The study consisted of 40 female recreational runners both with a history of stress fractures and without to assess what contributed to the likelihood of getting a stress fracture. 

The study provided two key findings that should not be overlooked when preventing stress fractures in female runners:

1. Physiological reasons – bone structure and density and hormonal status
2. Training routine – training intensity, nutrition, insufficient strengthening, and ignoring pain

What is a Stress Fracture?

According to the Mayo Clinic, stress fractures are tiny cracks in the bone that are caused by repetitive force often brought on by increasing the amount or intensity of an activity too quickly. 

In our normal daily activities, our bones go through a process known as bone remodeling. 

Bone remodeling is constant; up to 10% of all bone mass may be undergoing remodeling at any time. Bone is resorbed (the breaking down of the bone) by osteoclast cells (derived from bone marrow) and new bone is deposited by osteoblast cells.

When there is greater bone resorption than bone formation, this can lead to a greater risk of a stress fracture. 

Risk Factors for a Stress Fracture: Physiological Factors

The study revealed that physiological factors, which are often overlooked, should play a much more important role when evaluating injury and preventing stress fractures. 

The physiological factors evaluated include:

Bone Structure and Density

“Women with a history of stress fractures had lower hip bone mineral density compared to women with no history of stress fractures, indicating that decreased bone strength could increase the risk of injury.”

Bone mineral density is a measurement of the amount of minerals in your bones. It is measured by a test called a dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA). 

The results, referred to as a T-score, are based on the bone mineral density of a healthy 30-year-old compared to your own value. A score of 0 is considered ideal.

The National Institutes of Health offers the following guidelines for bone density scores:

Normal: between 1 and -1

Low bone mass: -1 to -2.5

Osteoporosis: -2.5 or lower

Severe osteoporosis: -2.5 or lower with bone fractures

Also as a part of bone density, bone remodeling can be evaluated by a blood test that looks for these markers. This can be an important step as study results showed “increased bone turnover in the group of women with stress fractures.” 

Hormonal Status

The researchers found that while there was no difference in estradiol hormone levels between the two groups, women who had a stress fracture history reported menstrual changes or irregular periods as a result of their training, or during peak training times. 

While hormone levels do not appear to be a driving force behind stress fractures, irregular menstrual cycles can be an indicator of too much training or increasing training load too quickly.

“Our findings also indicate that asking female runners about any menstrual irregularities during heavier training times is important during routine screening.”

Risk Factors for a Stress Fracture: Training Routine

The reference below pulled from the study is all too common among athletes who are pushing themselves to be the best. 

“Women with histories of stress fractures had increased their training load more quickly. Also, while they knew of the importance of nutrition and strengthening exercises, women with a history of stress fracture more often reported not having or making the time for a balanced diet and proper cross-training to complement their running regimen.”

Let’s evaluate each of these items and what you can do to prevent them.

Increasing Training Load Too Quickly

Have a plan well in advance of any races. You should not be increasing any week’s training load by more than 10%. If you are beginning to feel overuse issues, you need to reduce your mileage or incorporate low-impact cross-training activities. You should also incorporate warm-up stretches and exercises to protect yourself from injuries.

The Importance of Cross-Training for Runners

Sometimes you are forced into cross-training like swimming or biking to replace the high impact activity of running, but cross-training is actually very beneficial to greater running fitness.

According to Runners World there are three main ways cross-training can increase your speed:

1. Enhance a runner’s efficiency
2. Increase a runner’s power
3. Increase the amount of time a runner is able to spend training without accumulating fatigue or getting injured

Cross-training also provides a form of active recovery—a type of rest—that is so critical when it comes to recovering from a stress fracture. A light workout can accelerate recovery beyond outright rest by just slightly increasing the body’s need for recovery. 

Strength Training Exercises

Strength training helps prevent early muscle fatigue, injury, and the loss of bone density that comes with aging.

Runners should focus on exercises that will specifically benefit them in the sport. Runners typically don’t need to isolate individual body parts. In other words, you don’t need a “leg day” or an “arm day”.

Choose exercises that develop runner-specific power like core, glutes, hamstring, and hips. These important muscle groups will help with your performance.

Nutrition and Diet

We are not going to focus on the types of food you should eat, but rather eating habits that can help in preventing stress fractures. 

1. Eat to accommodate increased energy expenditure — the more you work out or the greater the intensity of your workout, the more energy you will need from food.
2. Eat a post-workout snack — Getting nutrients after exercise can help you rebuild your muscle proteins and glycogen stores. It also helps stimulate the growth of new muscles.
3. Eat healthy fats to decrease inflammation
4. Focus on calcium and Vitamin D intake
5. Consider dietary supplements to boost bone density — Calcium, Magnesium, Strontium Citrate, Drynaria, and Vitamin D3 are all supplements that help boost bone density. NOTE: (with the exception of Vitamin D) you should not take these if you are taking bisphosphonates. There needs to be a break, or “washout period”, between the bisphosphonate and these items because they will not work effectively. Alternatively, if you take Calcium, Magnesium, Strontium, and Drynaria at the same time, they should be taken 2 hours apart to get maximum absorption. 

Ignoring Pain

“Women in [the stress fracture] group reported pushing through the pain and running despite an injury more often than those without stress fractures. In the interviews, it sounded like these women had trouble knowing which pain was normal, and which pain was abnormal.”

If you have difficulty deciding when to push through pain and when to back off, seek advice from a physical therapist, orthopedic doctor, or chiropractor that can help you interpret pain cues from the body and help you differentiate between normal aches and pains and indicators of a serious injury. Of course, we at Stretch Affect are here to help as well. 

