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Does stretching have you confused? Today I'm going to show you not only the right type
of stretching and when to do it, but how you can take the same routine, one piece of equipment
and change it two ways to accomplish all your stretching goals.
What's up guys? Jeff Cavaliere, ATHLEANX.COM
I said it in the open. Stretching. It's really, often times a real confusing topic for guys,
for anybody working out. They are a little bit confused about the type of stretching
and more importantly when to do it.
So I thought in this video, let me put together a lower body stretching routine, that accomplishes
the explaining part of when to do it,
tells you the quick differences between them, and then shows you the routine, and how you
can just switch it up just a little bit to accomplish the goal that you are trying to
go for.
So to start off, we want to talk about static stretching and dynamic stretching. Now static
stretching is the type of stretching where we actually hold the stretch.
I don't care what you're stretching, if you're stretching a tricep, it's a stretch and hold.
If you're stretching a bicep, it's a stretch and a hold.
Alright, not a lot of action going on there. That's the type of stretching that you're
going to want to do after a workout and do it preferably at night before you go to bed.
Why is that? Because, that's where we want to actually try to interfere with our cross
bridging of our muscle fibers.
You know, basically what type of cross linking are we getting? We want to try to actually
cause expansion in the muscles themselves, create a length increase.
So, if you were to do that prior to working out which I always say, not to do. You can
actually interfere with the length tension relationship inside of a muscle fiber.
Not what you want to do, just right when you're getting ready to go do a squat.
Because your mind is not, sort of feeling the muscles the way it's used to feeling them,
in that stored pattern and movement. So we want to NOT interfere with that.
We want to kind of rely on the fact that our muscles and mind are working together. So
you don't want to interfere with static stretching.
What you do want to do though, is dynamic stretching. It can be the same movement pattern,
but done where you continue to move.
You work on eccentric lengthening of the muscle. But also get it back to it's normal length.
So that you are working on more of a warm up, taking it through a range, more than you
are actually going to try to increase the length.
So that's the main difference in when you want to do them. Dynamic before a workout.
Static after a workout, preferably before you go to bed, because overnight is when you're
going to heal, shorten those muscle fibers are going to heal. So if you get a little
bit of extra length before you go to bed, perfect situation for the muscles that you've
worked that day.
So here's my routine. For the lower body. One piece of equipment, the Athlean Elast-X
red band, the X-TREME BAND And I lied, two pieces of equipment, a pull up bar. Something
to hang it on.
We get this band up top and then we pull down and put our foot in the band. Now first move
we've got here, glutes.
Ok, they get tight on guys mostly a lot of times guys can't even pull their knee up to
their chest. So what the band does is it give us this added assistance to get up here.
You can put a little extra stretch right here around the knee. Hold on if you have to or
just hold up here.
This is just passively taking me up. Alright, again static holds 30 seconds to 60 seconds.
This is my nighttime routine.
Next, hamstring. Let the leg go out as straight as it can. Again this band wants to pull me
up. Big key here is, when I stretch, keep an arch in your low back.
Right, take out the slack in the hamstring with your pelvis, anteriorly tilted here and
then let it come up. You shouldn't even have to come down and lean.
It should be enough of tension already just by keeping your pelvis in position to feel
the hamstring right off the bat.
Ok, want to turn around to the abductors, inside the groin. All you've got to do is
just change the position of the body. Rotate yourself out. Now we've got a stretch in here.
Ok, you can sink down into it a little bit more then by leaning in this direction. I
also feel it on this leg too.
Then we come around to the front side . Here, let it bend my quad up, my knee, so I'm stretching
my quad. Sink down into it to get the hip flexor at the same time. So quad and hip flexor.
Again all of these are holds.
And then finally, come back around. Guys extremely tight in their hips and rotation, take it,
turn your foot, point it that way. It literally pulls yourself all the way up into this position
here.
Again, a position most guys can't comfortably get in. You want to test how uncomfortable
it is?
Get into a chair and sit down, cross your foot over your other knee and see if you can
get your knee, this knee flat. Most guys will find that their knee is pointing way up to
the sky.
Thumb that up right now if you try that and you see that because most likely you're going
to see that your hip won't really go flat. Perfect right here to do this.
So now how do we turn this into a pre workout, pre lower body workout routine. Something
that we could stretch out, just make it dynamic.
So, push down, let it come up. Push down, let it come up. Down, let it come up. Ok,
so we are going through this range of motion.
Each time, if I'm loosening myself up, working on the mobility of the hip and the structures
inside the hip joint, and also the muscles back here. I should notice that my leg will
go higher and higher.
Get it out here, push down, let it eccentrically come up. Push down, let it eccentrically come
up. Ok, same thing, down, eccentrically come up.
Same thing here, down, act like a leg swing. We used to do these a lot in major league
baseball. Down, kick out to the side and then let it come across your body and then up.
I like to kind of lean towards that leg as I do it. Down, and then up. Down, and then
up.
Ok same thing here. Out to the side, pull it down, ease the tension, let it pop up.
Down, ease the tension, let it pop up.
Again, good to be able to control this, don't let it snap up. You know besides losing your
leg, you might lose something else in between.
Guys, you want to make sure you come down. eccentrically control it. Why? Because you
want to have the reactive ability to eccentrically control when you're going to an activity,
or workout, or run, or play a sport. So, it's perfect for before an event.
And then finally, in here. As I said, get it on the end. Again, try to straighten your
quad out and then let it take it up. Straighten your quad out, again, not just straighten
the knee, but bring your leg forward and then let it take them both back. Down, and then
take them both back.
Alright, so again, one piece of equipment, one routine, change the way you are doing
it, and change the benefit that you see.
This is the kind of stuff guys, that we cover with ATHLEAN-X.
It's not just about, heading to the gym and going and doing a workout. And thinking that
you're going to get the same results that somebody else is going to get.
You've got to approach everything with the right sequencing. The right thing done at
the wrong time is no better than the wrong thing, period. So, get everything in writing.
Head on over the ATHLEANX.COM, grab the ATHLEAN-X training program. Start training like an athlete.
Athletes know when to do this stuff. So should you and I'll show you how when you grab our
program.
Be back here again in just a few days with another workout. If this routine helped you
and you like it, try it out and add it to your program. If you don't have a Athlean
ElastX band, you can grab them over at ATHLEANX.COM or go straight to it at ATHLEANELASTX.COM
I'll see you guys back here in a couple of days.