Simply put, it means you stop eating completely, or almost completely, for a certain stretch of time. A fast usually lasts from 12 to 24 hours, but some types continue for days at a time. In some cases, you may be allowed water, tea, and coffee, or even a small amount of food during the “fasting period.”
Turns out, we’ve been doing this for a while.
Fasting is common to just about every major religious tradition, like Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism. In ancient Greece, Hippocrates believed it helped the body heal itself. During Ramadan, many Muslims fast from dawn to sunset, every day for a month. This has provided scientists with quite a bit of information about what happens to your body when you fast, and the news is mostly good.
What motivates people to fast?
Besides religious practice, there are several health reasons. First, as you might guess, is weight loss. There’s also research showing that certain types of fasting may help improve your cholesterol, blood pressure, glucose levels, insulin sensitivity, and other health issues.
Yes, You’ll feel like you’re starving.
Well, at least in the beginning. After a few days, however, the hunger usually gets better. Fasting is different from dieting in that it’s not about trimming calories or a certain type of food — it’s not eating at all, or severely cutting back, for a certain amount of time.
How safe is it to fast?
Brief fasting isn’t likely to hurt you if you’re a healthy adult, whether your weight is normal or you’re heavier. Still, your body needs good nutrition and fuel to thrive. So make sure to talk to your doctor first, especially if you have health problems or take any kind of medication. If you’re pregnant, breastfeeding or you have a history of eating disorders, you should avoid fasting of any kind. Kids and teens shouldn’t fast either.
What am I allowed to eat then?
When you’re not fasting, you can eat the food you normally would. Of course, you shouldn’t load up on lots of french fries and doughnuts. But studies seem to show that your health changes for the better when you fast, even if your diet does not. You should still add more fruits, veggies, and whole grains, too, if you don’t already eat enough of them.
“I’m likely to just eat more later”, you might reason.
You might. Still, you should try to eat a healthy amount of food and not stuff yourself after a fast. Quality still counts. But even among people who eat the same number of calories, those who fast tend to have lower blood pressure, higher insulin sensitivity, more appetite control, and easier weight loss.
What is Intermittent Fasting?
This is an off-and-on type of fasting. There are three main types that doctors have studied and people have used for weight loss and improved health:
Time-restricted feeding
Alternate-day fasting
Modified fasting
Time-Restricted Feeding
This means you do all your eating in a certain stretch of the day, often around 8-12 hours. One easy way to do this is to skip one meal. If you finish dinner by 8 p.m., you’ve already achieved 12 hours of your fast by 8 a.m. Make it to noon for lunch, and you’ve fasted for 16 hours. You could also stop eating after lunch until breakfast the next morning.
Alternate-Day Fasting
It’s sometimes called “complete” alternate day fasting because the time when you don’t eat lasts a full 24 hours. You follow that with one or more “feast” days when you can eat as much as you want. Even though the studies are very limited, the results suggest that alternate-day fasting can lead to weight loss and improve health. But it may be pretty hard to stick to it over the long term.
Modified Fasting
This type allows you to eat around 20% to 25% of your normal daily energy needs on scheduled fast days — just enough to remind you what you’re missing! One popular version, the 5:2 diet, requires 2 days a week (not in a row) of 24-hour “fasting” except for a very light meal. On the other 5 days of the week, you can eat whatever you want.
Too Tough?
Complete, alternate-day fasting could be very hard to stick with over the long term. But other versions of fasting seem to get easier over time. You and your doctor may want to look into the specific plans to see what might be best for you.
Diabetes
Some studies show that fasting might help people with diabetes or prediabetes control blood sugar, improve insulin sensitivity, and lose weight. Other recent research looking at time-restricted fasting disputes some of these claims. If you have either of these conditions, it’s very important to talk to your doctor before you make any changes to your medication, insulin use, or eating habits.
Athletes
Weight training may help you shed more body fat — but not muscle — when added to any weight loss program. Aerobic exercise like running, swimming or biking while on a time-restricted eating plan might help your cholesterol levels as well as cut down on belly fat. Still, you need good fuel. Make sure you cover your nutritional needs.
Strength & Conditioning
We offer a personalized, 1 on 1 10-week exercise and nutrition program with a certified personal trainer, in our private, purpose-built gym. Sessions would be three times per week, at 30 minutes per session. Participants perform three to six different strength exercises in a typical session, doing three sets of eight to 12 repetitions (each set lasting 25 to 35 seconds) for each exercise. The exercises change from session to session, progressing in intensity from week to week. Your personal trainer will gradually increase your weight load, roughly doubling in 10 weeks.
This is an intensive program and participants are carefully supervised by a Certified Personal Trainer. As your personal trainer, I highly recommend that before you embark on a similar program you book a consult with me, an exercise specialist who can help design a program for your needs and make sure that you’re doing the exercises correctly.
I also cannot stress the importance of consulting with your doctor or healthcare provider before you embark on a new exercise regimen. As your personal trainer all programs I offer require you to undergo a physical activity readiness questioner as your health and safety needs precede all aesthetic goals.
Tiger Athletic is a modern, private, appointment-only gym in Sandton, Johannesburg using a rigorous, results-focused methodology we are passionate about helping you be the healthiest version of yourself, so you can lead a more fulfilling personal and professional life.
Our sessions are strictly 1 on 1 just you and your trainer. There is nobody else in the gym and all equipment used is sanitized at the end of each session for the safety of all my clients.
30 days to stronger, firmer and leaner abs? Challenge yourself by joining Tiger Athletic head trainer Aubrey in our 30-Day Tiger Abs Challenge to build a stronger core and leaner abs.
Localized weight gain solely in your midsection may be the result of specific lifestyle choices. The two S’s, stress and sugar play a significant role in the size of your midsection. Fat around the middle is, in fact, unhealthier than being overweight, can increase your risk of Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, and even cancer, especially breast cancer.
Our modern lifestyle of sitting all day in traffic and at
work often leaves us feeling (and looking) fat, tired and with backpain.
Achieving a leaner more functional torso goes a long way to easing the back
pain and feeling amazing again. Along with the workout calendar at the end of
this article and as a Tiger Athletic first, every few days we’ll post a no
equipment, 10-minute core and abs workout video you can follow along pretty
much anywhere.
Join our 30 day Tiger Abs Challenge starting Saturday, February 01, 2020, by following the workout calendar at the bottom of this article and engaging with your personal trainer Aubrey and our close-knit fitness community on the Tiger Athletic Challenge Group on Facebook. and we’ll get you a leaner, stronger, tighter midsection and to that elusive 2-minute plank benchmark. Even if just getting to a 20 second plank seems an insurmountable obstacle at present, we’ll get you there with a lot of planking practice and targeted core exercises to improve core strength for men and women alike.
We’re starting on Saturday, January 01, 2020, however, you can start the challenge at any time you feel you need professional help to improve your core strength and the aesthetic look of your abs. At the end of this article, we’ve created the 30-day Tiger abs calendar with a training program for you to follow every day of the challenge.
You’ll do four different ab exercises on most days, the plank
(of course), the boat pose, Jack Knives (Aubrey’s personal favourite) and cross
crunches for a set time or number of reps. For example, on the first day,
you’ll do a 20-second plank, 20-second Boat pose, 20 Jack Knives and 20 Cross
Crunches. For the Jack Knives and Cross Crunches, the set number applies on the
left side as it does on the right, i.e. 20 reps mean 20 left hand to right leg
and vice versa.
On some days our head trainer Aubrey will demonstrate a 10
minute ab workout video to add to your training routine and on every seventh
day, you’ll have an active rest day to focus on a low intensity workout like setting
a new personal best on your 10 000 Step A Day Challenge, yoga or swimming.
How To Join The Challenge
Join our Tiger Athletic Challenge Group on Facebook to get daily encouragement and motivation, as well as answers to any questions about the challenge you may have.
Share the challenge calendar below with your friends on Pinterest, Facebook and Twitter. You can also print it out and keep it somewhere you’ll see it every day or save it to your phone so it’s always handy.