Key Takeaways for Preventing Stress Fractures

• Pay attention to your training load. Do not increase more than 10% a week. 
• Pay attention to your menstrual cycle. If it becomes irregular, this could be a sign of increasing training load too quickly.
• Do weight-bearing exercises. Weight-bearing exercises helps increase bone density and improve muscle fatigue. 
• Don’t ignore pain. If pain is preventing you from performing get it checked out by a qualified professional. 
• Use cross-training when needed to decrease the high-intensity act of running. Also, use cross-training to recover. 
• Focus on your diet, being mindful of consuming Calcium and Vitamin D
• For those with poor bone density, consider dietary supplements such as Strontium Citrate and Drynaria

If you are in the San Diego area or need virtual assistance, schedule a visit with Stretch Affect to evaluate your running training plan and ways to prevent stress fractures. Assisted stretching will help keep you safe and performing well.

hello@staging.stretchaffect.com

The post Can Risk Factors for Stress Fractures be Identified in Female Runners? appeared first on Stretch Affect.

Being limited in any capacity is never enjoyable, but when it impacts nearly every aspect of our existence, we really start to take note.

Lack of ankle mobility changes the way our body moves and creates compensatory patterns that overload certain structures and stop using others—leading to pain or injury. 

What Does Mobility Mean? 

Mobility is defined as the ability to move a limb through its full range of motion.

Mobility often gets confused with flexibility. Where mobility describes how your body moves through active motions, flexibility refers more to the length and condition of muscles, ligaments, and tendons.

Good mobility means your muscles are doing their assigned jobs correctly. With poor mobility, you’re likely relying on the wrong muscles to perform certain movements, an action that results in stress, tension, pain, and, ultimately, injury. 

Why Do We Want to Improve Ankle Mobility? 

There is a strong correlation between mobility, flexibility, and athleticism. Poor ankle mobility can affect even the most simple day-to-day activities such as going from sitting to standing, walking, or running. Without proper dorsiflexion, or range of motion, your body is forced to find workarounds in other areas leading to poor performance or injury. 

Some reasons to improve ankle mobility: 

• because you have chronic ankle instability from injury 
• you want to improve your squat depth 
• you want to improve dorsiflexion (the ability to bring your toes towards your shin)

Stretches to Improve Ankle Mobility

Improving mobility should involve different types of activities beyond the traditional static stretch. It is also important to not only focus on the troubled area, but also the surrounding muscles. So for the ankle, the calf and tibialis muscles will be main areas to focus on as well. 

Mobility exercises should be the first thing you do before starting a workout. The reason why these should come first is mobility exercises prepare your muscles and joints, allowing for full range of motion. 

Mobility addresses all the elements that limit movement: tight muscles, joint range of motion, and stiffness. When you have full range of motion, you reduce the need to compensate and move incorrectly avoiding injury. 

Start where something is stiff. Mobilize that area. Work above, below, and around the problem area to address contributing areas. 

Examples of mobility exercises are:

1. Foam Rolling
2. Traction
3. PAILS and RAILS
4. Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation (PNF) stretching—after working out

Mobility Examples

Foam Rolling

Foam rolling warms up your body, increases muscle flexibility, loosens tight muscles, and allows you to workout with better, more efficient, and safer form. 

Divide the muscle that you’re rolling into three segments—bottom, middle, and top. Give each section a few passes, move onto the next one, and then after having hit each of them, give the entire length of the muscle a pass.

Our preferred method of foam rolling is what we call pressure and move. Instead of just rolling your muscle back and forth over the roller, you will get more benefit from bending and straightening your limb and moving it back and forth over the problem area. 

The following videos demonstrate foam rolling techniques for your calves:

Traction

Our clients use bands to create traction.  The benefits of traction, or resistance stretching, is that by having a band pulling on the joint you are trying to stretch, it creates more space in the joint itself. This allows the tissues to relax and release, which increases  your range of motion. 

You can increase the tension you have pulling on the joint by using a higher resistance band.

PAILS and RAILS Dorsiflexion

PAILS and RAILS stands for progressive and regressive angular isometric loading. What does this mean? 

When we’re working PAILS contraction, we’re recruiting or contracting the lengthening tissues or the progressive tissues and the opposite angle is regressing, or shortening. 

This is important because we want to work both tissues at their end range, allowing you to recruit your nervous system and teach it that it is safe to extend past what it thinks is capable. 

With static stretching, you are priming your cells and you might feel better for a time, but recruiting your nervous system allows for significant change to happen.

When performing PAILS and RAILS, time under tension matters—the longer the better. The amount of force you apply to the stretch also matters. In the videos below you will hear percentage call-outs—these represent the amount of force.

Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation (PNF) Stretching Post-Workout 

PNF is effective if completed after exercise and done at least twice a week to ensure a lasting range of motion and sustained beneficial effects.

What is PNF?

PNF involves both the stretching and contracting of the muscle group being targeted. PNF stretching is one of the most effective forms of stretching for improving flexibility and increasing range of motion.

It involves the contraction and stretching of muscles. This is usually achieved with a partner, but you can also get the same benefit from using bands or an immovable object. 

You know the feeling when you can’t go any further when stretching a muscle? At the end of your range of motion, it begins to feel extremely tight and maybe even painful. This is when PNF stretching allows you to go deeper.  

PNF stretching requires you to stretch a muscle and then contract that muscle before stretching it again. As you move into the stretch after the contraction, you will be able to stretch further than you did before. This allows you to create more length in the muscle and gain a greater flexibility benefit from the stretch.

How to Perform PNF Stretching

To perform PNF stretching, stretch a muscle as far as you can—remember, it should never be painful—and hold the stretch for 10 seconds. Next, contract that muscle as forcefully as possible against an immovable object, such as a band, partner, or wall. Hold this for 5-20 seconds. Now move into the stretch again, which should be deeper than what you achieved before. 

