A 37 y/o complained of feeling “tighter as I get older”, so he asked about stretching, Since I’ve been doing it pretty much daily since I was his age, I shared my thoughts:
“I stretch every morning, right after breakfast, for 7-8 minutes. Not before or after workout. When I was your age (what, 3 decades ago?) I did much of my stretching in the sauna before I swam, on the way to work. Again, the same old 7-8 minute routine I made up myself.
The idea with stretching I think is to get what are called proprioceptors in your muscles firing – those are sensors which learn how much your body wants to lengthen its muscle fibers, and where those fibers are at any given time. Stretching should NOT hurt – it should be done up that point, but not past it. I do what might be termed “mini-dynamic” stretching. I SLOWLY lengthen the muscles I am working on until I get to that point where it just might start to be feeling uncomfortable, then back off.
I start by doing what might look like a yoga “Good Morning ” pose – I lean forward at the waist with arms outstretched, resting on something about 3′ high. My goal is to feel the pressure in my hamstrings and my lats, as well as between my vertebral bodies. I pull a bit first on one side for 30 sec, then 30s on the other. Next is calves. Again, straight legs, feeling the pressure in the Achilles and lower calves. 20 seconds of slow stretch, then 10 sec with knees a bit bent to get more of an angle. Followed by hamstrings, pretty much what runners do, using a chair to support my heel, 15-20 sec one leg at a time. I bounce a bit to keep a small continuous increase in the pressure. Finally, I do knee flexion, by pulling up on the bottom of my pants (PJs at this stage of my life, with no work to go to), keeping my biceps stretched to get them going. At the same time, I raise my opposite arm straight over my head and drop my hand behind my ear to work on the triceps. After 20 sec of that, I straighten that arm, and put it behind me to pull on the pecs. then 15 seconds on the same leg with knee flexed up to my chin. Repeat on the opposite limbs. I finish with a brief journey of my fingers down to my toes, legs straight, feet should width apart.
PS, we’re all getting older, every second of every day. You, my son, are still in the flower of your youth, however. Enjoy it, and take care of yourself every day. It pays off later. I see guys my age who didn’t, and they can sometimes barely breathe or walk, much less enjoy a run or ride.”
I don’t know what stretching does for me. I suspect that it perks me up in the morning; I stop feeling that achy wake up blah after I do it. And it may help with injury prevention; when I stopped doing it religiously two years ago, I suffered through what seemed like an endless series of injuries last year. I’m back to it now, and feeling a lot better as a result. YMMV.