Follow along with the challenge each day and share your progress in the Tiger Athletic Challenge Group . We’re rooting for you!
30 Day Solid Abs Challenge Calendar
1
20 Sec Plank 20 Sec Boat 20 Jack Knives 20 Cross Crunches (10 Each Way)
2
25 Sec Plank 25 Sec Boat 24 Jack Knives 24 Cross Crunches (12 Each Way)
3
Tiger Athletic Dynamic Abs 10-minute Video
4
30 Sec Plank 30 Sec Boat 28 Jack Knives 28 Cross Crunches (14 Each Way)
5
35 Sec Plank 35 Sec Boat 32 Jack Knives 32 Cross Crunches (16 Each Way)
6
40 Sec Plank 40 Sec Boat 36 Jack Knives 36 Cross Crunches (18 Each Way)
7
Rest Day
8
45 Sec Plank 45 Sec Boat 40 Jack Knives 40 Cross Crunches (20 Each Way)
9
50 Sec Plank 50 Sec Boat 44 Jack Knives 44 Cross Crunches (22 Each Way)
10
Tiger Athletic Dynamic Abs 10-minute Video
11
50 Sec Plank 50 Sec Boat 48 Jack Knives 48 Cross Crunches (24 Each Way)
12
55 Sec Plank 55 Sec Boat 48 Jack Knives 48 Cross Crunches (28 Each Way)
13
Tiger Athletic 10 Minute Tabata Video
14
Rest Day
15
60 Sec Plank 60 Sec Boat 52 Jack Knives 52 Cross Crunches (26 Each Way)
16
65 Sec Plank 65 Sec Boat 56 Jack Knives 56 Cross Crunches (28 Each Way)
17
Tiger Athletic Dynamic Abs 10-minute Video
18
70 Sec Plank 70 Sec Boat 60 Jack Knives 60 Cross Crunches (30 Each Way)
19
80 Sec Plank 80 Sec Boat 64 Jack Knives 64 Cross Crunches (32 Each Way)
20
Tiger Athletic 10 Minute Tabata Video
21
Rest Day
22
90 Sec Plank 90 Sec Boat 68 Jack Knives 68 Cross Crunches (34 Each Way)
23
100 Sec Plank 100 Sec Boat 72 Jack Knives 72 Cross Crunches (36 Each Way)
24
Tiger Athletic Dynamic Abs 10-minute Video
25
105 Sec Plank 105 Sec Boat 76 Jack Knives 76 Cross Crunches (38 Each Way)
26
110 Sec Plank 110 Sec Boat 80 Jack Knives 80 Cross Crunches (40 Each Way)
27
Tiger Athletic Dynamic Abs 10-minute Video
28
Rest Day
29
115 Sec Plank 115 Sec Boat 84 Jack Knives 84 Cross Crunches (42 Each Way)
30
120 Sec Plank 120 Sec Boat 88 Jack Knives 88 Cross Crunches (44 Each Way)
Tiger Athletic is a modern, private, appointment only gym with a personal trainer for each session. Revolutionize your present workout regime or find a new way to sweat with us. Book a trial session, let’s chat about your health.
Working out with a personal trainer in a modern, private,
appointment only gym is the gold standard method of reaching your weight loss
and wellness goals, we all know this, however the reality for most people
is that as great as having a Personal Trainer is, it’s simply too expensive for
some in our present economic climate…..or is it?
We all have an image in our hearts and minds of what the best
version of ourselves looks like. Tiger Athletic offers an authentic workout
experience for those who want to learn how to achieve that vision with our
strength and conditioning program, while getting in the best shape of your life
in a high-intensity small group fitness setting.
Join our close-knit fitness community with morning, mid-day and early evening classes to suit every diary. Build the strength, confidence and passion needed to realise your dream body with great people and industry leading personal training.
Developed as a result of a rigorous education in Coaching Science, over two decades of boxing, martial arts and high-performance strength and conditioning training as an athlete, Tiger Fit provides the most effective group fitness and conditioning workout in the market with each class capped at 8 people to retain the personal training attention that is at the centre of our workout philosophy.
Each session is run like a championship boxing match, consisting of a 3-minute dynamic warm-up followed by 12 x 3 minute ’rounds’ comprising of 12 strength and conditioning exercises, for a total body workout. Each round is 3 minutes of all out action with 1 minute of active rest and hydration between rounds for the best in class workout experience.
Burn upwards of 1,000 calories per class whether you are a working professional, a home executive or looking for a new challenge to get you to your dream body, for 50 minutes a day you can train like a professional athlete in a modern, private, appointment only gym with a world class trainer and not break the bank at R 400 per month!
Tiger Athletic is a modern, private, appointment only gym with a personal trainer for every session. Revolutionise your present workout regime or find a new way to sweat with us. We have you and your pocket covered to tone and shape your body to new levels of excellence.
Just how active can you get? Our goal this week is to try and set a new personal best, everyday! We all have responsibilities…,families, work, life to attend to…..TRY!!! It’s absoutely incredible that you are now in week 4 of the 10000 step a day challenge. You probably haven’t thought about this but by now you have walked in the neighborhood of 210 000 steps.
So How Far Have You Walked?
10 000 steps equate to about 7.6 kilometers or an hour and 40 minutes walking, depending on your stride length and walking speed. By now, if you’ve walked 10 000 steps per day you’ve covered about 160km! What’s 160km from you?
How to Join the Challenge
Measure your daily steps, using a fitness tracker, a smartwatch or your smartphone.
Join the challenge on the Tiger Athletic Challenge Group. We’ll be posting lots of helpful info and tips, answering all your questions and connecting you to other members of the community who are joining you for the challenge.
Post your progress to the group. Keep the rest of the community updated with your daily walking by posting screenshots of your step-counting app or photos of your fitness tracker or what you saw on your daily walk. Maybe you walked through the park at lunch or took a hike over the weekend. We want to see it!
How High Have You Climbed?
What about if you turned those walking steps into climbing steps? How do your daily steps compare to some of the world’s tallest staircases and buildings?
The longest staircase in the Guinness World Records can be found going up Niesen Mountain in Switzerland with 11 674 steps.
Burj Khalifa is the current tallest building in the world and has 2 909 steps to get to the 160th floor. Visitors aren’t allowed to use the stairs, so every time you walk 3 000 steps you’ve reached the top!
The annual race up the 1 860 steps to the top of the Empire State seems daunting until you realize that you have been walking 10 000 steps per day!
Realistically though, walking steps and climbing stairs isn’t exactly a one-to-one comparison, but you get the idea. If they were, however, how many times in a day could you climb the Burj Khalifa given your average step count?
How Many Calories Have You Burned?
Too far fetched to imagine? Here are some points a little more applicable to your daily life, calories burned! A lot of variables, of course, come into play, but the American Council on Exercise (ACE) estimates that the average person burns 3,500 calories per week walking 10,000 steps a day, even simpler, 500 calories a day
The brisker you walk or as we like to say, the more you turn up the intensity, the more calories you burn. If instead of focusing on shorter stints around your home or office, start trying to take more brisk walks around the block or up and down your street. Depending on your weight, walking 10,000 steps burns between 250 and 600 calories
Be The Best You
Dare yourself to add an additional half an hour walking to your daily routine, commit to a weekend hike or simply discover your neighborhood. It’s impossible to walk all day every day so pick one day, maybe the last day of this challenge and go for your all-time best daily step count record.
Then share it on the Tiger Athletic Challenge Group We want to hear about how far you walked, where you went and what you felt like. Did you discover another stunning hiking trail in beautiful South Africa? or A fun farmers market to stroll through on the weekend? Tell us!
Tiger Athletic is a private, appointment only gym. Whether you’re looking to diversify your workout regime or find a new way to sweat, we have you covered to tone, shape, or maintain your already enviable frame in Sandton’s most progressive and exclusive gym.