The most effective version of PNF involves contracting the opposite muscles after the stretch to pull you into the stretch more. This means, if you are stretching the calves, you would contract the calves while stretching, then contract the anterior tibialis to pull deeper into the stretch. Repeat the stretch-contraction sequence three times for each muscle.

As you can see, there are many different techniques that exist and many schools of thought. Ultimately our job isn’t to dictate one particular way but to showcase a variety of researched methods to resolve your issues. 

Ideally, all of these methods should be done as a part of a comprehensive strategy to improve ankle mobility. A full assessment by a qualified movement professional is always the best option to determine your individual needs. 

Please contact Stretch Affect for a virtual or in-person assessment. 

hello@staging.stretchaffect.com

The post How to Improve Ankle Mobility: A Pre-Exercise Stretching Routine appeared first on Stretch Affect.

Neck and Spine

Deskwork often leads to poor posture. A consistently bent neck and curved spine lead to shoulder pain. Essential components of your core strength, your neck, and spine affect how your shoulders sit in relation to the rest of your body. Take a few minutes every few hours to do some office stretching. 

Start by warming up your neck and spine muscles before moving to the shoulders for a more effective stretch session. You can hold each of these stretches for up to a minute, and perform them on both sides 3–5 times.

Neck Release

Neck releases are a way to take the tension out of your neck and shoulders. Slowly lower your chin up and down towards your chest and back. You should feel a stretch that goes along the back of your neck and possibly even down past your neck and into the shoulder blades. With your chin still tucked, tilt your head to one side to stretch the opposite shoulder. Hold this position for up to one minute, and then return to the middle before repeating on the other side.

The following videos are a good place to start:

Across-the-Chest Stretch

Across-the-chest stretch is a common stretch we use to promote shoulder joint flexibility. To start this stretch, straighten your arm in front of you and bring it across your chest. Place your opposite hand on the joint of your elbow, gently supporting it. Use the supporting arm to pull your outstretched arm towards your body, opening up the shoulder and shoulder blade muscles.

Chest

When your chest is tight, the chest muscles contract your overall posture to bring the fronts of your shoulders closer. The hunched, rounded-shoulder posture weakens the back muscles that promote a strong and straight back. Add these chest stretches to relieve shoulder pain to your office stretching routine. 

Chest Expansion

You’ll need something soft and flexible for a chest expansion — an exercise band, towel, or even a spare t-shirt will work. Hold the band or fabric behind your back, just behind your hips. Slowly lift the band or towel upwards, keeping your arms straight. As you do so, open your chest, pull your shoulder blades together, and lift your chin as you look towards the ceiling. Hold for 30 seconds, and perform 3–5 times.

PAILs RAILs Pectoralis Stretch

PAILs and RAILs stand for Progressive and Regressive Angular Isometric Loading stretches. They are used to improve limitations in joint movements that have occurred from disuse, postural demands, or injury, and they can be extremely effective in mediating shoulder pain. For this stretch, stand next to a wall. Extend the arm closest to the wall, and place the palm of your hand against it. Using your body weight, lean into the wall to pull on your deltoids and the pectoralis, or chest muscles. You can increase the intensity of the stretch by rotating your hips towards the wall. See our video here for a visual explanation.

Shoulder

Once the surrounding muscles are feeling stretched and loose, it’s time to hit the shoulders! Try these stretches for shoulder pain and others for better mobility and flexibility.

Shoulder Extension and Flexion

Shoulder extensions are a nice, simple movement to warm up the shoulder. Stand with your feet hip-width apart, with your arms at your sides. Take one arm and move it behind the body in a straight, backward motion. Keep your palm facing your body, and stop when your arm reaches a 45-degree angle. Bring it back to center, and then repeat 8–10 times on each side. Perform up to three sets.

Shoulder flexion is a similar stretch in the opposite direction. Maintain a similar stance. Raise one straightened arm up until it is parallel with the rest of your body. Then lower it back down. Repeat 8–10 times on each side, with up to three sets. 

View our videos on shoulder extensions and shoulder flexion on our YouTube channel for a visual demonstration.

Shoulder Circles

Stand next to the back of a chair. Place the hand nearest to the chair on the back of it, and allow your opposite arm to hang. With the hanging arm’s shoulder joint relaxed, circle your hand clockwise five times. Then, circle counterclockwise five times. Perform on both sides, up to 3 times per day.

Doorway Shoulder Stretch

The doorway shoulder stretch is like the PAILs RAILs Pectoralis Stretch, but with the aim of more directly opening your chest by strengthening the shoulders. Stand in a doorway, and make a 90-degree angle with one of your arms at the elbow. Rest your palm and forearm on the side of the doorway. While pressing your arm against the doorway, lean forward and step the foot of the same side forward. Deepen the stretch by turning away from that arm to open the shoulder and chest even more. Repeat on each side 2–3 times, holding the stretch for 30 seconds each time.

Yoga Inspired Shoulder Stretching

Pain relief is one of the many documented benefits of yoga. By relying on stretching to relieve pain, yoga helps keep medications to a minimum. To finish off your workout, engage in some relaxing stretches inspired by yoga poses that incorporate the whole body and help your shoulders return to a neutral position.

Downward Dog for Shoulders

Start in a high plank position with your arms extended. Press into the heels of your palms as you lift your hips towards the ceiling until your body reaches an upside-down V-position. Be sure to keep your spine straight, avoid locking your knees, and bring your head toward your feet so your shoulders stay flexed over your head. Hold for up to one minute.

