Touching toes - Appalachian Trail

imported
#1

after snowshoeing yesterday I had a novel idea… maybe I should stretch … ! I knew my toes were down there somewhere…well, I found them with some effort…but yikes… !.. so all you true stretchers out there…tell me your secrets… :slight_smile:

yappy

#2

do it every day.

milo

#3

Yep, every day. Also, do it once you’re warmed up and into your day. Cold stretching is unpleasant. Hold stretches for at least 30 seconds. Fifty is better. Relax and focus on slow belly breathing. Extend slowly and don’t bonuce into a further stretch. Finally stretch when you’ve got very little food in your belly. Oh, but being properly hydrated helps a ton. Water in your body is like oil in a car.
–Josh

josh

#4

I have been hearing recently that streaching before you exercise doesn’t do you much good. Warming up is what is important and streaching after you exercise is when it helps. I beleive it! I have stretched, and then worked out every day for a alot of years and my flexibility has always been pathetic.

Buckwheat

#5

Stretching before warming up is counter-productive and may cause you to be less flexible.Research I have reports the optimum time to hold a stretch is 35 seconds.This gives you the stretch but also imparts memory in the muscle so it does not just return to it’s original length after you have finished. Ballistic stretching has limited purpose and does not apply to hiking.

Caution about touching your toes. It has no real benefit that can’t be achieved with other stretches that won’t injure your back.If you have disc problems do not do this stretch.

Not everyone has the same inherent flexibility, but everyone can improve on what they have. Results can be had in a relatively short period of time.Oo

Onlyone

#6

Here’s a nice link for stretches:
http://gorp.away.com/gorp/publishers/menasha/hea_stre.htm

IF you do a google search for “stretches hiking” you’ll come up with quite a few.

FWIW, I enjoy stretching AFTER an vigorous exercise. As others have mentioned, stretching before exercise does not help all that much.

For me strethching helps stop the tightening of the muscles that can happen from vigorous exercise.

Also, on a similar topic, Buckwheat mentioned how his flexibility is pathetic. Yep…that’s a problem most endurance atheletes have. Hikers, runners, cyclists - basically anyone who works the same large muscle groups over and over again for extended periods of time. We tend to have great strength, endurance and resiliency. But, crappy flexibility. I certainly fall in that category!

Stretching is one way of coutnering this lack of flexibility. More flexibility means less likely to get injured. One of these days, going to sign up for abasic yoga class (Seriously!) for that reason.

MAgs