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Dr. Stewart McGill, possibly the most regarded expert of spine biomechanics, and professor at the University of Waterloo in Canada, has stated that “static stretching deadens the muscle from a neural perspective – diminishing the stretch reflex and reducing peak strength and power.“ He goes on to state that active warm-ups actually facilitate muscle contraction, and have a positive effect on muscle function. This line of thinking isn’t shocking to anyone who has followed studies published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, the Journal of Orthopedic and Sports Physical Therapy, Strength and Conditioning Journal, The New England Journal of Medicine, just to name a few, over the past 20 years. Those studies have shown stretching to decrease vertical jump eight, increase 40 yard dash time, decreased single leg stance stability, and have no benefit on decreasing injury rate. One study done by the US military showed that recruits who entered boot camp with the most flexibility for the most likely to get injured and not finished boot camp.

The question is, what should someone do with this information? First, it helps to understand what muscle is, what it does, and why it gets “tight.“

• Muscle is a contractile tissue.
• When it contracts, it either stabilizes a joint or causes motion at a joint.
• When muscles provide stability (like the muscles in your neck or as you read this), there should be equal contraction on all sides of the joint. When muscle contracts to cause motion (like bending your elbow to put food in your mouth), one group of muscles contract concentrically as the opposing muscles contract eccentrically. Notice, none of the muscles RELAX. If the muscle on either side relaxed, or misfired, joint mechanics would suffer, performance would decrease, an injury (acute or chronic) could also occur.
• Muscles get “tight“ when they don’t to give/receive a normal input with the nervous system. Nerves regulate muscle tension. If a muscle is in a shortened position, and doesn’t have normal regulation from nerve, it will contract and get “tight.“ Things like fatigue, swelling, dehydration, malnutrition, and stretching can cause the nerve/muscle relationship to be impaired.

Second, stop stretching, and know what to do instead.

• Isometrics help to engage muscle and “reset“ the nervous system input. When you watch a dog or cat wake up and “stretch“, they’re actually doing isometrics to get their muscles firing. Isometrics are easy to do, just think of flexing muscle that feel weak or tight, just like when you wake up.
• Use an active/dynamic warm-up prior to exercise. This could include a light jog, high knees, lunges, skips, push-ups, crunches, band or dumbbell work, etc. Anything that involves movement in and out of different positions would fall into this category.
• What about post workout cool downs? Just re-do your warm-up routine.

The take-home message here is that movements that engage muscle will increase range of motion, maximize athletic ability and decrease the risk of injury. This is a much better option than increasing range of motion by forcing muscles to relax, become weak and no longer function normally. So, get moving and leave stretching behind.

Over the past several years, the term “mobility” has become very popular in the exercise community. When it comes to pre-exercise warm-ups, the new and cool “mobility work” (based on foam rolling), has even come to rival the old-school standard of stretching. Although one term his hip, and the other is an old standard, they both shoot for the same results, more joint motion caused by less muscle contraction. Let’s take a look at the definitions of terms that mobility is based on, stretching, flexibility and mobility.

• Stretching – according to one of the biggest publishers of human performance books, “The goal of a static stretching is to overcome the stretch reflex in order to coax a joint into a wider range of motion.”
• Flexibility – defined by Gummerson as “the absolute range of movement in a joint or series of joints that is attainable in a momentary effort with the help of a partner or piece of equipment.”
• Mobility – the ability to move or be moved freely and easily.

What should set off alarms to anyone in the medical and/or human performance field when reading the above is the use of the phrases “overcome the stretch reflex,” “coax a joint into a wider range of motion,” “absolute range of movement,” “with the help of a partner or piece of equipment,” and “moved freely and passively.”

As a professional that helps patients recover from and avoid injury, I understand that all joint movement should be a byproduct of normal neuromuscular facilitation, muscle should be reactive and resist external forces, the stretch reflex is a healthy protective mechanism, absolute range of motion should be dictated by joint stability and strength, forcing muscles to give into external forces provided by partners or equipment is dangerous, and joints that move freely and easily eventually break down.

Because they conventional medical model continues to follow the mantras above, The One80 System has developed a unique alternative,

Motion + Strength + Stability = MoStreBility.

See if the following sounds like a healthier and wiser replacement for flexability and mobility;

• Motion – a change in position of an object over a period of time.
• Strength – inherit capacity to manifest energy, to endure, and to resist.
• Stability – the strength to stand or endure, a condition of equilibrium or study motion, to develop forces or moments that restore original condition.

When we combine these, we get to controlled motion over a period of time, while resisting external forces, storing of energy, and the ability to endure an event or restore the original condition. That is why MoStreBility is more effective and safer than flexibility and mobility, and is always the goal of The One80 System.