I just got my copy of Becoming a Supple Leopard by Dr. Kelly Starrett and having been reading it none stop. It is a very thorough look at how our bodies our suppose to move, how to utilize functional movement to help diagnose lack of mobility, and how to help better understand and resolve pain. Look for a class in the near future on mobility and functional movement. 366
Kelly Starrett is a coach, physical therapist, author, speaker, and creator of this blog, which has revolutionized how athletes think about human movement and athletic performance.
This blog was voted #4 in Outside Magazine’s Top 10 Fitness Blogs of 2011, Breaking Muscle’s Top 10 Fitness Blogs of 2011, and Health Line’s Top 100 Health Blogs of 2011. Kelly and his work have been featured in Tim Ferris’ Four Hour Body, Competitor Magazine, Inside Triathlon, Outside Magazine, Details Magazine, Power Magazine, and the Crossfit Journal. He teaches the wildly popular Crossfit Movement & Mobility Trainer course and has been a guest lecturer at the American Physical Therapy Association annual convention, Google, the Perform Better Summit, the Special Operations Medial Association annual conference, police departments, and elite military groups nationwide.
Coach Kelly Starrett received his Doctor of Physical Therapy in2007 from Samuel Merritt College in Oakland, California. Beforestarting his own physical therapy practice at San FranciscoCrosSFit, one of the first 50 CrossFit affiliates, he practiced performance-based physical therapy at the world-renowned Stone Clinic. In his current practice, Kelly continues to focus on performance-based Orthopedic Sports Medicine with an emphasis on returning athletes to elite level sport and performance.
Kelly’s clients have included Olympic gold-medalists, Tour de France cyclists, world and national record holding Olympic Lifting and Power athletes, Crossfit Games medalists, ballet dancers, military personnel, and competitive age-division athletes.
Kelly’s background as an athlete and coach includes paddling whitewater slalom canoe on the US Canoe and Kayak Teams, and leading the Men’s Whitewater Rafting Team to two national titles and competition in two World Championships. In his free time Kelly enjoys spending time with his wife Juliet and two daughters, Georgia and Caroline, surfing, paddling, Olympic lifting, hot-tubbing, and so-you-think-you-can-dancing.
Here is a great article on recovery and how to deal with and understand muscle soreness better.
Recovery
August 27, 2012
I've been talking about positioning a lot lately, some may think I am beating a dead horse, I don't think so. I think the importance of good positioning can not be over stated. Whether an athlete or not, good positioning can keep you from visiting the doc on a regular basis. That brings me to my point today. I observed today my daughter. I see her everyday, but it occurred to me how good her positioning was. Shoulders, hips, back in perfect alignment as she was walking around playing with her toys. I am willing to bet we all looked like that at 2.5 years old. So what happened? Life, that's what happened. We aged and as we did we started compensating for weaknesses with bad positioning. Once we were old enough for sports most of us got involved in them. Everyone has played that school yard basketball game and regardless what anyone says we were competing to be the best, or at least show up our friends. With no proper training we start our bad habits. Poor positioning, shoulders, hips, back, even knees and ankles in an effort to be better. In high school that is rarely addressed, especially if your good at the sport, coaches don't want to mess with your form afraid it will mess with your ability. Then we get jobs, and we start sitting more, slowly stiffening into the position you left yourself in after sports. All this carries into the rest of your life, left unaddressed it leads to pain, shoulder pain, back pain, knee pain. Bursitis, arthritis, whatever the ailment can be helped or even fixed with proper positioning. Your job this week, observe your kids, younger kids, I am not talking teens, 2.5-5 years old, see proper movement positioning where it should be, unaffected by the rigors of sport or life. Once you see that try to get back to that, I have given you some tools to get there. -Rob
August 18, 2012
Sorry for the time between posts, been a busy week and a half. Continuing on shoulders, below you will find a link to a video from mobilitywod.com and some good uses for the lacrosse ball and bands we have in the gym and a new use you probably wouldn't think of for an olympmic barbell. We need to make sure our shoulders are in a good position not only for lifting but our everyday activities. We carry a lot of weight on our shoulders at work wearing our vests, which puts us into a movement disadvantage, our shoulders get tight and roll forward and having your shoulders forward is not where you want them when lifting. To help get them back to a normal position we need to unglue the tight tissues. The video is a good start.