In shape, out of shape, haven’t trained for years or a complete beginner, our clients are trained as individuals by intensley trained trainers. Its always you, a training partner and your coach in our off peak fitness and weight loss classes run on the hour every hour between 9am and 4pm weekdays.
Our personal trainers are trained to cater for every spectrum of physical ability, we assess your genetic potential, present state of health and goals, then train you to realize your potential in modern, effective and fun 60 minute sessions. All you need is the right attitude and the desire to do your best. Leave the rest to us. Your success begins with your willingness to try.
Tiger Athletic is Sandton’s premier private gym. Sessions with our industry lading personal trainers are strictly by appointment, our signature fitness and weightloss program combine thorough sport science assessments, strength and conditioning and kickboxing in our state-of-the-art private gym.
Superior Instruction
Your personal trainer holds multiple black belts in karate, is a coaching science graduate with years of competitive and coaching experience and train hard every day to stay current with the latest and most effective developments in coaching science, nutrition and strength & conditioning programming.
We offer industry leading sport science assessment and instruction, you can expect unparalleled results. No matter what shape you’re in, our aim is to make sure you reach your goal while having so much fun that you won’t realize you’re getting the workout of your life…until you look in a mirror.
The ‘Total’ Workout
Fun, high-quality instruction makes learning easy, interesting and fun. You’ll be so engaged you won’t even notice that you’re burning 700 -1200 calories in every class.
Preferred Service Provider
As a private client you’ll be in great company. We train the hardest period. Tiger Athletic has been the training system of choice for many senior executives in Sandton’s top banks and law firms, law enforcement officials, professional athletes, educators, and fitness enthusiasts.
Results
Amazing fitness results, increased energy levels and constant improvement will keep you motivated and looking forward to each workout. You will gain endurance, muscle, and flexibility at the same time, every time. Plus, you get the added benefit of learning to move, kick and punch the right way, on bags and pads so you stay injury free and walk with extra confidence.
Practical Life Skills and Total Fitness
Increased self-discipline, focus, and confidence in everything you do. Muscular Development + Cardio Conditioning + Flexibility = Total Fitness.
Strength & Conditioning
Injury prevention is the most important reason to follow a strength and conditioning program. Our well-designed program will strengthen muscles, tendons, ligaments and joints, leading to fewer injuries in sport participation and life by addressing flexibility and strength deficits.
Every session targets every muscle in your body, helping you develop greater strength and muscular definition. Whatsoever your goal, you will get leaner, stronger and more flexible.
Cardio Conditioning
Through intense cardiovascular conditioning, punching, kicking, squatting, hinging, pushing, pulling and other primal movements you’ll expand the capacity of your heart and lungs while burning calories. The result, increased stamina to keep you energized all day.
Flexibility
In order to increase your range of motion, while protecting you from injury, we’ve incorporated stretching exercises to keep you feeling young and agile and active for life.
Practical Self Defence
We guarantee you will receive well-rounded, streetwise self-defence skills that work! To achieve this, we combine the greatest benefits of kickboxing and sports science with a highly educated approach in a state of the art strength and conditioning facility.
Kickboxing incorporates the most effective hand, knee, elbow, and foot techniques for an intense cardio workout. This method of defence enables you to protect yourself in stand-up confrontations before an attacker gets close enough to physically restrain you.
Key to Success
It’s easy to want to be in shape, it’s not so easy to find the motivation to go to a health club regularly, or the dedication to run on a treadmill or cycle after or during a long day, it’s not easy. Almost any workout done consistently will produce results, but not all workouts will give you the motivation to continuously train. In short, gym workouts are boring…so boring, in fact, that most people watch TV or stare at their smartphones to distract them from how slow the time goes by.
Tiger Athletic classes are motivating, exciting and fun. You’ll enjoy learning how to fight while training and getting into the best shape of your life. The combination of a fun workout, total body results and gaining the life-skill of self-defence is the ‘Total Workout’. This gives you three key reasons to take our classes. Finally, a fitness program you’ll be able to stick with and win!
Let’s Go!
Taking the first step is easy as contacting us below and starting is with a complimentary class on us!
For most of Sandton’s residents, a trip to the gym means waiting on line for machines and sharing the humid, dank air with dozens of sweaty people. For those who don’t want to stand in line for machines, trainers or parking there is Tiger Athletic, no membership or cancellation fees rather an appointment only policy that entitles clients to buy sessions with an intensely trained trainer.
Our gym is designed for private training only. No distractions. No crowds. Generous space. Workouts are supervised, charted, studied, and supplemented with nutritional advice and referrals to Sandton’s medical elite should it be necessary. Clients enjoy private showers and dressing rooms in spaces reserved only for you before and after your appointment.
Evaluate, customise, communicate. These three simple steps are at the core of every exercise regime for every Tiger Athletic client. Through a series of proprietary tests, we evaluate your current fitness level, review injuries or restrictions and set short, medium- and long-term training goals. Everybody is unique, so are our workouts. With your goals in mind, we capitalize on your strengths and coach you through your weaknesses. Together we listen to your body.
Tiger Athletic is a one of a kind fitness facility. Black rubber floor, white walls, plate loaded machines, boxing bags and no-frills dressing rooms. Membership is capped at between 50 to 60, chiefly Sandton’s tycoons and captains of industry. Aspiring clients who don’t seem motivated are encouraged to train elsewhere. After all, if you’ve made it to Tiger Athletic, you are someone who’s used to reaching your goals, and then some. No one leaves Tiger Athletic without a purple face and a better body.
The gym tends to be sparsely populated, as members are only permitted to turn up for training when they have an appointment; the locker rooms never have more than two people in them, in separate spaces at that. Tiger Athletic’s training philosophy employs exercises that are designed to increase balance and stability, strength and conditioning and several plate loaded Powercore machines are double-sided—one lever for each arm—in order to achieve greater symmetry and strength balance.
Clients here are evaluated by a trainer, and referred if necessary, to a Sports Medical Doctor, Doctor of Chiropractic, Physiotherapist or Registered Dietician, after which individual programs are prescribed by Aubrey Ndisengei, a Coaching Science graduate and Black Belt who founded Tiger Athletic in 2010.
Basic membership is ZAR 3025 for 10 x 1-hour long fitness sessions with no joining or cancellation fees. Enjoy discounted off peak rates up to 50% when you train between 9am and 4pm, with the flexibility of online training or pre designed, custom sessions to go for the frequent traveller. We are committed to your fitness, your comfort and your state of mind
Our trainers are the pulse of Tiger Athletic. They are here to rouse, rally and educate an equally energetic, intelligent, discerning clientele. We hire and retain state of the art trainers, drawn from the most respected exercise science programs. They possess exhaustive practical knowledge and are dedicated to the potential of body and mind
Finding a gym or a great workout in Sandton City can be just as overwhelming as seeking out a new restaurant or bar in the City of Gold, here, you’re seemingly spoiled for choice. Whether you’re looking to diversify your workout regime or find a new way to sweat, we have you covered to tone, shape, or maintain your already enviable frame in Sandton’s most progressive and exclusive gym.
“The universe doesn’t give you what you ask for with your thoughts – it gives you what you demand with your actions.”
― Steve Maraboli, Life, the Truth, and Being Free
How about, 8 weeks, you and your bestie, in a modern, private, appointment only gym with an intensley trained trainer chasing a simple goal, to get you into your favourite outfit again! It’s easy, sign up to lose 5kg with our 8-week Get Fit program, and you can bring your bestie to all your workouts!
If ditching the gym to have brunch with your best friend
makes you feel a tad bit guilty, cut yourself some slack and just bring them
along, on us! It turns out friendships
can impact our health just as much as working out and eating properly do. Research
proves, having an active and fulfilling social life is crucial to maintaining
physical health. Turns out, you can have the health benefit of your friendship
and working out, all at the same time!
In your teens, social isolation is equivalent to the effects
of getting no exercise says Kathleen Mullan Harris, a sociologist at the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the lack of social connections
in old age is equivalent to having diabetes, in terms of increasing
hypertension. Working out with your best friend is a sure way of staying active
and healthy for life.
