"The Danger of Static Stretching" - S. Sonnon

Russian Sports Science is an INTEGRAL aspect of our training. Many people quit classes far before even learning the first throw due to the physical culture encompassing Sambo.

Since Russian sports science is an area of concentration for me with our ROSS Training System, I shall introduce some doctrinal tenets of Russian training. However, this is only one perspective. I adhere to this perspective, but I am not fooled into thinking that there are not other methodologies, equally valid from their perspective. It is important to mention this disclaimer: Russian sports science (RSS) stands in contradistinction with conventional training methodologies. However, this is not meant to solicit controversial debates. At the UW, you may discard whatever you choose not to believe. Please do so.

Soviet scientist and physician Alexander Bogomoletz said wisely, "Man is as old as his connective tissues."

If rely on tissue elasticity for flexibility, you'll lose it. You must master the regulation of muscular tension in order to gain dynamic tendonous strength. According to RSS, tendons do not have to be maximally stretched to be torn. Tears are the result of a special combination of sudden stretch and muscular contraction.

We frequently wrestle on the ice for balance urposes. If you slip on the ice, your body is thrown off-balance. It reflexively attempts to estabilize the breach of stance integrity. The tissue you stretch when you slip, whether the hamstring or groin, will contract to the original position. Voila! Tear! A stretch from one side and a simultaneous contraction on the other. This involuntary neurophysiological event is called the "stretch reflex:" a muscle that is stretched by an external force too far or too fast will contract to oppose the stretch.

According to RSS, before beginning dynamic tendonous strengthening exercises to develop plasticity, you must learn to regulate the muscular tension. This is not as difficult as it sounds, but requires a paradigm shift in training methodics.

I was asked once by someone on the telephone, "Russian Martial Art seems so fluid and supple. Since I am older, and not as flexible, I fear that I will not be able to train in your art. Are there exercises to improve my flexibility, so that I can begin to train?" Others have asked, "I am highly involved in my sport and am concerned about my performance levels and fear lack of tendonous strength. What can I do?"

This was not a simple answer, due to the nature of your question. In Russian Sports Science, Stretching is not considered a particularly valued as a healthy characteristic. Stretching has been a buzz-word for the past 20 or so years, and rarely has anyone been given the opportunity to question whether this is a virtue for health and longevity by increasing flexibility. We have seen a significant decline of tendon strength and pervasive injuries in every sport and at every age through the dangerous stretching practices of the conventional fitness industry. In order to bring he discoveries of the former Soviet Union to America, I will attempt to elaborate on the scientific training of the Russian Sports Science and the ROSS Training System. There are important myths to overcome prior to understanding RSS. Some of these myths debunked are as follows:

1. Flexibility is the primary characteristic of health and sportive/combative performance. The more flexible the better.
2. Flexibility is a form of injury prevention.
3. Injury results from insufficient warm-up to increase flexibility.
4. Injury happens when tissue is stretched maximally.
5. Static stretching is safe and productive; Dynamic Stretching (ROM and Ballistic) is unsafe and unproductive.
6. Daily stretching is mandatory for flexibility maintenance.
7. Flexibility requires many years and is the first characteristic lost.
8. (The most terrible) Flexibility is gained through elongating the tissues.

Each of these Training Myths will be addressed in my book. Let me first differentiate between the concepts of Flexibility and Elasticity. Flexibility is a measurable range of motion in one specific direction. To increase the flexibility of a tissue, you must apply a force pulling the tissue in an isolated range of motion until the stress causes a permanent deformation of the tissue, where it will not return to its original state.

However, over years and a lifetime, we cause micro trauma to our muscles from activity. The muscle heals, but only after scar tissue has formed. In healing the scar tissues mends the wound together by pulling and shortening the muscle tissue. Many people in conventional understanding of physical culture have made the assumption that stretching after activity can prevent the muscle from healing at a shorter length. However, should the stretching manage to prevent shortening (which is debatable) the connective tissues will stiffen, regardless. Tendons and ligaments are composed of collagen (lending Tensile Strength) and elastin (lending Elasticity).

As we age our tissues endure an irreversible process of decreasing elastin and increasing collagen. Elasticity is a material's ability to return to its original state following deformation after removal of the deforming load. To increase the lasticity of a tissue, you must apply a load to the tissue in a range of motion, and remove the load, after the initial stiffness ceases (discomfort, not pain), before the tissue is permanently deformed, so that the tissue returns to its original state. This stress increases the capacity for storage of elastic energy. The ability to generate Stored Elastic Energy (SEE) is proportionate to the tensile strength of the tissue.

