Stretching Benefits

[Guest guest]

Mel,

If I correctly understand your position, you believe that stretching cannot

facilitate any lasting flexibility in the muscles or the connecting tissue

and that the only benefit of stretching is to make the body used to pain.

I was thinking about this yesterday in the weight room. A friend of mine

decided to undertake a serious stretching program. He is not naturally

limber and he is a 50 year old stocky male.He basically uses static

stretching but also utilizes the ladder and wall. In about three months he

has developed very impressive (at least to me) flexibility and is closing

in on a split. Can this be explained only in terms of pain control?

[i did not refer solely to enhanced tolerance of pain, but also to various

flexibility training strategies serving a neuromuscular facilitation

role. I also stressed that single or occasional stretching exercises

probably do little to cause permanent change in tissue length, but in doing

so, left the possibility open that regular stretching of sufficient duration

and intensity could enhance ROM. In commenting on the existence of

specific hysteresis properties of the soft tissues, I stressed that regular

repeated stretching is necessary if the tissues are not to " creep " slowly

back to their original length. I think that you own a copy of my

" Supertraining "

textbook - if so, please read the information there in Chs 1 and 3 on stretching

and soft tissue mechanics. Mel Siff]

Yehoshua Zohar

Karmiel, Israel