Child’s Pose

For Child’s Pose, kneel on the floor with your toes together and knees hip-width apart. As you exhale, lower your torso between your knees and extend your arms past your head with your palms facing down. Allow your shoulders to relax as if falling towards the floor, and allow your spine to relax as well. This pose can be held for up to five minutes!

Get a Personalized Shoulder Pain Stretch Routine at Stretch Affect

The physical therapists and specialists of Stretch Affect help people just like you reduce pain and become more limber with assisted stretching and manual therapy. Our clients are thrilled when they return to a pain-free life full of the activities they love. 

We believe everyone deserves to understand their body. Our consultations and physical assessments build complete mobility solutions for a wide range of issues and clients. The stretches delineated in this blog post will get you started with the best stretches for shoulder pain. 
If you’re still experiencing pain despite these stretches, you may need tailored exercises that match your issues, weight, condition, age, and more. View more of our stretch exercises on our YouTube channel, or contact us today at (619) 389-3718 to schedule your first Stretch Affect session.

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Outstanding athletes must optimize every aspect of their performance. One way they do that is to study their kinematic sequence. 

Their what? 

The kinematic sequence is the study of how energy is transferred first through the large muscles, then through the pelvis and thorax to the arms and legs. Athletes use this information to get the most power to the ball (baseball, soccer, tennis, golf). Being aware of the sequence of energy transfer helps athletes and others calibrate movement to maximize velocity, optimizing their performance. 

You, too, can improve your performance by studying your kinematic sequence. Whether your physical issues stem from joints, muscles, coordination issues, or a combination of these, you can study and improve your mobility, stability, and strength.  

The Kinematic Sequence

The Kinematic Sequence is derived from the 3D analysis measurements of various athletes. Certain aspects of measured movements were found to be commonplace among better athletes. Experts used line graphs to measure sequence, timing, acceleration, deceleration, gain speed, gain segment transferring, and load power for each point of the body. 

Aspects of the Kinematic Sequence

The Kinematic Sequence is composed of three parts, shortened to the acronym ROI. No, not return on investment, the kinematic sequence ROI stands for Reliability, Opportunity, and Improvement. 

1. Reliability refers to a solid foundation in an athletic movement—a series of dynamic muscular motions that occur every time, no matter the movement’s goal. 

2. Opportunity accounts for factors like timing, acceleration sequences, deceleration sequences, and joints’ loading to maximize power. 

3. Improvement occurs when athletes identify inefficiencies in unequal or excessive loads on particular joints. 

With guidance, you work on your movements to produce measurable improvements.

How the Kinematic Sequence Improves Performance

When you’re less fatigued, your workout, game, or any activity just flows. 

It doesn’t mean much to have a perfect swing on Hole 1 if your game is falling apart by Hole 18. The kinematic sequence allows athletes to drive their movements from the larger muscles designed to generate it. Weak movements and fatigue result when the energy load stems from the extremities. If you’re not using your larger muscles properly, you will fatigue faster because you are using your extremities to generate force. 

People of all body types and conditions benefit from examining their own kinematic sequences.  For instance, while golfers of different heights will swing their clubs from different angles, their measured kinematic sequences tend to be similar. Ultimately, moving your body differently will improve movements without forcing your muscles to work too hard, which could lead to injury and exhaustion.

Examples of the Kinematic Sequence

Golf Swing

The four primary segments measured in the kinematic sequence of a golf swing are pelvis, thorax, lead arm, and club.

Baseball Pitch

Large muscles of the lower extremity and trunk during the wind-up and stride phases are transferred to the ball through the shoulder and elbow during the cocking and acceleration phases. 

Tennis Serve

The order of maximum angular velocities during a tennis serve are trunk tilt, upper torso rotation, pelvis rotation, elbow extension, wrist flexion, and shoulder internal rotation. 

How to Perfect the Kinematic Sequence

Your joints play different roles. Hinge, pivot, and ellipsoidal joints all do their part to create backward, forward, sideways, and rotating movements. When different types of joints work together to create coordinated motions, it’s called regional interdependence. 

Joints along the same kinetic chain alternate between being mobile or stable. Improving joint stability and mobility for the respective joints will not only elevate the power of movements generated but reduce pressure and impact on joints not suited for certain motions. Awareness of joint interplay helps athletes reduce the risk of injury. Examining your kinematic sequence involves finding your weak points and strengthening them!

Focus on Mobility

Mobility is the degree to which a joint is allowed to move before being restricted by its surrounding tissues, including muscles, tendons, and ligaments. Many confuse it with flexibility, though they’re not interchangeable. Mobility gives one the ability to perform a certain movement, while someone flexible may lack the strength, stability, or coordination.

Mobilizing Joints

Some joints are meant to move in many directions, and you can identify them by their ability to move amongst multiple planes of motion. Mobility joints include the ankles, hips, thoracic spine, shoulder, wrist, and upper cervical spine. The thoracic spine, the T1–T12 vertebrae, runs along the chest. The upper cervical spine runs from there to C1–C2, closest to the skull. 

Mobilizing Exercises

Mobility exercises take joints and their surrounding tissues through a series of movements designed to increase range of motion. These exercises focus on reducing feelings like stiffness, soreness, or limited movement. When working to optimize mobility, you shouldn’t just focus on the joint bothering you, but also the ones above and below it. Performing exercises for all limits straining the kinetic chain.

Focus on Stability

While mobility focuses on the movement of a joint, stability focuses on the ability to control it. Stability relies on careful control of both surrounding tissues and the neuromuscular system to maintain a joint’s control.