Tensile Strength is the maximum stress that a material can withstand before it breaks. The ductility (how malleable a substance is) decreases as it reaches its tensile strength failure, and conversely the amount of SEE increases as it reaches its tensile strength failure. This is the concept of Viscosity: the property of an object that demonstrates that a body at rest tends to stay at rest unless acted upon by an outside force. Many tissues of the human body exhibit constricting, congealing, and thickening characteristics when not exposed to outside forces.

The Viscosity of a tissue is its resistance to the force: the greater the viscosity, the greater the force and time required to cause deformation. To understand this, pull a rubber band in two opposite direction. The more that you pull, the harder it is to pull. Say if you pull the rubber band one inch, it gains 5 units of SEE; if you pull one more inch, it produces 10 additional units of SEE (15 total); if you pull one final inch, it results in 20 more units of SEE (35 total) - the increase is exponential. The farther you pull the rubber band, the further it will fly when releasing one side.

Tissues adapt to both the intensity and the duration of the stress placed upon it. So, two things can occur, (which I will expand upon in later articles on Dynamic Flexibility through Plyometric and Isometric Training).

Firstly, if the Tensile Strength of the rubber band is 50 units, and you pull the rubber band one final inch (which should produce 40 more units of SEE for a total of 75), the Tensile Strength of the rubber band has been exceeded, Failure has resulted, and it snaps in two. Ultra high degrees of flexibility, outside of the natural range of motion of the joint, makes 'snapping' much more likely. "Stretching" advocates have used this knowledge to make a leap in logic that "injuries occur when a muscle is stretched beyond its limit. So prevent injuries by elongating the muscles of the connective tissues."

This assumption is a physiological falsehood. Tears do not happen because tissues have been maximally stretched (as the Stretching advocates would have you believe), but due to the special combination of sudden stretch and contraction called the Stretch Reflex. The Stretch Reflex is where a muscle that is stretched by an external force too far or too fast will contract to oppose the stretch. The When a stretch from one side happens simultaneous to a contraction on the other - you have a tear. We have seen this frequently in the dance and fitness industry, and unfortunately the recent craze in the pollution of the yoga discipline (now known as the yoga industry).

Secondly, the belief that , if you maintain a certain pull length on the rubber band for an extended time (say at 35 units), the rubber band will begin to deform permanently, and as a result "lose" SEE as it loses its degree of elasticity. This region of training is known as Viscoelasticity: having a combination of Viscosity and Elasticity; Viscoelastic materials have time-dependent mechanical properties, being sensitive to the duration of the force application. Such materials will continue to deform over a finite length of time even if the load remains constant, until a state of equilibrium is reached-also known as "creep effect"

High temperatures increase the rate of creep and low temperatures decrease it. For the most effective use of this property, the material to be deformed should be warmed and then have a sufficient load applied over a long period of time. Different tissues respond differently to various rates of loading. When loaded rapidly, they exhibit greater resistance to deformation than if they are loaded slowly.

This is why dynamic flexibility cannot gained through static stretches. Flexibility is speed specific. The "stretch reflex" engages whenever a muscle is stretched suddenly or dramatically or both. This mechanism is controlled by the muscle spindles, which are two special receptors that activate the Stretch Reflex. One of these is sensitive to stretch magnitude and the other to speed and magnitude. The prevalent static stretch may or may not reset the first receptor but is completely ineffective for the latter. As a result, flexibility is speed specific.

This is the usual practice of increasing flexibility through static stretching in the fitness industry. This is a serious health danger. As we have seen with age the collagen/elastin ratio changes in favor of collagen. So as we grow older, with the decreased integrity of the tissue elasticity, the muscle is more likely to snap. In our youth, the ability to drop into a straddle split seemed like a desirable trick, but it has nothing to do with health, and even less with longevity. As we grow older, we see that it is not how far in a particular direction we can move, but how strong our tissues are, how quickly they resolve aberrant movement and afford us mobile security.

As a result, the first training emphasis in the Russian Sports Science and the ROSS Training System is - To be flexible in motion, you must dynamically stretch in motion and eventually at your sport's velocity. Most people tend to feel 'better' when they go through a 'stretching routine'. They tend to feel 'loose' and more relaxed.

This is healthy, but should be properly understood. Physiologically, when inactive we experience Short Range Stiffness: which is a mechanical property of the muscle tissue whereby the stiffness is high for the first few millimeters of the stretch. After surpassing this initial short resistance, there is a substantial reduction in the stiffness of the tissue. This is a temporary physiological phenomenon, not a permanent one. We should concentrate on overcoming the SRS, but not proceed to deformation of the tissue. Static stretching is not a means for permanently remaining flexible.

Attempting to alter the mechanical properties of our tissues may work when we are children, but not in developed adults. The goal of allowing the organism to be permanently flexible is through the regulation of muscular tension - to govern the stretch reflex.

