Comments on: Flexibility Experiment, Part 5: Update and Subjective Impressions

By: Alpaca

Alpaca — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 02:07:27 +0000

One thing I’ve noticed is that if I find a spot that is tender/tight via some basic probing (normally you should mash it until you feel like the tight spot is harder to find – a sign that the muscle is softening/relaxing) – resistance stretch the corresponding muscle, and then try to find the same tender spot… it’s usually a lot less severe afterwards… this tells me that the resistance stretching is doing something

By: Shane

Shane — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 19:00:36 +0000

Thanks for the input. I think I’ll give “self-mashing” a try. :)

By: Alpaca

Alpaca — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 18:29:44 +0000

You definitely do not need an expert to help mash you (it helps but any deep tissue massage will work, whether from masseuse, yourself or a willing friend). Basically anything that feels tender/sensitive should be rolled on with a foam roller or softball (basically just move around with most of weight over the roller/softball until you feel a tight spot)… or mashed by someone – most often with the heel of their foot.

An expert will know how to position you so they can most easily and dig in as much as possible without going too deep (although they REALLY dig in there). They will also dig into places you didn’t know could/should be mashed (the muscles between your ribs in your armpits, the hip creases at the top of your thighs)

My resistance stretching encourages me to mash myself and teach others to do it too. I know most of the legs now (having had to done to me a lot). The main prop you need is a ladder or chair so that second person can shift their weight off of your (i.e. they only put a percentage of their weight onto you when they step on you as full body weight is too much for tight muscles) Here’s what is looks like – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtNaRPerbeM . Basically if you can have anyone just imitate that… it will help a lot. If you have a question about targeting certain leg muscles (gluts, quads, adductors) I can tell you what has been done to me.

By: Shane

Shane — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 11:50:07 +0000

I haven’t tried any “mashing” yet. I guess you’d need an expert to do this, right?

By: Alpaca

Alpaca — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 00:41:08 +0000

Yes… you described the feeling really well in your “Learning Curve” section – like how it’s hard to get the stretch to work right to “resist” with the muscle without “locking” the muscle as you elongate it – deep breathing is really key. If you can’t breathe, you need to back off a little bit and try it again as the breathe really helps let your muscle relax into the stretch.

Also as you’ve notice, the stretching is quite tiring, Tom says so long as your are breathing deeply and relaxing through the stretch… the more fatigued you muscle is means you’ve let more tension out of the muscle. It’s an odd sensation – where you muscles are kind of fatigued to failure – but at the same time you feel this weird looseness and lightness through the muscle at the same time (i.e. it doesn’t feel like a battery-acid filled piece of lead). They’ve told me to go do a light workout within 24 hours of a session (20 minutes of something tha tmakes you break a sweat) and while “tired” I still can get some really good runs or training sessions in as I feel very “mobile” in stretched muscles… allowing me more range of motion in my joint (which is different from having hyper-mobile tendons/ligaments).

Yes… as you noticed, injuries and inflammation can get in the way of things and you need to back off a little. I separate my shoulder in ice hockey and had to be a little gentle with it for a while… but after a few weeks, resistance stretch really helped me complete the physical therapy… one thing important to do (in addition to icing) is to”mash” the knots out… I mean really dig in there to warm up loosen the muscles a bit before stretching them. A foam roller works for big muscles like quads, it band, calves… but I’ve found a softball works even better onces you are somewhat loose. For shoulder, a theracane (search for it Google) helps a lot too.