Stabilizing Joints

Unlike mobile joints, stability joints ensure reliability during movements. These joints often only move in one direction and are prone to dislocations and ligament tears, among other serious injuries, when not strengthened with stability. Stability joints include the knees, pelvis, lower spine, shoulder blades, elbow, and lower cervical spine. The lower spine refers to the lumbar and sacral components, L1–L5 and S1–S5, and the lower cervical spine refers to C3–C7, which are the lower portions of the spine that compose the neck.

Stabilizing Exercises

Stability exercises train the brain and body to work in concert, activating the right muscles at the right time for a given movement. You’ll often hear exercises like these described as working your stabilizer or “smaller” muscles. Most of these movements involve muscles of the abdominals, back, hips, and glutes. Core strength is vital for performing any activity correctly. Often, stability exercises can also be classified as mobility exercises because core exercises designed for activation will involve improving both. 

Importance of Joints Performing Their Designed Roles

If you don’t have the mobility you want, your body will go either upstream or downstream to find it. With the strength of bigger muscles moving to smaller joints, it only makes sense that injuries are common. Often, we prioritize stability over mobility to prevent injury. This focus on safety can limit our mobility. Athletes are notoriously good at this compensating mechanism, meaning that many will never realize the lack of either mobility or stability at a joint until it’s too late.

How to Perfect the Kinematic Sequence

One of the simplest ways to ensure every part of your body is ready for your next workout or activity is by having an evaluation performed by a certified fitness specialist. Joint mobility and stability screens are a necessary prerequisite to optimal performance. 

Visit Stretch Affect for an examination that helps classify your movements on a more physiological level. Improve your game, stamina, workout. golf, bike, and more. Contact us today at (619) 389-3718 to schedule your first Stretch Affect session.

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We can all agree that stretching has numerous benefits. Whether you’re an athlete, someone who casually works out, looking for physical office wellness, or casually working through some movement limitations, stretching routines are necessary for a body that moves the way it’s supposed to. Stretching even benefits those suffering from poor posture, the effects of a sedentary lifestyle, or coping with physical disorders and disabilities. 

Benefits of Both Assisted and Solo Stretching

The upsides of stretching include:

• improving your physical performance
• decreasing your risk of injuries
• reducing daily aches and pains
• ensuring your muscles can work most effectively
• boosting circulation and energy

Beyond the physical effects, stretching can even improve mental health. Stretching releases endorphins, which interact with the brain and reduce the impact of both physical and emotional stress. It reduces tension, and helps you feel better by recharging and refreshing your body!

When it comes to stretching, there are quite a few types. Stretching routines are usually grouped by the motions they include, like dynamic versus static. However, another way to group stretching is by whether or not you perform the movements alone. Solo stretching is when you stretch by yourself, and the type of stretching most of us think of when we imagine stretching. Assisted stretching involves the help of someone else.

Benefits of Assisted Stretching

At Stretch Affect, we are certainly proponents of assisted versus solo stretching; it’s what we do! There are many reasons why we feel so passionately about it, and we love sharing our knowledge and expertise on assisted stretching with others. 

While there are undeniable pros to our techniques, the biggest benefit to assisted stretching is learning how to stretch. When you’re new to stretching, having someone walk you through the stretches is especially helpful. Even if you’ve stretched before, new stretches can be confusing and even difficult.

Beyond just learning the basics, here are some of the biggest reasons you should consider assisted versus solo stretching. 

Reprogram Your Muscles

Many of our patients believe they’ve been stretching correctly their whole lives, but still experience aches, pains, and injuries. Attending assisted stretching sessions complete with manual therapy can make sure that you’ve been stretching correctly. 

We’re all prone to compensating when certain portions of our kinetic chains are weak, but working with a stretching professional helps identify those points and reprograms the neuromuscular system to create more purposeful, effective stretching routines.

Avoid Injury

It can be easy to overdo it when you stretch alone. Stretches found on the internet or recommended by a friend can seem simple, but often put people into positions they’re not yet ready for. These injuries may be caused by simple imbalances among flexibility, stability, and mobility. These words are often used interchangeably but mean different things. Injury may come from over-stretching the muscle, but just as often can be caused by overstretching a tendon or ligament or going beyond your joint’s mobility. 

It’s far easier to avoid injury when you have a Stretch Affect professional by your side.

Tailor Your Stretches to You

Assisted stretching doesn’t simply throw a random set of stretches at you in hopes that some of them target your weak spots. Many solo stretching regimens are either too specific or too generalized, leaving you with a body that isn’t fully prepared for healing, rest, or tomorrow’s activities. 

When you choose assisted stretching versus solo, you’re assigned a specific physical therapist that keeps your unique body’s needs in mind when choosing exercises. Moreover, no two stretch sessions are the same! At Stretch Affect, we work with your body and tight spots and alter our stretching plans during the session if it seems like certain places need extra attention. Assisted stretching is simply the best way to get the most out of stretching.

Benefits of Solo Stretching

There are benefits to solo stretching routines, as well. For one, you can do solo stretches, well, alone! This makes it far more convenient, and it’s a form of stretching you can do any time, anywhere. Second, solo stretching combines stability, mobility, and flexibility. Assisted stretching can help you achieve positions that your muscles aren’t yet strong enough to hold, but as you learn to do more stretches on your own, you don’t need to rely on a trainer as you improve stability and strength.

Why Stretch Affect Offers Assisted Stretching

Ultimately, all stretching is bound to have a positive impact on your body. Stretch Affect continues to recommend a combination of both — assisted stretching led by one of our trainers, plus solo stretching that you perform at home or as part of your office wellness routine. 

With the benefits listed above, though, the answer is clear: assisted stretching carries advantages simply unavailable from solo stretching alone. Our team at Stretch Assist is ready to tell and show you how assisted stretching can change your life for the better. 