http://www.mobilitywod.com/2012/02/daily-prog-shoulder-internal-rotation-13.html
August 7, 2012
Shoulders. Yes there is more we could do with hips, like stretch your hamstrings and loosen your calves because we all know your systems are all connected. We can touch on that later, most of us know some basic stretching for hamstrings and calves and for now, coupled with some hip stretches you should be good to go. The most common cause of shoulder pain and injury is bad positioning. Your shoulder is built robust. It has to be, it moves in 3 dimensions, unlike your knee for example which pretty much moves in one plane. But no matter how robust it is, if you put your shoulders into a bad position before lifting something you will injure them. So lets talk about positioning. I posted a video a few days ago and at the beginning I showed you bad shoulders, mine, they were very tight and sore from a workout, I won't re-post the video just go down the page to find it. If I left my shoulders like they were and I decided to do anything involving my shoulders, pullups, pushups, any olympic lift or bench press I would have a higher likely hood of injuring myself and I wouldn't be getting what I needed out of my workout. I worked on my shoulders and got them back into proper positioning that day. Photos below show my shoulders now, granted not taken after I shot the video but you can see a noticeable difference. So for today, where your anterior deltoid (front shoulder muscle) meets your pectoralis major muscle (your chest muscle), find that groove and massage it with your finger tips, get in there deep and work it for about 30 sec to a minute. You can also use a lacrosse ball, in the same spot and lean against a wall corner or door jam. Concentrate on relaxing your shoulders. That gets us ready for the next step which is pinching your shoulder blades together. Stand in a neutral position, head in spinal alignment, then try to pinch your shoulder blades together, don't suck your shoulders up to you face, keep them down and back, hold for 10 seconds and release, do 10 times. Then stay standing in the current position and now bring your neck back, try to put your chin through your neck into your spine, hold for 10 seconds and release, repeat 10 times. This little exercise done once a day will help put your shoulders into the proper position. Lets start there. Baby steps with the shoulders. Below you will find photos of both the shoulder exercise and neck, what it should look like while being held. -Rob
Day 4. Little late post sorry about that. We are hitting the front again, your psosas, this time with a yoga pose most have scene. Fairly simple, keep your hips on the ground to keep it effective and keep your shoulders down and back, don't suck them up to your ears. Go as far up as is comfortable. If you got back problems I wouldn't recommend this stretch. Hold it for upwards of 2min, at least 30 sec. This is a great stretch if you have been sitting for long periods, really isolates your illiopsosas. Which from previous discussions is the main muscle that tightens up on you when you sit for long periods.- Rob
Day three. Today its about the other side of your hips, your back side, and a really good stretch for that is the one I show in the video. I had to video today because I really wanted to take advantage of,well, my disadvantage. My shoulders, mainly my traps, are smoked from a workout yesterday, lots of heavy cleans and and it shows today. Next week I hit up the shoulders but I wanted to show you bad shoulder positioning before I fixed it, now you have an idea of where you don't want to be. Bad shoulders will affect everything when you lift over head and/or even your normal posture. The shoulder position you see me in can cause bad positioning for the snatch, overhead squat and your posture. My overhead squat and snatch max will suffer because of that positioning. Also if I was to lift heavy overhead with those shoulders I could cause severe damage to my shoulders. Granted, your shoulders are built stout and I would probably be ok for a few days of heavy overheads, but left unfixed it would eventually lead to my shoulder demise. Back to hips, lets get them flexible and moveable, do this stretch with the first one I showed you, balance it out, front and back, yin and yang, dont focus on one side and neglect the other, then your not helping yourself. Tomorrow we go back to the front. -Rob
