Stretching. A thread about (or in search of) stretches.

Courborous, you have bad posture. Do you know how to stand up straight? Sit up straight? You are not be getting shorter because you are becoming more muscular. Your legs are sore from muscle damage. Stretching will not help with this. Try the foam roller. You already know all about it. Your posture is affected by lack of flexibility in the muscles. Forward slumping shoulders is an imbalance between the chest and the back. Surprising that the chest would pull the shoulders forward when we use the back so much to swim, but we use the back to pull the arm down the body, and the chest hold the arms in front of the body. The shoulders are never back. Start stretching today, it won't hurt your training. Everything should be done without too much force. There was a study I read recently that found 30 seconds a day was enough to increase flexibility, per stretch. 10 seconds was too little and, I don't remember the high test case, but it didn't improve any more than the 30 second group. Hold the stretch for 30 seconds. Warm up the muscle before stretching. If you are stretching first thing in the morning, jog in place, do jumping jacks, something to get warm. Right after working out, you should already be warm and you can stretch. Apparently dynamic stretching fell out of favor last week on Wednesday at 6:32 pm Mountain time. Stretching rules seem very trendy to me. Chest: Door way stretch - hold your hands up, your elbows at shoulder height and try to press your way through the door way. Back: Broomstick twist; hang from pull up bars with a shoulder width hand grip; roll yourself into a tight ball, head tucked to your chest with your arms pulling your legs tightly into you. Triceps: USAS does recommend this stretch anymore, but I don't know anything else that stretches the tris better. Put your hand on your shoulder (same side), and pull your elbow straight up. Quads: Grab your toes and pull your foot to you butt. This stretch has gone in and out of "approval" about 8 billion times. Hamstrings: Touch your toes; Put one foot up on a chair and touch your toes with the opposite hand; There are a million stretches for hamstrings that all do the same thing. Pick one. Groin: Side lunge Calf stretch: One foot in front of the other pressing/holding the back heel to the ground as you lean forward; one foot in front of the other, press the knee forward while holding the heel to the ground Ankle stretch. Sit on your heels. If that is easy, elevate your toes and sit on your heels. That should get you started. If you have time for yoga, that by itself would be enough. I was never more flexible than when I was doing yoga once a day, but I have no idea if it helps swimming, swimming and regular yoga never overlapped for me.

Courborous, you have bad posture. Do you know how to stand up straight? Sit up straight? You are not be getting shorter because you are becoming more muscular. Your legs are sore from muscle damage. Stretching will not help with this. Try the foam roller. You already know all about it. Your posture is affected by lack of flexibility in the muscles. Forward slumping shoulders is an imbalance between the chest and the back. Surprising that the chest would pull the shoulders forward when we use the back so much to swim, but we use the back to pull the arm down the body, and the chest hold the arms in front of the body. The shoulders are never back. Start stretching today, it won't hurt your training. Everything should be done without too much force. There was a study I read recently that found 30 seconds a day was enough to increase flexibility, per stretch. 10 seconds was too little and, I don't remember the high test case, but it didn't improve any more than the 30 second group. Hold the stretch for 30 seconds. Warm up the muscle before stretching. If you are stretching first thing in the morning, jog in place, do jumping jacks, something to get warm. Right after working out, you should already be warm and you can stretch. Apparently dynamic stretching fell out of favor last week on Wednesday at 6:32 pm Mountain time. Stretching rules seem very trendy to me. Chest: Door way stretch - hold your hands up, your elbows at shoulder height and try to press your way through the door way. Back: Broomstick twist; hang from pull up bars with a shoulder width hand grip; roll yourself into a tight ball, head tucked to your chest with your arms pulling your legs tightly into you. Triceps: USAS does recommend this stretch anymore, but I don't know anything else that stretches the tris better. Put your hand on your shoulder (same side), and pull your elbow straight up. Quads: Grab your toes and pull your foot to you butt. This stretch has gone in and out of "approval" about 8 billion times. Hamstrings: Touch your toes; Put one foot up on a chair and touch your toes with the opposite hand; There are a million stretches for hamstrings that all do the same thing. Pick one. Groin: Side lunge Calf stretch: One foot in front of the other pressing/holding the back heel to the ground as you lean forward; one foot in front of the other, press the knee forward while holding the heel to the ground Ankle stretch. Sit on your heels. If that is easy, elevate your toes and sit on your heels. That should get you started. If you have time for yoga, that by itself would be enough. I was never more flexible than when I was doing yoga once a day, but I have no idea if it helps swimming, swimming and regular yoga never overlapped for me.