Saturday January 26, 2008 we had our first practical skills workshop and we covered the topic of flexibility. Trainers were taught some basics of flexibility. This was definitely just the beginning. Most of the methods being taught for the flexibility basics course were taken from the teachings of Coach Ian King of Australia. The methods are practical and serve as a good starting point for a coach who wants to start implementing flexibility protocols into their clients training programs.
We discussed the many benefits of flexibility, the differences between flexibility and mobility. As a group we sorted through case studies of various clients such as the 48 year old female who has had 2 children doesn’t work out and wants to have the same body she had in high school.
The group as a whole took turns designing warm up protocols for older clients, clients with injuries, and groups that may train at the same time. The warm ups were compose of things as simple as raising the body temperature by riding a bike or walking on a treadmill to more complicated medicine ball and bodyweight only drills.
After the lecture portion of the workshop the group was taught stretches for the entire body with progressions to accommodate various levels flexibility for each client. After going through the practical portion of the class the group did a presentation to a small group of clients teaching them the benefits of a flexibility program. Everyone in the coaching group did a great job of teaching and answering questions from the clients before teaching all the clients various stretching techniques.
The following is some of the topics we discussed during the lecture portion of the workshop:
Flexibility Basics
Individual Stretching
3 Levels of stretching
Rehabilitation (Light) time spent stretching 5-10 minutes
Training/Competitive Preparation (Medium) time spent stretching 10-30 minutes
Injury Prevention (Heavy) time spent stretching 30-90 minutes
Keys to successful stretching
Warm up first (break a sweat before stretching)
Focus (treated w/same respect as a workout)
Relax (critical component for static stretching, don’t attempt to progress to the next stage until you are relaxed in the position or stage that you are in)
Breathing (control your breathing to assist in the relaxation process, seek to relax into the stretch during the exhale portion of your breathing)
Work at your level (don’t try achieve the same range as someone you are working with or someone you have watched stretch)
Progress in level of intensity with each repeat (1st set of a stretch should be a comfortable range, 2nd set look to move further, and again in the 3rd set attempt to go further, if there are additional sets each set follows the same additional set rules of attempting to go further. If your only completing 3 sets only the 3rd set would be pushed to a degree of discomfort, if doing 5 sets then this would hold true for the 4 & 5 set
Avoid inappropriate pain (if a stretch causes a high level of pain avoid it and look for a different stretch)
Do not compromise the correct technique (make sure your incorrect body position regardless of how it may appear)
Tighter side first (the side that you have identified as your tight side)
Ballistic stretching after static stretching (static stretching improves the length of connective tissue, ballistic or dynamic stretching is used to prep athletes for sporting movements
Good communication (is a must to avoid injury to clients)
We ended the coaching group with a discussion on future topics to be covered in the group. I look forward to seeing you guys at the MI pt 2 Workshop.
2 comments:
This was such a great workshop! Learning some of the basics about flexibility and the difference between flexibility and mobility really drove home the importance of building a flexibility program into a client's overall fitness program.
I cannot express how enriching the "hands-on" components of these workshops are by really bringing the concepts and material alive. It makes it seem much more practical and applicable when we have the opportunity to put the concepts and techniques to the test.
I thought I'd post this question specifically about Flexibility Work on Recovery Days:
When building a flexibility program into a client's overall fitness program is it better to start the client on 30 minutes of flexibility work on their recovery days and then gradually build them up to 60-90 minutes? If so, what length of time would an average client anticipate spending at each level (ie. 30. 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90 minute sessions).
Thanks again for a great workshop and I look forward to MI Part II.
~ Krista ~
Krista,
I will start off by answering your question the long way around. Aside for assisting with recovery stretching can do two fantastic things for you – injury prevention and performance enhancement. If you had to choose between one or the other personally I would choose injury prevention. Why you might ask? Its simple Injury prevention training can improve performance however performance enhancement training will not prevent injuries.
How does this relate to your question about how long show a beginning client stretch for on their recovery days. I would look into treating injury prevention just like any other training variable and you’re definitely heading in the right direction by want to start at 30 minutes and work your way up to 90 minutes. Do not take flexibility training lightly no pun intended I have talked to some of your clients and some of them are smoked just from stretching really hard so you want your clients to develop a tolerance to long flexibility sessions. Do not start a new client off with a 90 minute session because his body will respond just like he worked out and tighten up instead of relaxing.
Great job with wanting to build on the amount of total time spent on flexibility but don’t forget another important variable. How many days per week with you do this? You can look at days per week as sets almost. I will add one more point and then I will try to map it out for you. When starting with 30 minutes as your total flexibility time don’t use 30minutes just for the sake of using 30 minutes. Choose to work on areas that you observed or know that are tight for your client so depending on how many stretches you use and or how many repeats of a stretch you may need more time then 30 minutes for a beginning stretching program. Follow the guidelines that I gave you in class and remember that a guideline only serves as a guide its not written in stone so don’t be afraid to consider deviating from it.
Flexibility Progression for a beginning client:
Week 1 8 different stretches for 3 repeats each stretch held for 60 seconds 1day/week total time 24 minutes
Week 2 8 different stretches for 3 repeats each stretch held for 90 seconds 1day/week total time 36 minutes
Week 3 8 different stretches for 3 repeats each stretch held for 120 seconds 1day/week total time 48 minutes
Week 4 8 different stretches for 3 repeats each stretch held for 60 seconds 2day/week total time 24 minutes
Week 5 8 different stretches for 3 repeats each stretch held for 90 seconds 2day/week total time 36 minutes
Week 6 8 different stretches for 3 repeats each stretch held for 120 seconds 1day/week total time 48 minutes
This is just one example of what could be done for a beginning client. Hope the answer was sufficient if not you know where to find me :)
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