Day two of our "project hips". If your wondering why so much emphasis on this one part of the body, the answer is, this one part of your body allows you to stand, walk, run, jump, lift and sit-up. There are many muscles that attach your upper half to your lower half, the ones we are focusing on today are the illiopsosas group, the muscles in the front, they attach your spine to your leg. When you sit for long periods this muscle group is the one your hurting. They tighten up and make hip extension difficult. Hip extension allows us to walk and run, lift and jump, things everybody, whether cop or not, do on a daily basis. If your psosas is tight you will compensate with bad back positioning and can hurt your back, knees and ankles. So lets soften your psosas so you can stand, walk, run and squat in good positioning. Below there are two photos, in them I am doing the couch stretch. Pretty straight forward, find a wall, door or door frame, or yes, even a couch, take a leg, either one (which ever one you don't use you will next) and put your shin flush against the wall, then get into a lunge position. The first photo shows the beginners portion, support you body with a hand and camp out in that position for 30sec to 2 minutes, its up to you, listen to your body, if you go numb, or black out you should probably stop. The second photo really gets your stretch on, if the first position isn't doing anything for you go to this position, all your doing is siting up, again hold upwards of 2 min, stop if you vomit from the pain. When both sides are done, walk around, see if there was a change in your standing position, try a squat and notice the difference if any. There should be a difference, if there isn't, do it again. Then walk and squat again. If you don't notice a difference you're hopelessly tight and you need to mash that muscle group, which I'll show later in the week, got to crawl before you walk. Also give me some feed back, prefer photos, or do you think a short video would be more helpful? You guys know where to find me. -Rob
Lets talk hips. As cops, dispatchers and support staff we spend a fair amount of time sitting, whether in an officer chair or a car. As humans we were not meant to sit, we aren't built for it. Sitting keeps you in a constant state of hip flexion, which with no relief causes all your hip muscles to tighten up which can cause soreness, pain, and with short bursts of physical work can cause injury. Lets face it, as cops we go from static sitting to high intensity physical movement more then once during a shift. To say the least it is a little rough on your body without a proper warm-up. But, that's the job, there is no way of avoiding that situation. However, we can minimize the impact on ourselves if we take some of our down time off shift and even during shift to mobilize your hip tissues. This week is all about what you can do to prevent serious injury with some simple to do stretching focused on the entire hip complex and related muscles. For today, get up, stop sitting, move around. Making more traffic stops isn't going to cut it. Do some foot patrol, walk around the break room during lunch break, stand while waiting for your Copvu to download (we all know how long it takes). For you dispatchers, break in the call load? Take a few minutes to walk around your work station, you don't even need to unplug. I may be preaching to the choir, great, but all to often I see too many of us spending too much time sitting and not enough time on our feet (I am guilty of it to). It may not sound like much but the simple act of standing more will do wonders.
Rob
Check this video out on footwear from mobilitywod.com:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=zQQlXA_9noA
Rob
I have been approached reference somethings to do if you are a sciatica sufferer like yours truly. I have my own stretching and mobility routine that seems to work for me. It all centers around opening the hips, low back stretches and stretching the piriformis muscle, a muscle I'm sure most have never heard of. It is a small muscle under your gluteaus maximus, your butt muscle. when this muscle, which is involved in hip movement, gets swollen or tightens up, it can worsen an already present problem, or could even be the problem if you have no back issues, but for those with back issues, slipped discs, fused vertebrae, etc, this little guy could be worsening your already present pain. Some stretches to try:
Mobility WOD 3.0 is now out.
Kelly Starrett is a coach, physical therapist, author, speaker, and creator of this blog, which has revolutionized how athletes think about human movement and athletic performance.
