What's up, guys?
Jeff Cavaliere, ATHLEANX.com.
Today we're going to talk about why stretching is killing your gains.
To demonstrate it I want to start by having us all stand up and do a set of 15 degree
angle dorsiflexion, 130 degree knee flexion, and 110 degree hip flexion, lower lumbar/spine
stabilizing, scap retracting, forward eye gazes.
With, maybe, 300lbs.
You don’t know what that is?
See, the thing is, that's just a squat, but your body doesn't store that information that
way.
Your body recognizes a squat as a squat, and you learned it from a very young age.
It's called an engram.
An engram is a stored motor pattern that allows us to be neurologically efficient so when
I have to squat – let's say, when I have a muscle marker in my pocket that I drop,
I don’t think about going through every component that I just listed out for you.
But in order to get down there, yes, all that stuff is happening for me to go down here
and squat.
But instead, instantly my body knows 'get down to the ground, pick that thing up, and
go'.
So what happens is, when you start to do static stretching, holding stretches for 30 seconds,
45 seconds – some people do them for a minute and a half – prior to either training, or
going out and competing in something, you're asking for trouble because what you're trying
to do is – in an effort to do a good thing you're causing your body to have to readapt
on the fly, and it doesn’t really do a great job of it.
Especially early on in your training.
So it compromises your ability to do this.
So if I were to do that before a squat, and I stretch all the things out – because guys
do everything, they'll stretch out their quads, they'll stretch out their hamstrings, they're
going to stretch out their hips before they do a squat, even upper body because they know
they've got to get their shoulders back in order to grab the bar.
They go through this whole process and when they step under the bar, the body knows a
squat based on what your ability to do that squat is on an everyday basis.
Now, with this temporary increase in length that I've caused by disrupting it through
my static stretching, now when I step under the bar, maybe even if I was stretching my
forearms out a little bit – because people do everything before they squat.
Now I go in and I grab, I can actually turn a back squat, or a high bar squat into more
of a low bar squat, just because I have more flexibility here through my forearms, at least
temporarily.
If I go into a squat there that's definitely going to disrupt my motor pattern.
If my hips are a little bit looser and I go down in the squat, when I go down a little
lower than I'm used to, while it's not a bad thing I'm just not used to that.
So now, my body is trying to say "Wait, is he squatting?
Is that in the engram that I have stored?
Because it doesn't match up, exactly."
There are differences here.
And it spends all this time trying to match up the differences between what it's experiencing
now, versus what you have stored, and neurologically you become inefficient.
The effort is being spent there, rather than maximizing your strength in performance here.
That's where your lift is compromised.
So is static stretching bad?
No, static stretching is a great thing because ultimately, it leads to increased muscle length
and flexibility.
That's going to benefit you in the weight room, just not right now.
Not before your workout.
I'm going to tell you how you can do it if you demand, and insist on doing that, but
it's not really what we're looking for.
I'd rather give you a better way to do it.
Anyone that's played golf can experience the same thing.
If I were to go and swing, I have a golf swing.
That's what my body has stored; this golf swing.
Back, and then through.
There's my swing.
But if I spend all my time static stretching before I go play golf, when I step up to the
first tee – you've probably experienced this yourself if you've played any length
of time – all of a sudden the back side of my shoulders here are a lot more loose
than it usually is.
So instead of getting to here before I initiate the up part o my swing here, now I'm able
to go back even further.
But that changes what's demanding here at my hip, in order to stabilize the swing.
So everything is thrown off and I spend the first four holes trying to recapture my ability
to match up what it is I'm trying to do, with what my body knows is a golf swing.
So I might throw away four holes.
And if I'm competing in golf, that's more than enough to screw up your whole round.
Finally, I'll give you one more example.
If I have a bench-press and I've spent all my time static stretching out my chest – and
I've shown you guys some really good static stretches to differentiate between pec minor,
and pec major, and they're important.
Just not to be done now, before I get to here, and do a set of bench-press because now with
this increased flexibility I wind up drifting.
My arms aren't in the same stored motor pattern.
I can't be as neurologically efficient here, and then focus my effort on power and strength
development – which are both neurologically driven.
Instead, I'm trying to find, and match up that stored pattern.
Even just a little bit of variance here can change things.
When we static stretch, guys, we're temporarily causing a length tension relationship, and
a difference of the cross-bridging of the actin and myosin that help to create a contraction.
So even if it's just a little bit lengthened, versus the normal, we're trying to reestablish
what's normal.
So what would you do if you insisted on doing static stretching before your training?
Well, you'd better spend some time reestablishing what's normal.
What I mean by that is, you go through, before you start your training, you've got to go
through and start to do all, I believe, reintegration of these motor patterns by doing these exercises
you're going to do that day.
Two, or three sets of each one, exploring the new range of motion that you've been gaining
through your static stretching with lighter weights.
That could take an extra 15, or 20 minutes.
But I believe it's necessary if your goal for that day is to do anything where we're
improving your strength, especially.
So the alternative is to spend your time, instead, doing a quick warmup, and then doing
an active warmup using dynamic stretching activities to get yourself ready.
Not hanging out in prolonged stretching for any length of time, but doing dynamic stretches
for those same muscle groups, and then spending one, or two, or three sets doing the first
exercise you're going to do that day using a nice, steady warmup progression without
tiring yourself out, just to groove that move, and then go get ready to do your workout.
But if you spend any more time than that doing all your static stretching, in the long run,
I promise you, your strength gains are going to be limited by that, and ultimately your
size gains as well because you can't get the most out of your workouts because your body
is simply mismatched, and the neuroefficiency that you've created in the first place is
being interfered with, and screwed up.
So guys, I hope you've found this video helpful.
In the meantime, if you're looking for a program that puts it all together step by step – we
tell you when to do the right stretches, at the right time – head to ATHLEANX.com and
get our ATHLEANX training programs.
In the meantime, if you've found the video helpful leave your comments and thumbs up
below.
Let me know what you want me to cover in a future video and I'll do my best to do that
for you in the days, and weeks ahead.
All right.
See you soon.