KSI Orientation – Unit 5 – What flexibility training should I do with my clients?
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Feel free to contribute!
I have always stretched, but not for the duration KSI have been reccommending, but since adopting these protocols 6 months ago, my niggly pains have all but disappeared.
Great to hear! and no surprise! About both aspects. Firstly that few stretch to our protocols, because doing stretching at all is in itself being a ‘non-conformist’, something few embrace. And secondly that you got the results – we know you are going to because we have done it/seen it so many thousands of times during the last 4 decades!
I never stretched really before KSI and had tons of problems. My shoulders and knees hurt when i would train. Ever since i have implemented stretching this no longer occurs and i feel better than i did ten years ago.
Appreciate you sharing Greg!
I enjoy this course so much! Although, I have been stretching almost all my life, I never realized that there is so much discussion about it! We have learned to stretch from a very early age in our local football team. Stretching was the first thing we had to do before starting the trainings and the matches. Stretching is also the very first part of our tai chi, qi gong and kung fu trainings. Nevertheless, I’ve never been stretching for an hour. To be honest, Dave (Cerpentier from Belgium) taught me to consider stretching as a proper form of training. And that is new to me!
Great to hear your experiences! In some sports, in some countries, in some age groups, we find individuals such as yourself who were raised with stretching being a normal part of training. Now, we have an entire generation of humans who are being raised with stretching not being part of their training, and believing it is ‘bad’.
Why? Firstly, in theory because a few scientific studies did the unrealistic thing of testing strength expression immediately after a stretch. No surprise a short term decrement was measured. Therefore, and this is the second reason in theory, because the world’s current dominant paradigm is that maximal strength is a holy grail, it cannot be interfered with! There is no rationale, holistic consideration. Did you know that athletes engaging in skill training, in tactical training, and in overall team training degrades strength? Perhaps we should recommend they cease participating in these activities? I should not joke, it is already happening.
However personally I believe the motivation behind this selective research is driven by other motivations, and they have something to do with the fact that a. if the world was to, today, allocate a minimum of 25% of their training time to stretching, the global physical training equipment sales would be significantly negatively impacted. And secondly those who have been given ‘guru’ status don’t stretch, can’t touch their toes, and will not allow anything to rise to the surface that would negatively reflect on their ‘guru-ness’.
In relation to your last point, yes stretching as a stand alone physical quality (and I suggest generally speaking the most important one) can and in many cases should or needs to have the same time allocation as other qualities such as strength, endurance etc.
Anyone who goes down this path typically finds massive rewards.
In fact, anyone who makes their mind up based on their own objective personal experimentation as opposed to blind acceptance of a paradigm (even if the paradigm is dressed up as ‘science’) will be rewarded.
I have little interest in a persons opinion when it is little more than a regurgitation of a dominant or others opinion. I am extremely interested if it is their own opinion, based on their objective personal experimentation.
After all, that is how I developed, refined and confirmed the many training innovations that I have shared with the world.
Great to chat Karel, and really appreciate hearing your story. It’s refreshing to hear in light of the growing number of humans that have been denied the stretching experience.
The value of this course to me personally has been fantastic.
That’s what we want to hear Fiona! Means a lot to us to know we are providing the value we seek to provide!
Formally introducing flexibility training into my training has significantly transformed my life as both an athlete and coach!
I started stretching before training in about 2019 when i realized it helped me get depth in my squat quicker, instead of needing 6-8 warmup sets. But only for about 10mins or until i felt loose.
I do have a question though..
As well as training and coaching I play Rugby and often play 80mins, is the guideline still to stretch for 80min? and how long would it take for the benefits of stretching take to diminish roughly? Because our team warmup/run through normally starts 45min before kickoff. If that makes sense.
Cheers Ian appreciate the content!
Blake great to hear you are receiving the benefits of static stretching! Also, great to hear you play sport – that is our passion, sport. Now in relation to your question ‘…often play 80mins, is the guideline still to stretch for 80min?’
I assume you are referring to the generic guideline of a 1:1 ratio.
So, let’s address that.
Firstly, it is only a generic guideline. The challenge with providing generic guidelines is that they can be stereotyped and potentially misinterpreted. The disadvantage of not providing generic guidelines is that the message can be ignored by the many because it is a ‘it depends’.
The reality if that it does depend – on genetics, training history, age, stage of career, injury etc. etc.
What I encourage you to do is experiment with ratios and reach cause-effect relationships for your own body, then your client’s bodies. Keeping in mind all along that every day is different, and every hour of the day can vary, so what you concluded today about the past does not guarantee optimal for the future, just guidelines.
Now to the second key point. In addition to a ratio of tension reduction work to tension increasing work, there is a second variable of timing. Timing refers to when you do each. You can collate training load in each (reduction and producing) in any format of work metric you want, minutes being an easy one but not the only or necessarily the best. However, let’s continue on with the simple theme that I teach in my generic model of work measured by duration of time.
Let’s say in this scenario you have a concluded on a 1:1 ratio – does that mean because game is 80 minutes long you have to do 80 minutes before hand? No. Let’s say you use a training micro-cycle or for simplicity’s sake a calendar week to measure and collate the relative duration of tension producing and tension reducing (and notes these are terms I arrived at, despite the lack of referencing you may observe in. a certain IG prolific individual ‘writings’…). If you say trained and competed for in tension producing work for 10 hours in a week and did 10 hours of tension reducing work in a week – you could distribute the 10 hours of tension reducing work anywhere in that time frame of a week.
Now this second point does come with a disclosure. There is a minimum of duration or work in tension producing you need to do through say stretching prior to training to reduce risk of wear and tear or worse, and this does really need to be individualized.
For example, let’s say an individual had a prior joint surgery – they would or should take more time to do static stretching prior to training than they may have needed to prior to the injury, but not as little as they did that resulted in the surgery!
Now for your second question – “ how long would it take for the benefits of stretching take to diminish roughly.”
Now there is going to be a drop off from the peak of your range in the stretch, however there are many variables that will determine both the rate of drop off and the amount of drop-off.
If you are in top length/tension condition and not suffering injuries/inflammation the drop off is slower and less in percentage. If you are generally in not-so-great condition and experience a significant short term increase in the stretch, and or if you suffer from a current injury/inflammation, your drop off will be faster and more significant in percentage terms.
I have worked in cases where we could do our pre-game stretch the night before with less or more targeted work the hours before the game, and I have worked with athletes that found the bulk of their stretching optimal in the hour before competition.
To add complexity there is the need to consider all other competition preparation for the individual, including their psychology and emotions.
Now we are really getting into the deeper considerations of competition preparation. Too advanced for a L0 chat. Much of the above has been beyond a L0 chat.
A challenge, as. A teacher spanning more than 40 years, is the current cohorts desire to grab a little bit of information and portray themselves as an expert with it. Producing impressive Instagram posts is not evidence of competency. Even impressive before and after stories etc. True competency can only be measured in the absence of a track record of results and demands for help from referrals in the complete absence of the coach doing any marketing or self-promotion. I know too many social medias ‘gurus who incompetent. For example, a ‘coach’ pumping out my constant on their IG account does not make then competent in truth. But you would never know…until you have been around long enough to know what is really going on…
Trust this helps, and great questions!
Mobility drills, don’t get me started. Been there done that, I jumped on that trend as I was desperate to improve the training I was doing. What a complete dead end that turned out for me.
Conor – at least you tried it and your conclusions are based on your own experiences. That is the Bucky way! And one we embrace