This blog was voted #4 in Outside Magazine’s Top 10 Fitness Blogs of 2011, Breaking Muscle’s Top 10 Fitness Blogs of 2011, and Health Line’s Top 100 Health Blogs of 2011. Kelly and his work have been featured in Tim Ferris’ Four Hour Body, Competitor Magazine, Inside Triathlon, Outside Magazine, Details Magazine, Power Magazine, and the Crossfit Journal. He teaches the wildly popular Crossfit Movement & Mobility Trainer course and has been a guest lecturer at the American Physical Therapy Association annual convention, Google, the Perform Better Summit, the Special Operations Medial Association annual conference, police departments, and elite military groups nationwide.
Coach Kelly Starrett received his Doctor of Physical Therapy in2007 from Samuel Merritt College in Oakland, California. Beforestarting his own physical therapy practice at San FranciscoCrosSFit, one of the first 50 CrossFit affiliates, he practiced performance-based physical therapy at the world-renowned Stone Clinic. In his current practice, Kelly continues to focus on performance-based Orthopedic Sports Medicine with an emphasis on returning athletes to elite level sport and performance.
Kelly’s clients have included Olympic gold-medalists, Tour de France cyclists, world and national record holding Olympic Lifting and Power athletes, Crossfit Games medalists, ballet dancers, military personnel, and competitive age-division athletes.
Kelly’s background as an athlete and coach includes paddling whitewater slalom canoe on the US Canoe and Kayak Teams, and leading the Men’s Whitewater Rafting Team to two national titles and competition in two World Championships. In his free time Kelly enjoys spending time with his wife Juliet and two daughters, Georgia and Caroline, surfing, paddling, Olympic lifting, hot-tubbing, and so-you-think-you-can-dancing.
Here is a great article on recovery and how to deal with and understand muscle soreness better.
Recovery
August 27, 2012
I've been talking about positioning a lot lately, some may think I am beating a dead horse, I don't think so. I think the importance of good positioning can not be over stated. Whether an athlete or not, good positioning can keep you from visiting the doc on a regular basis. That brings me to my point today. I observed today my daughter. I see her everyday, but it occurred to me how good her positioning was. Shoulders, hips, back in perfect alignment as she was walking around playing with her toys. I am willing to bet we all looked like that at 2.5 years old. So what happened? Life, that's what happened. We aged and as we did we started compensating for weaknesses with bad positioning. Once we were old enough for sports most of us got involved in them. Everyone has played that school yard basketball game and regardless what anyone says we were competing to be the best, or at least show up our friends. With no proper training we start our bad habits. Poor positioning, shoulders, hips, back, even knees and ankles in an effort to be better. In high school that is rarely addressed, especially if your good at the sport, coaches don't want to mess with your form afraid it will mess with your ability. Then we get jobs, and we start sitting more, slowly stiffening into the position you left yourself in after sports. All this carries into the rest of your life, left unaddressed it leads to pain, shoulder pain, back pain, knee pain. Bursitis, arthritis, whatever the ailment can be helped or even fixed with proper positioning. Your job this week, observe your kids, younger kids, I am not talking teens, 2.5-5 years old, see proper movement positioning where it should be, unaffected by the rigors of sport or life. Once you see that try to get back to that, I have given you some tools to get there. -Rob
August 18, 2012
Sorry for the time between posts, been a busy week and a half. Continuing on shoulders, below you will find a link to a video from mobilitywod.com and some good uses for the lacrosse ball and bands we have in the gym and a new use you probably wouldn't think of for an olympmic barbell. We need to make sure our shoulders are in a good position not only for lifting but our everyday activities. We carry a lot of weight on our shoulders at work wearing our vests, which puts us into a movement disadvantage, our shoulders get tight and roll forward and having your shoulders forward is not where you want them when lifting. To help get them back to a normal position we need to unglue the tight tissues. The video is a good start.