In each of four studies tracking more than 20,000 teens into young adulthood, a survey on midlife and two surveys focusing on retirement and aging adults, the number and quality of an individual’s social life was compared with the four measures of physical health: BMI, inflammation, abdominal weight and blood pressure.
Researchers discovered a positive correlation between the number of social connections an individual had and his or her health. “With each additional social connection that you have, you get an added beneficial effect for your health,” Harris explained. “The more, the better.”This research validates previous research finding that individuals with active and thriving social lives can reduce the risk of mortality by 50 percent!
If you really want to lose the extra weight, eat better, get better quality of sleep, reduce stress and look good in your favourite clothes, try working out with your best friend. After all, working out with a companion has been scientifically proven to improve your exercise game and overall happiness!
Have you noticed a correlation between your health and the quality of your relationships? Do you make your social life and personal wellbeing a priority? Do you ever exercise with your friends?
Tiger Athletic is a private, appointment only gym. Whether you’re looking to diversify your workout regime or find a new way to sweat, we have you covered to tone, shape, or maintain your already enviable frame in Sandton’s most progressive and exclusive gym.
Together Changes Everything. Let’s workout.
Book your complimentary workout below, and yes….Bring Your Bestie 🙂
Having a strong, fit and healthy body can really help you in packing everything you need to into your day. This is especially true for mums and mums to be with all the lifting, carrying, pushing and pulling that comes with the job! Whatever your situation, needing to lose a little weight and “tighten” up, new mums, mums with young kids or pregnant we provide modified workouts that maximise conditioning benefits while minimising injury risk.
Our qualified trainer designs safe, fun and innovative aerobic endurance workouts for improved cardiovascular fitness, as well as resistance training for increased musculoskeletal fitness in one on one or small group sessions depending on your need…. train on your own with your trainer, with a workout partner or best friend or in a small group of four!
We recommend that when
embarking on a weight loss exercise program or post-natal exercise
program, you play it safe and get the “all clear” from your health care
provider before hiring our qualified personal trainer. A correctly designed
exercise program with proper coaching that corrects, motivates and assesses you
can help you feel stronger and more energised, lose ‘baby weight’, correct
stress incontinence, improve tummy separation (diastasis) and your belly’s
appearance, and improve your posture.
Perhaps you’re a mum with older children and still feeling
the impact of birth years on or just wanting to shed some weight, look and
feel younger and give yourself a new lease of life, whatever your situation, Tiger
Athletic personal training has the right mixture of qualifications and experience
as an athlete and coach to safely and effectively strengthen your body with a
simple, effective strength and conditioning program.
Tiger Athletic Fitness & Conditioning is as appointment
only, strength & conditioning gym offering custom, personal trainer led
fitness solutions in a modern, private facility in the heart of Sandton. Your
preparticipation health screening and goals are the foundation and corner stone
of the efficient, effective 50-minute workouts.
When pregnant, you may seek out exercise programs for several reasons. You may feel self-conscious about your changing body, be concerned about having a healthy baby, want to stay in shape during your pregnancy, want to be able to handle the rigors of labour and delivery, or need additional social interactions and support during this phase of your life.
If you were physically active pre-pregnancy, you may continue, with the appropriate medical advice participating in appropriately adjusted sessions of physical activity to maintain cardiovascular and muscular fitness during pregnancy and post-partum.
If you were previously sedentary, you may also benefit from
regular exercise during pregnancy although a program that is consistent with your
physical capabilities would involve additional support, motivation, and
professional guidance.
In all cases, being pregnant and wanting a personal trainer from Tiger Athletic, you will be required to consult with your health care provider before we can design or initiate you in an exercise program or modify your current exercise program.
Recommendations regards exercise during pregnancy relate to
three key concerns:
Insufficient oxygen or energy substrates to the foetus
Hyperthermia, induced foetal distress or birth
abnormalities
Increased uterine contractions
A well-designed fitness program with correct assessment,
doctor advice, additional support and motivation should pose a low risk for
these problems in uncomplicated pregnancies.
Benefits of Exercise During Pregnancy
Most pregnant women who follow their doctor recommendations
can attain maternal health and fitness benefits. The following are some of the
benefits for pregnant women who engage in exercise and follow their health care
providers recommendations in a properly designed prenatal exercise program.
(adapted from ACSM 2000, reference 4):
Improved cardiovascular and muscular fitness
Facilitated recovery from labor
Faster return to prepregnancy weight, strength
and flexibility levels
Reduced post-partum belly
Reduced back pain during pregnancy
Increased energy reserve
Fewer obstetric interventions
Shorter phase of active labor and less pain
Less weight gain
Enhanced maternal psychological wellbeing that
may reduce feelings of stress, anxiety and depression associated with being
pregnant
Increased likelihood of adopting permanent,
healthy lifestyle habits
Participation in an exercise program may also be
beneficial in the primary prevention of gestational diabetes. The effects of
regular exercise training on insulin secretion, insulin sensitivity and glucose
metabolism may improve glucose tolerance.
In the absence of either medical or obstetric complications,
exercise during pregnancy appears to be associated with many of the physical
and health benefits typically observed in non-pregnant women.
Exercise Guidelines
The following exercise guidelines from the American College
of Obstetrics and Gynaecologists apply to women who would like personal
training from Tiger Athletic and do not have additional risk factors for
adverse maternal or prenatal outcome. (Adapted from International Federation of
Gynaecology and Obstetrics 2002, reference 3):
30 to 45 minutes of moderate exercise up to 6
days per week
Avoid exercise in the supine position after the first
trimester
Exercise should not continue past point of fatigue
or reach exhaustion
Non-weight bearing exercise such as cycling, and
stretching are favoured for reducing injury risk and continuing the program
throughout pregnancy
Exercises that present potential for even mild
abdominal trauma are avoided, as well as activities that present a high risk
for loss of balance or falling are discontinued prior to the third trimester.
Large increases in body temperature are
minimised through adequate hydration, appropriate clothing and optimal
environmental surroundings during exercise.
The many physiologic and morphologic changes of pregnancy
persist 4 to 6 weeks post-partum, exercise programs should be resumed gradually
after giving birth.
Tiger Athletic Fitness & Conditioning is a modern, private, appointment only strength & conditioning gym in the heart of Sandton. Our custom exercise programs stem from personalised assessments, strength & conditioning, motivation and education.
There is no time like the present especially when it comes to gaining control over your health and lifestyle after an indulgant festive holiday. We’d like to make your fitness goals a reality in 2019. Become a new client and book 10 fitness sessions for January in December and get up to a 50% cash back to spend as you please!
Tiger Athletic is a private, appointment only strength and conditioning gym in the heart of Sandton. We offer a modern approach to fitness using exercise and nutrition programs based on your health assessment and goals.
We use our personal trainer and modern, state-of-the-art equipment, to provide you with a structured, action-oriented exercise and nutrition solution, improving fitness and appearance, reducing health risks and promoting healthy behavior through extraordinary 50 minute workouts that are simple, efficient and effective.
Our entire approach is designed around you as an individual, your unique physique, capabilities and goals. We assess, motivate, educate and coach you towards your personal goals in a professional and supportive environment.
Our assessment procedure and expert medical network ensure that you are looked after in the best possible way. Ensuring health first and lots of fun while you work towards your dream aesthetic.
Together changes everything. Let’s chat about your health?
Your law office is only as healthy as your team members. If you find merit in this statement, you may also find merit in implementing a wellness plan within your firm. The legal profession is notorious for its prevalence of poor physical and mental health. The unique pressures of the modern legal environment leaves lawyers significantly more likely to suffer from depression and anxiety than other professionals.
A successful wellness plan establishes resources to help your attorneys and staff members maintain optimal physical, mental, and emotional wellness. A successful wellness program requires a partner skilled in thoughtful development and execution. This short paper aids that process, providing some tips on implementing a wellness program within your law office.
Why?