Get in touch with us today on our website or by contacting us, and set up your initial consultation! When you do so, we’ll evaluate your body and create a customized set of stretching routines based on your body’s weak spots. With reduced pain, incredible flexibility, and improved performance, the life you want is just a call away.

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A Customizable Workout

If you have never tried indoor cycling, you might be wondering exactly why this is such a great workout. After all, you are sitting down, right? Indoor cycling works many parts of the body as the ride on a stationary bike can be customized. If you want a challenging workout for your legs, increase the resistance, and you will feel your legs burn. If you want to work on your cardiovascular endurance, lower the resistance and increase your speed for a more sustained burn.

Indoor cycling targets legs and glutes, but you will also work your core as you balance on the bike.

If you take a class, expect the instructor to lead you up intense hills and through fast tracks as well. Your heart rate will stay elevated for the duration of the workout. Because indoor cycling is a challenging workout, it’s important that you start with warm up exercises to prevent injury and end with thorough stretching.

By starting with several stretches to warm your body up, you will also increase your performance during the workout. You can use some of the stretches below before and after your workout.

The Importance of Stretching

Just as it’s important to warm up before your workout, there are many benefits to stretching after you spin. Stretching can increase flexibility and athleticism and help increase your mobility to help you move with ease. Stretching also increases your range of motion. A study by the International Journal of Sports Physical Therapy found that both static and dynamic stretching are effective in increasing range of motion.

Stretches for Indoor Cyclists

You should aim to stretch for at least 5-10 minutes after you spin. Since you’re already warm, an even longer stretch session can have more lasting benefits. An individualized program by a qualified coach is always advised, however, the following eight stretches are ones that can be very helpful for any indoor cycling enthusiast:

Forward Fold

This is a great stretch for the back of the legs, from the calves to the hamstrings. While still on the bike and feet in the pedals, hold the handles and drop your elbows to the bar as you stand out of the saddle. Drop your heels down and hinge forward at the waist. Let your head and chest drop and lengthen your spine. With your left foot forward, hold for 30 seconds. Then, do a half-rotation and put your right foot forward. Hold for 30 seconds.

Now, remove your cycling shoes and get off the bike. The following stretches are done on the ground.

The Banana Stretch

This is one of our favorite stretches because it addresses your whole side body. If you have a mobility stick, you can use that. If not, you can use the side of a doorway. Hold the stick with both hands, cross your leg away from the stick, and gently bend your upper body toward the stick or wall. You should feel the stretch in your obliques, shoulders, and back. Hold for 30 seconds and repeat on the other side.

Hamstring Stretch

Stretching your hard-working hamstrings after an indoor cycling session is crucial so they don’t tense up. Once you get off the bike, put one heel on top of the handlebars. Grab the inside of your foot with the opposite hand. Gently pull your chest toward the leg. Repeat with the other leg. Hold each side for 30 seconds.

Quad Stretch

Place your right hand on the handlebars and lift your left leg toward the back so your heel touches your bottom. Grasp your foot with your left hand and pull the leg in, keeping your hips straight. Then repeat with the right leg. Try to hold this for 30 seconds on each side.

Calf Stretch

Place your hands against a nearby wall at shoulder height. Bring one leg behind you and place the foot flat on the floor. Lean forward over the leg while keeping the back knee straight and then switch legs after 30 seconds. You will feel this stretch up the back of your calves.

Figure Four Stretch

This Figure Four stretch addresses the piriformis, which is a small muscle located behind the gluteus maximus that runs from the lower spine to the upper surface of the femur. This area is put to work during an indoor cycling class! To perform this stretch, lay on your back with your knees propped up. Take one leg and cross your ankle over the thigh of the opposite leg. Then, grab the thigh of the leg on that side and gently pull up towards you. Hold for 30 seconds and repeat on both sides.

Frog Stretch

This move will loosen your hips. Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart. Lower into a squat as far as you can go without lifting your heels. Press your knees open with your elbows.

Tipover Tuck

We love this stretch for the hamstrings and shoulders, which can get tight during a ride. Stand with feet hip-width apart and interlace your hands behind your back. Bend over at the hips with your chin tucked and bring your hands toward the ceiling. Keep the shoulders and neck relaxed.

Going through these seven stretches will take about 8-10 minutes, depending on how long you hold each one. A thorough stretch after every indoor cycling workout will relieve any tightness in these muscles.

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Since gyms in some states are closed and have been for months, those that want to stay healthy may be considering other forms of exercise, such as indoor cycling. With proper form and considerations, indoor cycling is a great way to get cardiovascular exercise while working out the most important muscle groups. 

With indoor cycling, you can customize your workout to try different types of rides that simulate outdoor conditions. You can increase the resistance on the bike and put more tension on the legs or lower the resistance for a more cardio-based endurance ride. Because they are customizable and relatively safe, indoor cycling classes are a perfect introduction to exercise for someone who has not worked out in a while or is looking to try something new.

Health Benefits of Indoor Cycling

If you are looking for a great way to add to or start an exercise routine, indoor cycling is safe and convenient. Here are some of the main health benefits of indoor cycling:

Burn Calories

If you are looking to offset some of that quarantine eating that you are doing, cycling indoors for 45 minutes can burn anywhere from 350-600 calories, or more! This is the equivalent of running but without the impact of hitting the ground, meaning less chance for injury.

Improve Cardiovascular Health

Because indoor cycling focuses on building endurance, your heart gets a great workout, too. Your heart rate will increase and decrease throughout the workout, depending on the intensity of the class.

Enjoy a Low-Impact Exercise

For those that might not be able to handle a high impact workout due to knee injuries or other joint issues or arthritis, indoor cycling is low-impact but delivers high-intensity cardio. You are at less risk for injury but should consult your physician if you have any pre-existing conditions that might be exacerbated. 