http://www.mobilitywod.com/2012/02/daily-prog-shoulder-internal-rotation-13.html
August 7, 2012
Shoulders. Yes there is more we could do with hips, like stretch your hamstrings and loosen your calves because we all know your systems are all connected. We can touch on that later, most of us know some basic stretching for hamstrings and calves and for now, coupled with some hip stretches you should be good to go. The most common cause of shoulder pain and injury is bad positioning. Your shoulder is built robust. It has to be, it moves in 3 dimensions, unlike your knee for example which pretty much moves in one plane. But no matter how robust it is, if you put your shoulders into a bad position before lifting something you will injure them. So lets talk about positioning. I posted a video a few days ago and at the beginning I showed you bad shoulders, mine, they were very tight and sore from a workout, I won't re-post the video just go down the page to find it. If I left my shoulders like they were and I decided to do anything involving my shoulders, pullups, pushups, any olympic lift or bench press I would have a higher likely hood of injuring myself and I wouldn't be getting what I needed out of my workout. I worked on my shoulders and got them back into proper positioning that day. Photos below show my shoulders now, granted not taken after I shot the video but you can see a noticeable difference. So for today, where your anterior deltoid (front shoulder muscle) meets your pectoralis major muscle (your chest muscle), find that groove and massage it with your finger tips, get in there deep and work it for about 30 sec to a minute. You can also use a lacrosse ball, in the same spot and lean against a wall corner or door jam. Concentrate on relaxing your shoulders. That gets us ready for the next step which is pinching your shoulder blades together. Stand in a neutral position, head in spinal alignment, then try to pinch your shoulder blades together, don't suck your shoulders up to you face, keep them down and back, hold for 10 seconds and release, do 10 times. Then stay standing in the current position and now bring your neck back, try to put your chin through your neck into your spine, hold for 10 seconds and release, repeat 10 times. This little exercise done once a day will help put your shoulders into the proper position. Lets start there. Baby steps with the shoulders. Below you will find photos of both the shoulder exercise and neck, what it should look like while being held. -Rob
 |
| Neutral position, shoulders aligned straight in socket |
 |
| Shoulders overhead, close to head good positioning |
 |
| Neck being pushed back to spine |
 |
| Shoulder blades being pinched together |
Day 4. Little late post sorry about that. We are hitting the front again, your psosas, this time with a yoga pose most have scene. Fairly simple, keep your hips on the ground to keep it effective and keep your shoulders down and back, don't suck them up to your ears. Go as far up as is comfortable. If you got back problems I wouldn't recommend this stretch. Hold it for upwards of 2min, at least 30 sec. This is a great stretch if you have been sitting for long periods, really isolates your illiopsosas. Which from previous discussions is the main muscle that tightens up on you when you sit for long periods.- Rob
Day three. Today its about the other side of your hips, your back side, and a really good stretch for that is the one I show in the video. I had to video today because I really wanted to take advantage of,well, my disadvantage. My shoulders, mainly my traps, are smoked from a workout yesterday, lots of heavy cleans and and it shows today. Next week I hit up the shoulders but I wanted to show you bad shoulder positioning before I fixed it, now you have an idea of where you don't want to be. Bad shoulders will affect everything when you lift over head and/or even your normal posture. The shoulder position you see me in can cause bad positioning for the snatch, overhead squat and your posture. My overhead squat and snatch max will suffer because of that positioning. Also if I was to lift heavy overhead with those shoulders I could cause severe damage to my shoulders. Granted, your shoulders are built stout and I would probably be ok for a few days of heavy overheads, but left unfixed it would eventually lead to my shoulder demise. Back to hips, lets get them flexible and moveable, do this stretch with the first one I showed you, balance it out, front and back, yin and yang, dont focus on one side and neglect the other, then your not helping yourself. Tomorrow we go back to the front. -Rob