The mental and physical health of your team members is vital long term, aiding increased periods of peak performanc. A strategically aligned plan directly impacts the success of your legal practice in numerous ways:
It takes time to build an effective team of skilled attorneys and reliable support staff. You put in the effort to attract them to the firm – why not put in the effort to keep them there? Wellness programs help bolster employee satisfaction by providing tools that employees find useful in their professional and personal lives. Health screenings empower employees to stay on top of their physical wellness. Custom personal training, nutrition programs and office exercise programs encourage physical activity. Flexible work schedules send the message that it’s okay for employees to take time for themselves. Each of these resources provides value that increases team member satisfaction and long-term productivity.
It’s not necessary to beat your employees over the head with demands for healthier living. We can help your firm to develop a ‘culture of wellness’. Data from our assessment designs modern lifestyle programs that become engrained in the fabric of the law office, where attorneys and staff members are consistently exposed to healthier options and opportunities. As stated in the Harvard Business Review article How to Design a Corporate Wellness Plan that Actually Works, “It is first and foremost about creating a way of life in the workplace that integrates a total health model into every aspect of business practice, from company policies to everyday work activities.”
Combine, a culture of wellness with satisfied employees and you get increased productivity. Healthy employees are happier at work and play, are more efficient and are more effective in their execution of targets. There is a large percentage reduction in illness related absenteeism and team members can think clearer and communicate better because they are not going through the day exhausted and feeling overwhelmed. We effectively implement employee wellness programs that directly result in more productive teams translating into higher profits for your firm.
How?
It’s more than just starting a weight loss program or offering an incentive to quit smoking. Our assessments provide data that highlights the areas for physiological development that would most contribute to peak mental and physical performance. A short, in depth health and lifestyle questionnaire achieves the first step. These assessments are essential for determining where your team members find challenges and concerns both in their professional and personal lives.
Data from assessments is used to create personalised wellness plans. Common issues among your team members are also identified, this data is used to create the inhouse component of the program.
Smoking Cessation
Strength & Conditioning
On-Site Exercise Solutions
Short-Term Health Challenges
Communication.
Team members need to know that you have implanted a wellness program and what it entails. The framework of the plan is laid out with the appropritae mix of short video and face to face engagement is laid out at greater lenghth via targeted email. The goal is to create a create a culture of wellness.
Opinions are split on the issue of incentives and milestones for employee participation in wellness plans. According to the Harvard Review article, financial incentives have not been proven effective for long-term behavioural changes.
In fact, they may even foster some resentment and ill-feelings among team members. Instead, use team-based incentives to build camaraderie and encourage support among employees like competitions where strategic teams work as a unit to meet specific health goals. These options are more effective for creating a community of support, which leads to long-term changes.
Personal SMART goals are next. Quartely screenings provide data that demonstrates the development of the perticipant. Quarterly surveys, evaluate their participant impressions. Our wellness plans are never static, each team and team situation are unique, so there is always room for change and enhancements.
Whether you are a mid-sized law firm, a small practice or inhouse department with only a few members, a wellness plan can be of great assistance to your employees and the firm. It takes a bit of effort, but the result is more than worth it.
Tiger Athletic Fitness & Conditioning is a modern, private, appointment only strength & conditioning gym in the heart of Sandton. Our custom exercise programs stem from personalised assessments, strength & conditioning, motivation and education.
You can’t readily see your back in the mirror however, NEVER skip back in your workouts. A sculpted back always looks however back exercises have a deeper impact, too, as a strong back keeps your posture pristine and facilitates a healthy spine.
Most folk love to work the ‘show’ muscles’. These “mirror” muscles are the ones you flex in your reflection to prove you’re looking good, usually, your chest, biceps, fronts of the shoulders, quads and abs. No part of your physique is more important than the other. You to develop your back muscles, particularly the latissimus dorsi, rhomboids and traps to provide symmetry between the front and back of your body. Whatever your end goal or vision for your physique, back training is critical.
Exercises that are often used to build the superficial muscles of the back are:
Lat Pulldowns
Rows
Pull-ups
Pull-overs
Rear Flys
Neglecting the muscles that you can’t see front on in the mirror, particularly your back muscles, has negative structural consequences for your body. A weak back doesn’t have the musculature to prevent rounded shoulders, causing upper back, neck and shoulder pain, also reflecting in poor posture that says weak, timid or lazy.
Lower back pain is however a result of weak muscles of the middle and lower back. You develop support for the spine and pelvis another pain/injury prone area by strengthening the deeper muscles of the back, particularly the erector spinae, multifidus and quadratus lumborum, making running your park run, pressing a weight for developing the rest of your body, moving furniture, carrying groceries or twisting to pick up a toddler or pet, easy injury and pain free tasks
These functional back exercises address these stabilizing muscles:
Back extension
Plank holds
Bird dogs
Cobra lifts
Muscular balance is developed by working the muscles of the back in conjunction with the muscles of the front of your body, apart from making you a fully functional human being you are less likely to develop muscle/strength imbalances that increase the likelihood of injury while performing primal functions, i.e. hinging, squatting, lunging, bending and twisting.
For example, while working hard at crunching exercises to develop the aesthetics, function and strength of your abdominal muscles, you set yourself up for lower back pain if you fail to do a commensurate amount of work on your back muscles. The muscles of your abs become tight and strong because of too many crunches, and pull on your low back, causing pain and possible injury to the discs.
Tiger Athletic Fitness & Conditioning is a private, appointment only strength & conditioning gym in the heart of Sandton. Our personal trainers are health and fitness professionals who use an individualised approach to assess, motivate, educate and train clients. We design safe, effective, fun exercise solutions for the individual who is accustomed to personalised attention and a modern approach.
Your initial interview’ or first session, is to assess client – trainer compatibility, discuss goals and a client – trainer agreement. This includes the preparticipation health appraisal, essentially a questioneer to identify known diseases and “red flag” positive risk factors associated with heart disease, assess lifestyle factors that may require special considerations, and identify individuals who may require medical referral before starting an exercise program.
Tiger Athletic’s health first approach helps you reach your goals safely and effectively through health and fitness assessment, personalised coaching, modern resistance and cardio equipment, calisthenics and boxing to provide a pragmatic, extraordinary 50-minute workout that is simple, efficient and effective.
Pre – emptive training (alternately preventive medicine, preventative healthcare/medicine, or prophylaxis) consists of measures taken for disease prevention, as opposed to disease treatment. Just as health comprises a variety of physical and mental states, so do disease and disability, which are affected by environmental factors, genetic predisposition, disease agents, and lifestyle choices. Health, disease, and disability are dynamic processes which begin before individuals realize they are affected.
Annually, millions of people die of preventable deaths. About half of all deaths are due to preventable behaviours and exposures. Leading causes included cardiovascular disease, chronic respiratory disease, unintentional injuries, diabetes, and certain infectious diseases. Millions die each year due to poor diet and a sedentary lifestyle.
According to estimates made by the World Health Organization (WHO), about 55 million people died worldwide in 2011, two thirds of this group from non-communicable diseases, including cancer, diabetes, and chronic cardiovascular and lung diseases. This is an increase from the year 2000, during which 60% of deaths were attributed to these diseases.
Pre – emptive fitness assessment and training are especially important given the worldwide rise in prevalence of chronic diseases and deaths from these diseases, thus screening and risk assessment is the spine that supports all Tiger Athletic personal training programs.
There are many methods for prevention of disease. It is recommended that adults and children aim to visit their doctor for regular check-ups, even if they feel healthy, to perform disease screening, identify risk factors for disease, discuss tips for a healthy and balanced lifestyle, stay up to date with immunizations and boosters, and maintain a good relationship with a healthcare provider.
Some common disease screenings include checking for hypertension (high blood pressure), hyperglycaemia (high blood sugar, a risk factor for diabetes mellitus), hypercholesterolemia (high blood cholesterol), screening for colon cancer, depression, HIV and other common types of sexually transmitted disease such as chlamydia, syphilis, and gonorrhoea, mammography (to screen for breast cancer), colorectal cancer screening, a Pap test (to check for cervical cancer), and screening for osteoporosis. Genetic testing can also be performed to screen for mutations that cause genetic disorders or predisposition to certain diseases such as breast or ovarian cancer.