Plasticity is at the far end of the spectrum from elasticity. It is the quality of a connective tissue, such as a ligament or tendon, when subjected to ballistic, prolonged, or sudden forces, exceeding the elastic limits of the tissue, the tissue does not return to its original state after the deforming load is removed. The "Anatomical Plastic Region" (APR) of connective tissue is found between 6-10% of the ligament or tendon's resting length, and is at the very wall of failure (to the maximum tissue tensile strength). From Plasticity, we learn that some tissues are less injury prone when stressed rapidly.

For instance, ligaments are composed of wavy collagen fibers. Uncoiled, the fibers become taught and susceptible to injury. If taken into the APR, the ligament tears. Whereas slow loading uncoils through taking the slack out of the fibers, quick loading does not have sufficient time to enter the APR. The properties of cartilage are equally less injury-prone when quickly loaded. Cartilage decreases the stress in a joint by decreasing the friction coefficient between bones and through distributing load over the surface of the joint complex. Cartilage is composed of 20-40% collagen and 60-80% water. With predictability, cartilage behaves with the properties of water in a sponge. When it is compressed it decreases the protection between bones. However, with rapid loading the fluid does not have sufficient time to be squeezed out and the shock absorption is maximal. Training must only be done under the direct observation of a qualified trainer, until a trainer is comfortable that you understand what is a productive and unproductive level of stress.

For instance, discomfort is productive; pain is unproductive - this is completely subjective and there must be a dialogue/feedback between you and your trainer. We do not stretch in isolation for its own sake. We do not stretch in isolation to induce permanent deformation of the tissue to increase flexibility. To begin increasing the plasticity of the body, we stretch in isolation until the Short Range Stiffness is removed.

This is a very short and insignificant aspect of preparation. [In a future article, I will address the myth of the "warm-up"]. Then we move to engage the organism through a complete range of motion, named in ROSS Training System - "Bio-mechanical Exercise". There are simple bio-mechanics involving one joint matrix (such as large arm circles through the 135 degree range of motion) and there are complex ranges of motion comprising multi-joint matrixes, which require lengthy text to describe, but must be modeled and then experienced kinesthetically.

These complex biomechanics are the crux and cornerstone of the Russian Sports Science and the ROSS Training System. Seminars and workshops on the Russian Sports Science and the ROSS Training System are an ideal way to gain insights on how to develop and augment your personal health regimen.

All of this information concludes that the primary characteristic of maximal flexibility is in the regulation of the Stretch Reflex through sensitivity to muscular tension and the cultivation of Plasticity and Viscoelasticity of tissues through Biomechanical Exercise. In Russian Sports Science this is accomplished through Ballistic Movement, called "Biomechanical Exercise" in the ROSS Training System. My book will be released soon Russian Sports Science and ROSS Training System containing background physiological information and articles on Dynamic Flexibility through Plyometric and Isometric Training. I hope this will act as a good primer to Russian Sports Science and the ROSS Training System. I also hope it will act as good advertisement to buy my book when it is in the stores.

Scott Sonnon

very illuminating post,good value
Thanks Scott
Doug

The russian stuff is interesting, but the detail is often excessive.

I think the main lesson is that muscles don't "stretch", they release. (I've definitely learned this lesson the hard way. Too many years of stretching, micro-tearing, and lost time waiting for the muscle to heal...)

If you want to train them to release over a range of motion, then gentle dynamic stretching is the best way... (Which means letting the limb fully relax and gently swinging it in the range of motion. Your stretch reflex will naturally stop it. Over time your body learns to let the limb swing a little more before the stretch reflex kicks in. It is nothing that YOU do. You let it happen.)

The russian system also mentioned one other thing that made a lot of sense when I looked back. They say that that muscle fatigue is one of the main reasons for losing range of motion. (It explained why I was more flexible when I was a bad boy and didn't practice between classes.) A related aspect to this is how they mentioned that static stretching should be considered like weight lifting - done a few times during the week, with appropriate recovery time in between. (Again, to prevent fatigue that would limit the range of motion.)

Anyway, reading the russian stuff just provided some reasons why I got more flexible over the last few years, even though I was streching less! It's because the class I was taking 1) warmed up with a series of dynamic stretching kicks and gentle static stretches and 2) met twice a week so I had plenty of recovery time. As a result, I became more flexible when I was static stretching 5-7 times a week.

Hope this little note saves someone the trouble I went through! I'd be glad to answer questions.

-crumbly

Much of the information Scott uses in the article above is taken from the books on flexibility training by Pavel Tsatsouline. I highly recommend Pavel's books. You can contact him at Dragon Door.

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