Day two of our "project hips". If your wondering why so much emphasis on this one part of the body, the answer is, this one part of your body allows you to stand, walk, run, jump, lift and sit-up. There are many muscles that attach your upper half to your lower half, the ones we are focusing on today are the illiopsosas group, the muscles in the front, they attach your spine to your leg. When you sit for long periods this muscle group is the one your hurting. They tighten up and make hip extension difficult. Hip extension allows us to walk and run, lift and jump, things everybody, whether cop or not, do on a daily basis. If your psosas is tight you will compensate with bad back positioning and can hurt your back, knees and ankles. So lets soften your psosas so you can stand, walk, run and squat in good positioning. Below there are two photos, in them I am doing the couch stretch. Pretty straight forward, find a wall, door or door frame, or yes, even a couch, take a leg, either one (which ever one you don't use you will next) and put your shin flush against the wall, then get into a lunge position. The first photo shows the beginners portion, support you body with a hand and camp out in that position for 30sec to 2 minutes, its up to you, listen to your body, if you go numb, or black out you should probably stop. The second photo really gets your stretch on, if the first position isn't doing anything for you go to this position, all your doing is siting up, again hold upwards of 2 min, stop if you vomit from the pain. When both sides are done, walk around, see if there was a change in your standing position, try a squat and notice the difference if any. There should be a difference, if there isn't, do it again. Then walk and squat again. If you don't notice a difference you're hopelessly tight and you need to mash that muscle group, which I'll show later in the week, got to crawl before you walk. Also give me some feed back, prefer photos, or do you think a short video would be more helpful? You guys know where to find me. -Rob
 |
| First position, good for beginners. |
 |
| Second, more advanced position. |
Lets talk hips. As cops, dispatchers and support staff we spend a fair amount of time sitting, whether in an officer chair or a car. As humans we were not meant to sit, we aren't built for it. Sitting keeps you in a constant state of hip flexion, which with no relief causes all your hip muscles to tighten up which can cause soreness, pain, and with short bursts of physical work can cause injury. Lets face it, as cops we go from static sitting to high intensity physical movement more then once during a shift. To say the least it is a little rough on your body without a proper warm-up. But, that's the job, there is no way of avoiding that situation. However, we can minimize the impact on ourselves if we take some of our down time off shift and even during shift to mobilize your hip tissues. This week is all about what you can do to prevent serious injury with some simple to do stretching focused on the entire hip complex and related muscles. For today, get up, stop sitting, move around. Making more traffic stops isn't going to cut it. Do some foot patrol, walk around the break room during lunch break, stand while waiting for your Copvu to download (we all know how long it takes). For you dispatchers, break in the call load? Take a few minutes to walk around your work station, you don't even need to unplug. I may be preaching to the choir, great, but all to often I see too many of us spending too much time sitting and not enough time on our feet (I am guilty of it to). It may not sound like much but the simple act of standing more will do wonders.
Rob
Check this video out on footwear from mobilitywod.com:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=zQQlXA_9noA
Rob
I have been approached reference somethings to do if you are a sciatica sufferer like yours truly. I have my own stretching and mobility routine that seems to work for me. It all centers around opening the hips, low back stretches and stretching the piriformis muscle, a muscle I'm sure most have never heard of. It is a small muscle under your gluteaus maximus, your butt muscle. when this muscle, which is involved in hip movement, gets swollen or tightens up, it can worsen an already present problem, or could even be the problem if you have no back issues, but for those with back issues, slipped discs, fused vertebrae, etc, this little guy could be worsening your already present pain. Some stretches to try:
-Knee tuck: Lie on your back and tuck your knees to your chest, pulling your knees to your chest till you feel tension, hold for 30 seconds, release. Repeat 3-5 times working to holding for a minute a stretch. This can also be done with each leg individually.
- Sitting Piriformis stretch: Sitting in a chair, preferably a rigid chair, cushioned chairs don't work well for this, cross one leg over the other, putting your ankle on top of your knee. Press down on the knee that is crossed and with a straight back lean forward till you feel the stretch. Release and repeat with the other leg. Do both sides 3-5 times holding each stretch for 30 seconds working to a minute per hold. This stretch is not recommended for those with existing back problems or those with issues leaning forward.