The Tiger Athletic scope of practice involves the responsibility of interviewing potential clients to gather pertinent information regarding their personal health, lifestyle and exercise readiness. This is a vital mechanism instrumental in appraising health status and developing comprehensive programs of exercise to safely and effectively meet the participants individual objectives.
We are a health and fitness company whose modern approach is based on an individualised approach to assessments, motivation, education and coaching of clients for maximum health and aesthetic benefit. We use the client consultation and health appraisal process to design safe and effective exercise programs and provide you with the guidance to help you achieve your personal goals. Recognizing our area of expertise as strength and conditioning professionals we refer you to other health care professionals when appropriate.
The primary principle underlying the client consultation and health appraisal process is to screen participants for risk factors and symptoms of chronic cardiovascular, pulmonary, metabolic and orthopaedic diseases to optimise safety during exercise testing and participation. Assessing a client’s health status and stratifying risk is our basis for exercise program design and referral to healthcare professionals.
Obesity and being overweight is a major risk factor for a wide variety of conditions including cardiovascular diseases, hypertension, certain cancers, and type 2 diabetes. To prevent obesity, it is recommended that individuals adhere to a consistent exercise regimen as well as a nutritious and balanced diet.
A healthy individual should aim for acquiring 10% of their energy from proteins, 15-20% from fat, and over 50% from complex carbohydrates, while avoiding alcohol as well as foods high in fat, salt, and sugar. Sedentary adults should aim for at least half an hour of moderate-level daily physical activity and eventually increase to include at least 20 minutes of intense exercise, three times a week.
Preventive assessments and fitness training offer the safest most effective avenue to mitigate or side step potentially catastrophic medical events. The medical system in South Africa is geared largely toward curing acute symptoms of disease after the fact that they ‘arrive’ in the emergency room rather than screening for symptoms and initiating preventative measures. An ongoing epidemic within South African culture is the prevalence of obesity. Eating healthier and routinely exercising plays a huge role in reducing an individual’s risk for type 2 diabetes.
Tiger Athletic Fitness & Conditioning is a modern, appointment only, strength & conditioning gym in Sandton, offering custom, personal trainer led fitness solutions. Our workouts are based on your health screening and goals. This initial process is instrumental in screening participants for risk factors and symptoms of chronic cardiovascular, pulmonary, metabolic and orthopaedic diseases to optimise safety and benefit during exercise testing and participation.
Three and a half million South Africans (about 6% of the population) suffer from diabetes and there are many more who are undiagnosed. It is estimated that another five million South Africans have pre-diabetes, a condition where insulin resistance causes blood glucose levels to be higher than normal, but not high enough yet to be type 2 diabetes.
The highest prevalence of diabetes is among the Indian population in South Africa (11-13%) as this group has a strong genetic predisposition for diabetes. This is followed by 8-10% in the coloured community, 5-8% among blacks and 4% among whites. 90 to 95 percent of people with diabetes have type 2 diabetes. Diabetes is among the leading cause of kidney failure, limb amputation, and new-onset blindness in adults.
Tiger Athletic Personal Training offers benefits and results that dieting, and supplements alone just can’t give you. The exercise component of our programs boosts your metabolism and turns your body into a fat blasting furnace, while the benefits of our ‘smart nutrition’ go beyond weight management.
Good nutrition can help reduce the risk of some diseases, including heart disease, diabetes, stroke, some cancers, and osteoporosis. Our programs build muscle in the places you want and improves body shape to give you a firm, toned body, which when coupled with smart nutrition safely speeds up the weight loss and strength gain.
Our programs consist of strength & conditioning, healthy eating and portion control – eating the right food in the right quantities at the right times with a weekly weight loss target of half to one and a half kilograms. We keep track of your progress with monthly body fat percentage and girth measurements to show progress and motivate performance.
Tiger Athletic workout plans are based on your consultation and health appraisal, with a lot of variety and progressively harder sessions. Why? Not just to make you stronger and more fit, but to make sure you keep burning fat and toning muscle. When you do a workout repeatedly, it eventually gets easier, which means your body doesn’t have to work as hard and therefore burns fewer calories.
Our motto is “We train the hardest”, therefore each week the workouts evolve to a higher intensity, keeping your body interested and guessing by never doing the same workout twice.
Together changes everything. Let’s workout.
Hiring a certified personal trainer is a sure way to ensure that you get expert knowledge and attention to guide you to your personal wellness goals, identify and develop hidden strengths, address personal weaknesses and learn from past lifestyle behaviour through individualised assessments and custom fitness programs in a modern, private appointment only gym, Tiger Athletic personal training will help you shed the extra weight.
We offer a variety of exercise programs, customisable to overcome different hurdles that you commonly face that stop you from reaching your desired aesthetic, exercise solutions that help you derive real benefit from hiring a certified personal trainer who is invested in your success.
Personalised and in-depth assessments provide you the client, with information that simplifies SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, time based) goal setting and as a foundation for your trainer to design efficient and effective exercise programs by revealing a broader perspective of the client. The process and the data collected also assist in identifying potential areas of injury and reasonable starting points for recommended intensities and volumes of exercise based on desired goals and fitness outcomes.
Individualised assesssments help your Tiger Athletic trainer to bring the best possible tailormade fitness solution to our clients. Some of the key reasons for our indepth assessments:
A baseline for future comparisons of improvement or rate of progress.
Identification of strengths and weaknesses that may affect program emphasis on certain aspects.
Assistance in establishing appropriate intensities and volumes of exercise.
Clarification of short, medium and long-term goals.
Identification of areas of potential injury or contraindications prior to program initiation, which may lead to referral to a physician or other health care professionals; and
A record demonstrating prudent judgement and appropriate scope of practice in program design to further avert the risk of injury and ensure success.
At the very beginning, when tailoring our program for your best possible benefit, we take the most important first step with you, by figuring out what internal challenges you face in trying to lead a healthier more productive life. Our programs are flexible enough to include exercises that will be effective in helping you work through these issues by asking questions that identify the root of past failures.
Are conflicts between work and your lifestyle creating divisions that undermine motivation?
Do you need to get to know yourself better?
Do you focus on the end goal or success instead of being mindful of the process?
Does poor prioritisation of your goals in your everyday life hamper progress?
Can you take instruction and advice and apply it to everyday life?
Are you resistant to change? Does this affect your ability to move forward?
Does your moral require a regular boost?
Self-mastery has a multiplier effect on total life performance. An effective mind – body connection can help you achieve incredible results in all spheres of your life. An individual that fails to gel work, play and personal life into a team can cause unnecessary disruption, failed delivery and strategic failure across the board.
In modern life both business and personal, it is almost impossible to avoid being a member of a team. If you’re not on an official team at work, chances are you function within one in one way or another. So, it’s important for your personal and career development to isolate and develop your working strengths and weaknesses.
Strength & conditioning helps provide you with the physical, mental and emotional strength, stability, power, mobility, endurance and flexibility that you need to thrive as you navigate life. You use basic movement patterns like pushing, pulling, hinging, squatting, rotating, carrying and gait patterns (walking and running) every day. Strength & conditioning utilizes exercises that improve movement and thinking proficiency in these primary patterns to give you an edge and enhance your physical and mental performance, so you can achieve your goals in a team setting in the workplace, playing field and home!
Life is unpredictable and unstable. So why would you develop yourself using stable and predictable diets, workouts and self-help aids. No matter what your personal or business target is, audacious your fitness goals seem or how you perceive your physical ability, we treat variety and practical application as critical components of your training to keep you winning!
Tiger Athletic custom fitness solutions challenge the entire mind and body in every plane of motion to perform exercises that improve movement and cognitive skills on the field and in life. We are an appointment only, strength & conditioning gym offering custom, personal trainer led fitness solutions in a modern, private facility in the heart of Sandton. We offer simple, efficient, effective, personal wellness solutions.
