The relaxing performance secret

By: Jeff Cathrea, B.Sc. Kinesiology

What would you say if I told you that I had the secret to make you become a faster, more efficient, more powerful athlete who was less prone to injuries? And what would you say if I told you that you could accomplish all of this in 30 minutes a day while relaxing and without breaking a sweat? Most of you would probably ask "Where do I sign up?" Well, I do hold the secret for these promises and the answer lies within flexibility training.

I probably do not need to remind you that most sports, including lacrosse, require serious physical demands on the body due to frequent, repetitive movements of very specific movement patterns. Such repetition and heavy force placed through joints will inevitably lead to wear and tear on the skeletal muscle fibres. Because lacrosse is a sport which is hand dominated, repetitive shooting and passing mechanics can have an unbalancing effect on the body. This can lead to an over development of your dominant side, thus causing injuries due to muscle imbalance. In this particular case, stretching can restore balance between left and right thus preventing an injury which could keep you sidelined.

When it comes to incorporating flexibility into performance, we must remember Newton's Third Law of Motion which states, "For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction." This is important when it comes to visualizing the importance of flexibility because with each joint in our body there are two muscle groups which are responsible for the movement of that joint, the agonist and the antagonist. The agonist muscle group is the muscle that is contracting or shortening as the joint moves and the antagonist is the muscle group that opposes the movement of the agonist. An example of this relationship would be when you flex your forearm at the elbow joint; your biceps are the agonist while your triceps are the antagonist. This relationship reverses when you straighten your elbow. As far as performance goes, ensuring that the balance between agonist and antagonist groups is maintained becomes vital because a muscle group can only contract as forcefully as its antagonist can relax. In other words, your running power could be limited if you have tight hamstrings for example, limiting the power of your hip flexors and quadriceps.

It has been documented that athletes who integrate stretching into their workout regimes regularly are able to produce greater power output, move more efficiently and significantly reduce overuse injuries. The most appropriate forms of stretching to accomplish these performance goals are dynamic stretching, static stretching and PNF (proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation) stretching.

Have you ever swung your arms side to side or twisted your upper body mimicking a shot before you were about to play? If so, you have performed dynamic stretches. Dynamic, or moving, stretching is best performed as part of your warm up regime, before your training session, practice or game in sets of 8-10 movements per muscle group. Static stretching is the method used to stretch a muscle group without moving. These stretches are best performed after activity as part of your cool down. For best results, make sure to hold the stretch for at least 60 seconds, (yes one full minute) as it takes at least this amount of time for that muscle group to fully relax itself off around the targeted joint. Lastly, PNF stretching is a combination of contracting and relaxing. This type of stretching is typically done with the aid of a partner due to the action of contracting the antagonist increasing the relaxation and flexibility in the agonist. This is typically done by holding a static stretch for 30 seconds, then contracting the antagonist for 5-10 seconds, then passively moving the joint into a second range of static stretching. This technique will gradually increase the range of motion of the targeted joint. With all forms of stretching it is important to ensure that all stretches are performed without the presence of pain. Increased range of motion will occur with consistent, comfortable stretching, not by trying to push the targeted joint past its comfortable limit.

I encourage you all to make the time to incorporate stretching into your daily schedule as it is an effortless method to increase your performance, speed, power and playing longevity. To aid in your efforts, The Performance Institute in Burnaby BC is offering a free 1 hour flexibility class every Saturday at 9am. Call (604) 291-9941 for more details.