Target Muscle Groups

In addition to providing some intense cardio, cycling works your lower body muscle groups such as glutes and quads. The downstroke engages the glutes, quadriceps, and the calf muscles, while the upstroke utilizes the hamstrings and flexor muscles in the hip. Core muscles are used to stabilize your body throughout a workout.

Increase Your Flexibility

Being stuck in the house might mean that you’re not moving around as much as usual. Indoor cycling is a way to increase your flexibility and athleticism without leaving the house. 

Build Mental Strength

Sometimes, working out is as much of a mental exercise as a physical one. By pushing yourself beyond what you believe to be your physical limits, you will gain more confidence in your abilities.

Boost Mood

Exercise has been shown to release endorphins, which can leave you with an exercise ‘high’. Indoor cycling is a heart-pumping workout that will leave you feeling accomplished and may improve your mood. If you are working from home and have little contact with others during this challenging time, keeping a positive attitude will help.

Tips for Staying Safe While Indoor Cycling

Whether you’re new to indoor cycling or a self-proclaimed pro, it’s important to start with warm up exercises so you don’t get injured while working out. It is equally important to properly stretch after the workout to prevent muscle strain and soreness. 

Since you never take your joints through their full range of motion with cycling, stretching after the workout is necessary. Static stretches and active stretches (involving muscle contraction) will increase flexibility in tissue. Try to hold each stretch for 30 to 60 seconds for maximum effectiveness. Fully stretching all muscles in the legs, including the quads, hamstrings, and calves, is important after your indoor cycling workout. If you want to take your stretches even further to keep yourself safe and at peak performance, consider assisted stretching with a professional. 

Indoor cycling can improve your cardiovascular health by building endurance and provide a challenging workout for your legs. To get the full benefit of this workout, try to commit to doing it at least three times a week and remember to stretch before and after your workout to stay safe. 

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And while you may not expect to make the cut of The Master’s with today’s round, or be at the pinnacle of flexibility and athleticism, wouldn’t it be nice to shoot as well as you can without feeling sore afterward? 

Even the most leisurely day on the course can put plenty of stress on your body. To best prepare yourself for today’s round, try the following stretches. Later, if you’d like to up your game even further, you may try assisted stretching to learn how to make stretching more effective. For now, take a look at how you can improve your flexibility today with these top stretches for golfers. 

14 of the Best Stretches for Golfers

1.Lateral Neck Stretch

With your hands behind your head, look straight ahead. Slowly move your head toward one shoulder without moving the same shoulder toward your ear. Hold and then move your head back up. Repeat on the other side of your head.

2. Forearm Palms Out Stretch

Lock your fingers together with your palms facing down. Lift your hands up and slowly straighten your arms with your palms facing outward and hold. Bring your arms back in and relax.

3. Parallel Arm Shoulder Stretch

Bend one arm ninety degrees and gently make a fist. Straighten your other arm and place it inside the bent arm. Then, pull the fist of the bent arm toward your body. You should feel a stretch in your tricep and shoulder area. Hold, relax, and repeat with the other arm.

4. Upper Back Reaching Stretch

Begin with both arms crossed and lifted in front of you, palms facing down. Bow your head down into the triangle made by your arms. Hold for 20 – 30 seconds. Return upright and relax.

5. Shoulder Extension Stretch

Stand upright and interlock your hands together behind your back with your arms straight. Hold your hands together and pull your arms upward behind your back until you feel the stretch. Hold and release.

6. Cross-Legged Banana Stretch

Stand with your legs crossed. Make sure you are balanced. Lean sideways in the direction of your back foot until you feel a stretch from your hip to your shoulder. Repeat on the other side.

7. Cat-Cow Back Stretch

This stretch takes place on the ground while on your hands and knees. Curl your back inward, toward the ground, and raise your head upward. Hold. Then allow your head to fall forward and arch your back upward. Hold and release.

8. Spine Rotation Stretch 

Begin on all fours. Take one arm and bring it upward toward the sky while turning your head in the same direction. Hold, switch sides, and repeat. 

9. Runner’s Lunge Stretch

Kneel on one knee with your hips squarely forward. Slowly lean forward, stretching both your front and back legs. Hold and then repeat using the opposite legs. Make sure your back toe is pointed.

10. Cobra Stretch

Begin lying face down with toes pointed downward. Raise your shoulders up with both arms placed directly underneath them until your head is upright. Hold, lower yourself down, and relax.

11. Butterfly Stretch

Sit on the ground with your legs parallel and straight out. Pull your feet toward your groin by bending your knees outward. The soles of your feet should be touching each other. With your hands on your ankles, apply pressure to each leg by pushing it toward the ground. Hold and release.

12. Back (Knee to Chest) Stretch

Laying on your back, slowly lift one leg to your chest until you feel the stretch. Your other knee can be in a slightly bent position. Hold, lower your leg, and repeat on the other side. 

13. Sit-and-Reach Stretch

Begin sitting with your legs forward. Reach forward toward your feet until you feel a stretch in the back of your legs. You may or may not be able to touch your feet. Either way, it’s okay. Hold and release.

14. Lying Knee Roll-Over

Start by laying on your back with your knees bent. With your shoulders remaining flat on the ground, roll your hips to one side so that your knees point parallel to the ground. Hold and repeat rolling to the other side. 

Typical Golfer Objections to Stretching

I’m not a serious golfer, what’s the point? All the more reason to stretch. Today’s round is going to require your body to move in ways it’s not trained for or used to doing. Why not prepare for it?