- Lying Piriformis stretch: Same as the sitting except your back is supported by the floor. Crossing one leg over the other and resting that ankle on top of the other knee you can wrap your hands around the un-crossed knee and pull towards your chest, keeping your back flat on the floor and neck in neutral alignment (don't pick your head up up, let it rest on the floor). Repeat for the other side. Or using a yoga ball put the un-crossed foot on top of the yoga ball and roll your foot down the ball till you feel the stretch, at the same time you can push on the crossed knee to get a deeper stretch. Hold this stretch for 30 seconds, 3-5 times a side.
Here some resources for mobility and spinal health: http://www.spine-health.com/wellness; http://www.mobilitywod.com/
Stay mobile.
Rob
Importance of Flexibilty
Most people know how important exercise is to your health, whether they actively workout on a daily basis or not. But most people don’t think about how important flexibility is to overall health. Whether your goal is to be an athlete or just overall health a good stretching and mobility program incorporated into your daily routine can prevent injuries and make your fitness experience a less painful one. My name is Rob Norbryhn; I’ve been involved in sports and fitness for most of my life. In my younger years I played football, soccer, ran cross-country and track and was a decathlete. These days, I rock climb, hike, hunt, ski and am an active crossfitter. I have had my share of injuries and most could have been prevented from either proper form or better flexibility.
I have found form suffers if flexibility suffers. Studies have shown stretching before and after strenuous activity can reduce the chance for injury (1)(2). According to ASCM stretching regularly can prevent overuse injuries such as tendonitis and bursitis and prevent even more serious injuries such as torn muscles and ligaments. More importantly isolated stretching (stretching of a specific muscle group) has shown to prevent joint injuries as well such as knee injuries. During heavy exercise and strenuous activity lactic acid is produced by contracting muscles. Lactic acid can cause the muscle to contract by releasing a hydrogen ion into the muscle hindering energy transfer and contractile processes, making you feel tight and sore. One can see the benefit of stretching after any exercise routine to help relieve soreness and keep ones mobility through everyday activities.
I stretch 20 minutes prior to any workout and 20 minutes after, holding specific stretches for one minute or longer. While I do not expect everyone to follow my routine, I would suggest 5-10 minutes of stretching before and after any workout to help prevent injury and overall well being. I stretch 20 minutes on my rest days, helping keep me flexible in my everyday activities. If you think about it, as cops we should focus on our flexibility. With long hours in a car and short times of strenuous activity in between, you inevitably are going to get tight and sore. As mentioned earlier, muscles produce lactic acid during strenuous activity. Foot pursuits and controlling combative suspects are physically strenuous. If you weren’t flexible to begin with, what you will feel like after a day or two of those activities could be helped if you were. Doing some easy stretches before and after a workout can help prevent injuries in the gym and on the street.
On this part of the website you will find some explanations of some quick stretches to start with. Eventually I will be posting some more advanced stretching and specific stretches such as stretches for those with specific injuries such as back injuries. I will be posting some good warm ups which combined with some stretches can be more alluring then static stretching to some (active stretching). Also expect more articles regarding warm ups, flexibility and fitness and how the two can be beneficial for ones overall health and fitness.
Sources:
(1) Balady, Gary J. MD (2005). ASCM’s Resources for the Personal Trainer. Baltimore: American College of Sports Medicine
(2) Crockett-Lohr, Ashley, & Tis, Laurie, P.H.D, FASCM. Basic Knee Injury Prevention Retrieved January 10, 2012, from http://www.acsm.org/access-public- information/articles/2012/01/10/basic-knee-injury-prevention
(3) Powers, Scott K., & Howley, Edward T. (2004). Exercise Physiology: Theory and Application to Fitness and Performance. New York: McGraw Hill