Abdominal strength and endurance means much more than carving out your six pack, it means your body is more functional in your daily life, improved sports performance and better physical health. Your abs are part of your core, which includes your pelvic muscles, hips and the muscles that support the spine. Strong, able abs contribute to a healthy core, forming a powerful axis for your whole body.
If your abs are weak, it forces the back muscles to work harder to support your middle, your abdominals act as an anchor for muscles of the mid and lower back. Abdominal strength improves the endurance of the muscles of your back slowing down your rate of fatigue leaving you less vulnerable to strain or injury. Weak abdominals cause your tummy to protrude too far forward and altering your center of gravity, especially when you are overweight, stressing your back and resulting in lower back pain.
Strong abdominals support good posture by helping prop up your spine so it feels more natural to stand tall with your arms and legs in alignment conversely when the abdominals are weak, we slouch because we will be lacking the musculature to support proper alignment. With proper posture, you will look taller, leaner and feel more confident, lessening wear and tear on your spine and avoiding complications such as disc herniation.Primal actions, such as bending down to wash yourself in the shower or to pat your pet can be downright dangerous when you have a weak abdomen. Twisting in the car to reverse, lifting your laptop and even getting up and down out of a chair when your significant other enters the room requires the strength of your core. Injuries often occur during these mundane activities when your back has to bear more than its fair share of the work to complete such tasks.
Strong abdominal muscles fascilitate the stability for action that requires you to twist and rotate whether to catch a ball, swim, jump or run, skills that are sometimes the difference between victory and defeat while also providing the necessary support during recovery and healing from injury.
Abdominal strength and endurance means that you have the added physical capacity to outwork competition. Abdominal endurance helps you minimize wasteful movement from your arms, legs and hips, keeping you efficient and performing optimally when te competition is beginning to fatigue.
Balance is an everyday skill in ordinary life, whether you’re walking on an uneven surface, riding on a bumpy road or catching yourself when you trip, miss a step or slip. Strong abdominals help you avoid that fall that could potentially be a disastrous accident that fractures your hip or loses you key seconds in a timed activity.
Tiger Athletic is a modern, private, appointment only gym in the heart of Sandton. We use a personalised approach to assess, motivate, coach and educate you regards your health and fitness. Our personal trainer designs custom workout programs for you so that you can live life to the fullest.
Abdominal Strength & Endurance is a specialist everyday class we offer. Book your complimetary session, lets trim that waist and tummy!
Fact: we love our sugar and sugary treats. Arb fact: Former US President Ronald Reagan had to have jellybeans on his desk always. Vending machines and even till points almost everywhere feed our cravings for sweets. With South African sales of sugar filled drinks and other sweets soaring and the highest percentage of fat children and adolescents on the planet, we as a nation are addicted to sugar in all its glorious forms.
While sugar is not literally addicting, (scientists long ago proved that people are born with a preference for sweets), this innate desire does not disappear as we grow older. Some people find it impossible to leave the dinner table without dessert; others can’t fathom a day without chocolate. Many women blame hormonal surges for the sweets cravings they get around the same time each month.
Sugar and other sweeteners add calories with few other nutrients and have no doubt helped contribute to our current epidemic of obesity. True, sugar is not alone in promoting obesity, a lack of exercise and excessive calories from poor nutrition habits also contribute.
Sugar has been blamed for everything from diabetes, tooth decay, obesity, and heart disease to disruptive behaviour in the classroom. But sugar by itself will not cause any of these conditions, except for cavities.
A comprehensive review of scientific research, published in the journal Nutrition Research in 1997, showed that sugar is not a direct cause of heart disease, diabetes, obesity, or hyperactivity. A more recent government report concurs that sugar is not by itself linked to any of those conditions. However, too many calories, in any form, can contribute to obesity, diabetes, and heart disease.
Changes in our behaviour are often attributed to changes in our blood sugar levels. When you consume a meal made up of simple, refined carbohydrates – like a doughnut or a soft drink – the result is a spike in blood sugar. Your body responds to this spike by secreting large amounts of insulin to normalize your blood sugar level. In response to the insulin, your blood sugar level drops quickly, leaving you with a feeling of sluggishness and irritability. When your blood sugar gets too low, hunger reappears, and the roller-coaster ride resumes, that is, if your next meal is also mostly simple carbohydrates. These are the carbohydrates that the latest diet books denounce, not the healthy, fibrous carbohydrates that come from whole fruits, vegetables, and whole grains.
At Tiger Athletic, your personal trainer will help you choose these healthy carbohydrates or give you nutritional advice that adds protein or fat to your meal, so your blood sugar will rise and fall more normally without the negative side effects.
When we say we have a sugar addiction, we may mean anything from a mild desire to intense cravings for sweet foods and drinks. Some people go so far as to equate the effects of sugar to a drug, saying it calms them and helps them deal with stress. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Guide Pyramid recommends we limit added sugars in our diet to 12 teaspoons per day, as far back as 2001, the average American ate and drank the equivalent of 31 teaspoons of sugar daily, however, even with these scary numbers, South African children still managed to overtake American kids as the fattest on the planet! We are failing the next generation!
Sugar finds its way into virtually every kind of processed food, from tomato sauce to soups and, especially, soft drinks. One 330ml can of your favourite soft drink contains approximately 10 teaspoons of sugar. As if that is not bad enough, some data suggest that we consume an average of 155 litres of soft drink per person annually. That’s a lot of sugar – and extra calories!
Sugars have 4 calories per gram, or 15 calories per teaspoon. If you want to shave calories, it’s a good idea to limit added sugar in your diet. Sounds simple enough, but what about those hard-to-ignore cravings? Here’s the trick: Gradually decreasing the amount of sugar you eat, and how often you eat it, will help you reduce your desire for sugars while lowering your caloric intake. Old habits are hard to break but our personal trainer will guide you into making small and gradual changes in your eating style will help you break free from your sugar addiction.
Many people, newly diagnosed with diabetes find that after they start eating fewer sweets, foods like fresh fruit taste sweeter and can satisfy their cravings for sweets. Remember, moderation is the key. If you can control the quantity, you will be able to enjoy sweets on occasion.
Here are some tips to help you break the sugar habit:
Book an assessment with a personal trainer at Tiger Athletic and get professional help.
Read the label on all processed foods. Check the amount of sugars and choose products with the least sugar per serving.
Become familiar with sugar terminology. Recognize that all of these are sweeteners: corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, sucrose, dextrose, honey, molasses, turbinado, and brown sugar.
Keep up with your journal, and use the notes section to document your mood, setting, and activity whenever you feel the urge to eat sweets. Review your notes and look for patterns or triggers that you can alter to help control your sugar intake.
Select one behaviour to change each week. Try satisfying your sweet tooth with a snack-sized chocolate bar instead of a full-sized one. Next week, trade in a soft drink for sparkling water with a splash of fruit juice.
Satisfy your desire for sweets with the natural sweetness of whole fruits or no-sugar-added juices.
Buy unsweetened food and beverages and add small amounts of sweeteners if you need them. Enjoy whole-grain cereal with one teaspoon of sugar instead of presweetened cereals, which contain much more sugar per serving.
Try using less sugar in your coffee or tea. Gradually decrease the amount you use to let your taste buds adapt.
Don’t substitute artificial sweeteners for sugar; this will do little to alter your desire for sweets. Moderate amounts of artificial sweeteners are not unhealthy, but they won’t help you retrain your taste buds.
Abstinence makes the heart grow fonder — and it also intensifies cravings. Allow yourself small portions of sweets on occasion. Try to satisfy your cravings with a piece of sugarless gum. If you totally deny yourself, it will be hard to think about anything else. On the other hand, if you know you are allowed one small treat per day, you will savour every bite.
Quench your thirst with flavoured waters that are calorie-free. Jazz up plain or sparkling water with fresh mint, a slice of lemon, lime, or orange, or a splash of fruit juice.
