The Use of Stretching in Exercise

When I was a teenager, athletics were my passion.  Every boy has big American dreams of being a sport star.  However, for most these dreams are cut short by finding our "work spot" in society.  Many call it growing up, which is a simple way of setting life priorities.  It wasn't until about 35+ years ago that exercise outside of home and job priorities started taking root.

In my early 30's I encountered some very big bumps in the road and turned to exercise as a temporary solution.  Temporary became that teenage passion again and soon turned into a priority.  Running, swimming, and biking were used to lose weight, help focus, and increase range of motion.  Due to a progressive decrease in health that so many of us experience in unexplainable ways as we age, I implemented stretching to my exercise routine.

The Gatorade Sports Science Institute has a great paper/study addressing STRETCHING.

To summarize it's contents:

• Studies have shown poor evidence supporting the benefits of using static or dynamic stretching over the other.
• The only scientific benefit of stretching is improvement in Range of Motion.  All other benefits of stretching for recovery, performance, and strength building have little evidence of support.

The Gatorade Sports Science Institute - Article 104

Below are some CHARTS of stretching I've used for many years.  They can be used in dynamic motion, with weights, or static.  Stretching has helped me keep that range of motion needed to keep racing bikes at an elite level.