The New Revolution: Static Stretching on SoccerNationNews Soccer News

Joe Hippensteel

One of the biggest issues athletes are facing today is lack of flexibility. It leads to injuries, pulled and strained muscles, bulging discs, bone on bone knee joints, tendonitis, bursitis, tears, aches and pains just to name a few. Flexibility/range of motion (ROM) is the least understood but absolutely the most critical part of fitness and performance education. Tight muscles put undue strain on joints, inhibit blood flow and pinch nerves.

Having the human body function through complete and safe ROMs keeps people out of the “Danger Zone”. Achieving flexibility is a matter of working at it consistently, before and after workouts and having “STANDARDS” to stretch to. There has never been a real standard established for ROM's. There are literally hundreds of opinions on how and when and how much stretching to do but the good thing is that there are answers to all of those questions.

What are the safe ROM’s? Why should I stretch? Which exercises do I do? Does it even matter if and how I stretch? How long do I stretch? Which muscles are critical for my sport? Why are there so many opinions and ways to stretch? Why in this day and age of advanced sports medicine are there so many injuries and pain?

Does a pitcher need more ROM than a housewife? Of course. Does a goalie in ice hockey need to be able to do a split in training if he is expected to do one to block a puck? Absolutely. Does a soccer player need more flexibility in his hamstrings, due to sprinting, than a shot putter? Definitely.

Static stretching, holding a muscle in an extended range of motion (ROM) is essential for getting the kinks out before a workout. Everybody has kinks in many muscles. The pains you feel in the hamstrings, shoulders or traps, or achilles, are due to tight muscles and kinks. Massage, chiropractic, pills and injections, or even just rest, can help sometimes, but many times is only a temporary solution and doesn’t help the actual cause.

The proper and correct way to warm-up before a workout, to perform at your best, and virtually eliminate potential for injury, is to follow a four step plan with the right stretching routine and ROM's needed for your particular sport or activity. It is as follows:

1. General Warm Up, for blood flow to warm the muscles.
2. Static Stretching (to the necessary ROM) to de-kink for your sport.
3. Specific warm-up (re-activate muscles) for your sport.
4. Continue stretching during breaks in your activity and ideally after finishing.

A top Major League Baseball pitching scout once told me that a major league pitcher is on the verge of injury with every pitch. Wow, sounds like a suicide mission to me. If he has proper ROM he can be out of the “Danger Zone”.

The following are the exercises and explanation of the four-step plan:

1. Jogging or arm circles, light dynamic movements for blood flow to the areas needed.
2. Static stretching holding critical positions for sometimes minutes, not seconds to de-kink.
3. Kicking the ball around, throwing or easy sprints, etc. should be done.
4. To keep muscles open, fueled and de kinked, ongoing stretching must be done.

There are approximately 24 specific ROM's that are needed to function at the highest levels. In order to allow for proper function during an activity, minimum ROM's must be adhered to. These “STANDARDS” have now been set to work virtually flawlessly for every sport or activity. The routine is called JOGA ROM (Joe's Yoga Ranges of Motion). These 24 ROM's will find and eliminate every kink that the human body develops, whether you have a sedentary lifestyle or are a professional athlete.

Here are just a few examples:

1. Sit. Cross legs. Lean forward.	2. Hamstrings level	3. Shoulders, arms and back

The JOGA ROM routine has 24 ROM's that will keep people out of the “Danger Zone". Once learned and done in the right order and the appropriate range, the body will open up and allow freedom of movement that people haven't experienced since their teenage days. Injuries and pain are virtually non-existent when consistently maintaining these ranges as part of an ongoing routine. If you want to live a pain free lifestyle, you have to pay the price to stay fit. Otherwise, aging happens at a much more rapid pace.

Stretching muscles takes time not force. The average time it takes for a tight muscle to open up is two minutes. A typical routine before a workout should take 20-60 minutes. I know what you are thinking, “I don't have time for that.” You don't have to do it but I guarantee that you will hurt less if you follow this rule. Once you are practiced and are open (fully stretched out), your warm-up routine should not take as long. For professional athletes, it is still necessary to adhere to these rules, probably even more so. Why are there so many surgeries and early retirements for professional athletes? The average retirement age in the pro sports is only 26, (22 in some sports), and if they don't retire most plateau in performance.

Athletes should continue to improve every year if they train properly. It involves even more specific ROM work and very specific weight lifting and conditioning. Any athlete (or non athlete) can be transformed at almost any age by being on the right training program. They can do more than just improve a little or maintain their fitness level.

If anything in your muscular or skeletal system hurts it can improve with specific ROM's. Yes, even bone on bone knee joints after multiple surgeries, herniated discs, headaches, any muscles ailments, tendonitis, arthritis, torn rotator cuffs, torn labrums, even bone spurs will disappear. If you learn this routine and ROM's you will be amazed!

Keep stretching . . . it works!

Joe Hippensteel, the author, is a professional Coach and a Master Physio/Kinesiologist. He owns a Professional Track and Field team and has worked for NIKE, coached at the USA Olympic Training Center, and has worked with many professional athletes in various sports including MLB, PGA, NBA, NFL, USTA (Tennis). He is the founder of Ultimate Human Performance (UHP) and has developed some of the most advanced training and injury elimination techniques in the world. He can be reached at www.HippUHP.com or at 928.853.9914.

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