the
three-minute stretching sessions performed by the
golfers produced a 24-percent average increase in their
hip and shoulder flexibility.
Wayne
L. Westcott, Ph.D.
is fitness director at the South Shore YMCA in Quincy,
Massachusetts, and strength training consultant for
IDEA, the American Council on Exercise, the
International Fitness Institute, and the YMCA of the
USA. Dr. Westcott is the author of the college textbook
Strength Fitness, and the professional textbook Be
Strong.
More
Books from Dr. Westcott
CEC:
Current Strength Training Research
by Dr. Westcott
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
