Flexibility Training Program for Pain Relief and Peak Performance

The Problem with Static Stretching

Static stretching is defined as any stretch that's held for 20-30 seconds or longer. This is how most of us learned to stretch in elementary school in gym class.

But for many us, static stretching doesn't work as well as advertised. It can feel like a struggle and can even be painful. Worse, it can fail to accomplish the goal of improving flexibility.

The problem with static stretching is that it can provoke a neurological response called the stretch reflex or protective stretch reflex. This is a natural reflex of the body designed to protect muscles from injury.

In muscles they are structures called Golgi tendons whose purpose is to constantly monitor muscle activity. When the Golgi tendons perceive a threat to the muscle, they automatically trigger a protective muscle contraction.

This protective contraction can be triggered in as few a 5 seconds when holding a muscle on a static stretch.

Once the reflex is triggered, any effort to force the stretch simply causes the protective reflex to get even stronger.

If you've ever felt your body struggling and trembling while trying to hold a static stretch then you've felt the protective stretch reflex in action.

That's why my flexibility training program does not rely on static stretching and why I use Active Isolated Stretching instead.

The Active Isolated Stretching Advantage

Active Isolated Stretching resolves the problem of the protective stretch reflex with a very simple strategy:

Using a repeated 2-second stretch rather than holding the stretch.

This does NOT mean a bouncing stretch such as you may have seen. A 2-second stretch is longer than that and gives the muscle a chance to actually lengthen. You can easily achieve the correct duration by counting out loud:

One one-thousand. Two one-thousand.

Instead of holding and waiting, struggling and wondering (as we do during a static stretch) this method offers a clear, gentle and extremely effective process.

Active Isolated Stretching uses a set number of repeated 2-second reps which gradually lengthens the muscle.

For a moderately tight muscle you might use 5 reps. For very tight muscles you might increase the reps to 10 or 12. For more flexible muscles or regions you might do fewer than 5.

Because this method works incrementally, it is very gentle which makes it ideal as a flexibility training program for beginners.

But Active Isolated Stretching is also the best way to increase flexibility for athletes because it is time efficient, does not induce strain and improves recovery time.

For these reasons, Active Isolated Stretching is the foundation of the Stretching Blueprint, the stretching and flexibility program of this new framework.

The Problem with the Mindset of "No Pain, No Gain"

When attempting to improve flexibility, especially when we're also trying to relieve muscular pain, the mindset of No Pain, No Gain works against us.

This mindset is perfectly appropriate for athletic training when we're trying to push through perceived physical and mental limitations. 

But when we're trying to add length and flexibility to our muscles and relieve aches and pains, this mindset runs counter to both our effort and our physiology.

Recall what we learned about the protective stretch reflex, described above in the section on static stretching: this reflex can be triggered in as few a 5 seconds when holding a static stretch.

And once triggered no amount of toughing it out will be of any use. The muscular bracing just gets worse and worse. resulting in soreness at very least. At worst, it can lead to injury.

This not only impedes the goal of improving flexibility, but  can result in excessive soreness and or even injury.

And yet because the mindset of No Pain, No Gain is so entrenched in Western culture, it can be hard for many to let it go.

I definitely saw this with some of my own clients even after explaining about the hazards of the stretch reflex and even after teaching them the fundamentals of Active Isolated Stretching.

In follow-up sessions, I'd learn that some clients were cranking on the stretch as hard as possible, pushing the range of motion to the outer limit and lapsing into longer holds than the recommended 2 seconds.

It struck me that some deep part of my clients' psyches were still under the spell of No Pain, No Gain.

I realized then that I needed a decisive method for combating this entrenched mindset.

And that is how the method of Progressive Ease came to be.

The Gentle Power of Progressive Ease

Progressive Ease is both a practical method and also a shift in mindset. The idea is very simple:

While performing a repeated 2-second stretch using Active Isolated Stretching, instead of pushing to the farthest point of one's range of motion, Progressive Ease instructs to maintain a buffer zone.

By maintaining a buffer zone I mean that you don't push the stretch to outer limit of the muscle's range of motion.

Instead of going as far as you can go and pushing against that outer limit, you approach the limit without pushing into it.

By default this creates a milder stretch. This builds in the concept of ease. On its face, this might seem like it would accomplish less.But, in fact, the opposite is true.

With each subsequent rep the stretch actually progresses farther. When we maintain a buffer zone, when we maintain a feeling of ease, we're able to maximally increase range of motion without strain.

Why does this work?

Because by using a buffer zone we're able to make absolutely certain that the protective stretch reflex is not activated.

And by committing to the idea of ease we avoid overworking while accomplishing less. This helps begin to loosen the vice grip of the No Pain, No Gain mindset and replace it with a better way.

So the method of Progressive Ease has become my antidote to a wrongheaded use of No Pain, No Gain.

In combination with Active Isolated Stretching, Progressive Ease forms the practical backbone of the Stretching Blueprint.