I don’t have time! Get to the course early and stretch.  If you need to, stretch in the parking lot before your friends arrive.

I don’t see other golfers doing it. Stretching is embarrassing. Would you rather be leaving the course in pain? Another option is to stretch out at home or in your hotel room before you head out. 

Remember To Stretch, Then Shoot

It’s that simple. Your most important piece of equipment for your next round of golf is your body.   To learn more about how stretching can make a world of difference in your game and in your health, contact the experts at Stretch Affect in San Diego today at (619) 389-3718.

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In reality, it’s not just the contact sports that produce pain. Even your most relaxing day on the links can lead to injury. If you want to achieve top athletic performance, you need to think about more than your equipment.  

The key to feeling and playing better lies in your skills and your flexibility and athleticism. Here are eight of the most common golf injuries along with how you can treat and prevent them.

8 Common Golf Injuries & How to Avoid Them

Foot and Ankle Pain

Eighteen holes, on average, can mean anywhere from three to six miles of walking.  And even if you prefer, like most, to use a cart, a golf swing requires extreme and instant weight shifts, adding work to already tired feet. After 18 (or even 9) holes, our feet and the tendons and muscle within can become strained.

The first answer to this, and many other injuries, is to improve your swing mechanics. There’s a reason golf instructors teach precise movements. Not only do they promote proper performance. They protect your body from harm. Also, one easy fix for your feet that doesn’t require an instructor is to wear properly-fitted golf shoes.

The extreme ranges of the backswing and follow-through require that you have sufficient ankle and foot mobility primarily tilting side to side (inversion and eversion). If you don’t have sufficient motion at the ankle you may feel strain in the ankle or it may show up in your knees or further up the chain. 

Knee Pain

When you think about it, it’s easy to understand how walking the course or even getting on and off a cart could cause some pain. What we don’t realize is that the swing itself can also put a strain on our knees. And, as we age, the cartilage in our knees slowly degenerates if we lose the appropriate space in the joint. 

Rotation of your lower leg in relation to your thigh is something that is often overlooked as an important prerequisite for a pain-free golf swing. If the knee doesn’t rotate this will force you to compensate with your swing or strain ligaments and other connective tissues in the knee. Practicing tibial rotation can lubricate the knee as well as prevent loss of joint space. 

Hip Pain

In order to swing a club with power, your body must generate a significant amount of rotational force in the hips.  To do this, we rely on strength from the legs. Despite the fact that healthy hips have an extensive movement radius, loss of rotational capacity in the hips means reduced capacity for swing length and power. This forces other body parts to move more that shouldn’t, like the lumbar spine. 

The answer to treating hip pain is to make sure you have a proper workspace in the hip by restoring rotational capacity, then control, and finally strength. To prevent injury, you need an established warm-up routine, the proper mobility, and stability at specific segments of your body, and finally to have body control, which assisted stretching can help with. 

Elbow and Wrist Pain

Sometimes the problem with your game lies not in the club you’ve selected but in the arms that are swinging it. Injuries to both the elbow and wrist are common in golf. Tendonitis can develop when you are stressing tissues beyond their elastic capabilities. 

Wrists and elbows need to be strengthened at extreme ranges of motion due to the high velocity involved in the golf swing. First, you must evaluate how many degrees of freedom you’re missing and then you can start to work on improving flexibility and then strengthen throughout your new range of motion. 

Shoulder (Rotator Cuff) Injuries

Shoulder injuries aren’t only for MLB pitchers. Combine an inefficient golf swing with poor shoulder architecture and voila’, you have an injured rotator cuff. Combine that with trauma from mishaps on the course like falling off the cart (yes, it does happen), and you have even more pain.

If a shoulder injury is severe enough, surgery may be required. Overall, the best way to avoid shoulder injury is to improve workspace in the joint and harmonious contraction of the rotator cuff muscles, then to make sure your swing is efficient for your body. 

Back Pain

Remember the three to six miles of walking for eighteen holes?  Imagine the work your back has to do if you also carry your clubs all that way. Even if you take a cart, consider the time you spend leaning over to swing or pick up balls. Add in the repeated twisting motion of your swing and it’s no wonder many golfers struggle with back pain. You may think you don’t use your back much in golf, but your score doesn’t lie.

While heat and a variety of medicines can help ease lower back pain, making sure the pain doesn’t return involves strengthening the back and increasing its range of motion, which means specific stretching to restore fundamental spine movement. 

Neck Pain

Sometimes you want to see where your ball lands, sometimes you don’t. Either way, you always turn your head to look. This repeated snapping of the head, especially in newer players, can cause residual neck pain. Your shoulders and head need the ability to move as separate segments so your head can stay still as your shoulders rotate. If your neck doesn’t have the flexibility for this you can experience extreme tension with every swing. 

Aside from warming up, which we should all do, treating and avoiding neck pain requires stretching and strengthening the muscles on all sides of the spine.

Skin Injuries

And now for the most commonly known but least prevented golf injury: sunburn. Is it any surprise that hours out on a beautiful day can take its toll on any exposed skin? Sun damage can not only lead to premature aging, but also skin cancer.

As for treatment, aloe vera and time are the best options. Make it a ritual to put SPF30+ sunscreen on all your exposed areas before and during your day. And, of course, hats, visors, and breathable fabric help with covering up.

How to Prevent Golf Injuries

As you can see, even though golf is a non-contact sport, it’s not injury-free and you may not feel the effects of your round until the next day. The best way to prevent injuries is to warm-up and keep your body conditioned and flexible. And of course, keep improving your swing.

May your scores be low and your injuries even lower! For more information about what flexibility and range of motion can do for your game, contact the experts at Stretch Affect in San Diego at (619) 389-3718.

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