If you’re a sugar “addict,” kicking the habit will do your body good. Doctors newest nutritional recommendations suggest a balanced diet, low in fat, with a reduced sugar intake, along with regular exercise, as the best way to lose weight and keep it off.
Your Tiger Athletic Weight Loss Program of exercise and good nutritional advice supports these recommendations. It is designed to promote a weight loss of ½ to 1 kilogram per week and to encourage the eating of healthy foods while weaning you from excessive sugar. So, book a trial session, sign up, stick with the plan, follow our tips, and find out just how sweet better health can be!
Tiger Athletic Fitness & Conditioning is a modern, private, appointment only gym in the heart of Sandton. Our personal trainer is a fitness professional who uses a personalised approach to assess, motivate, educate and coach clients regards their health and fitness needs.
Together changes everything. Let’s get you healthy!
SOURCES: Nutrition Research, 1997; vol 17(9). Family Economics and Nutrition Review, Jan. 10, 2002. Journal of the American Dietetic Association, May 1998. Food Review, Winter 2002; vol 25(3). USDA Economic Research Service. USDA Economic Research Service, 1990-1997 Food Consumption Data, April 1999. Clinician Reviews, 2001; vol 13(11). WebMD
Sit down with your strength & conditioning coach and set some goals, discuss your health history, clearly lay out a program and ask questions. Defining what you want to accomplish and establishing where you are in your wellness journey will determine where you start.
You’re different, so we train differently. You’re unique, your goals are unique, and your situation is unique, so your personal trainer takes the time to get to know you and your unique situation. We want to make sure we fully understand your goals, healthy history, what you’ve done in the past and why you want to become healthier.
Tiger Athletic is a modern, private, appointment only personal trainer gym in Sandton. We offer simple, hard, effective strength and conditioning personal trainer sessions.
Lose weight, gain weight, or just be able want to walk up the stairs without pain. Our programs are tailored to specific needs, goals, and ability. Everyone’s fitness journey has its own Genesis. Regardless of where you are in your journey, together changes everything.
Tiger Athletic Fitness & Conditioning offers Personal Training Programs endowed with benefits and results that dieting and supplementation alone just can’t deliver, boosting metabolism, toning and sculpting your muscles, turning your body into a fat blasting furnace through hard work and dedication hand in hand with ‘smart nutrition’. We do not sell weight loss, we offer a pragmatic health first approach that screens, identifies and mitigates for risk factors and symptoms of chronic cardiovascular, pulmonary, metabolic and orthopaedic diseases to optimise safety during exercise testing and participation.
We define our scope of practice in the personal training profession by characterizing our personal trainers as health and fitness professionals who use an individualised approach to assess, motivate, educate and train clients regarding their health and fitness needs. We design safe and effective exercise programs and provide the guidance to help clients achieve their personal goals. In addition, they respond appropriately in emergency situations. Recognizing their area of expertise, our personal trainers refer clients to other health care professionals when appropriate.
“We train the hardest”, we adhere to the highest standard of preparticipation health appraisal screening. The value of our initial client interview is the first step in the client consultation, to obtain and share essential information with the program delivery process. The ‘initial interview’, is a scheduled appointment intended as a mutual sharing of information intended outcomes of assessing client – trainer compatibility, discussing goals and discussing a client – trainer agreement.
The purpose of the preparticipation health appraisal process is to identify known diseases and positive risk factors associated with coronary artery disease, assess lifestyle factors that may require special considerations, and identify individuals who may require medical referral before starting an exercise program.
The client consultation and health appraisal process is our competitive advantage and is directly in line with the scope of practice of the certified personal trainer, to assess, motivate, educate and refer when necessary. For us to develop custom programs of exercise that will safely and effectively meet your individual objectives, the personal trainer needs to gather pertinent information and documentation that will be used to assess health status, evaluate potential for risk, and refer for medical clearance when necessary.
Tiger Athletic Fitness & Conditioning is as appointment only, strength & conditioning gym offering custom, personal trainer led fitness solutions in a modern, private facility in the heart of Sandton. Your preparticipation health screening and goals are the foundation and corner stone of the efficient, effective 50-minute workouts your personal trainer custom designs for you.
Tiger Athletic Fitness & Conditioning is a private, appointment only gym in Sandton, Johannesburg. We use sport science to assess client’s health, set SMART goals and design custom fitness and lifestyle programs delivered through personal training. We often have more questions about subjects regards our personal health and fitness than we can find. Here are some notes one of those interesting topics: Stretching and flexibility.
The physiology of stretching
Flexibility
Types of stretching
Physiology of Stretching
An introduction to some of the basic physiological concepts that come into play when a muscle is stretched as well as a general overview of the basic concepts regards stretching and flexibility.
The Musculoskeletal System
Muscles and bones comprise what is called the musculoskeletal
system of the body. The bones provide posture and structural support for the
body and the muscles provide the body with the ability to move (by contracting,
and thus generating tension). The musculoskeletal system also provides
protection for the body’s internal organs.
To serve their function, bones must be joined together by
something. The point where bones connect to one another is called a joint, and
this connection is made mostly by ligaments (along with the help of muscles).
Muscles are attached to the bone by tendons. Bones, tendons, and ligaments do
not possess the ability (as muscles do) to make your body move. Muscles are
unique in this respect.
Muscle Composition
Muscles vary in shape
and in size and serve many different purposes. Most large muscles, like the
hamstrings and quadriceps, control motion. Other muscles, like the heart, and
the muscles of the inner ear, perform other functions. At the microscopic level
however, all muscles share the same basic structure. At the highest level, the
muscle is composed of many strands of tissue called fascicles. Each fascicle is
composed of fasciculi which are bundles of muscle fibres.
The muscle fibres are in turn composed of tens of thousands
of thread-like myofibrils, which can contract, relax, and lengthen. The
myofibrils are composed of up to millions of bands laid end-to-end called
sarcomeres. Each sarcomere is made of overlapping thick and thin filaments
called myofilaments. The thick and thin myofilaments are made up of contractile
proteins, primarily actin and myosin.
Connective Tissue
Located all around the muscle and its fibres are connective
tissues. Connective tissue is composed of a base substance and two kinds of
protein-based fibre. The two types of fibre are collagenous connective tissue
and elastic connective tissue. Collagenous connective tissue consists mostly of
collagen and provides tensile strength. Elastic connective tissue consists
mostly of elastin and provides elasticity.
The base substance is called mucopolysaccharide and acts as
both a lubricant, allowing the fibres to easily slide over one another, and as
glue, holding the fibres of the tissue together into bundles. The more elastic
connective tissue there is around a joint, the greater the range of motion in
that joint. Connective tissues are made up of tendons, ligaments, and the
fascial sheaths that envelop, or bind down, muscles into separate groups. These
fascial sheaths, or fascia, are named according to where they are in the
muscles:
Endomysium
– the innermost fascial sheath that envelops individual muscle fibres.
Perimysium
– The fascial sheath that binds groups of muscle fibres into individual
fasciculi.
Epimysium – The outermost fascial sheath that binds entire
fascicles.
These connective tissues help
provide suppleness and tone to the muscles.
Co-operating Muscle Groups – When muscles cause a
limb to move through the joint’s range of motion, they usually act in the
following cooperating groups:
Agonists – These muscles cause the movement to occur.
They create the normal range of movement in a joint by contracting. Agonists
are also referred to as prime movers since they are the muscles that are
primarily responsible for generating the movement.
Antagonists – These muscles act in opposition to the
movement generated by the agonists and are responsible for returning a limb to
its initial position.
Synergists – These muscles perform, or assist in
performing, the same set of joint motion as the agonists. Synergists are
sometimes referred to as neutralizers because they help cancel out, or
neutralize, extra motion from the agonists to make sure that the force
generated works within the desired plane of motion.
Fixators – These muscles provide the necessary
support to assist in holding the rest of the body in place while the movement
occurs. Fixators are also sometimes called stabilizers.
When you flex your knee for example, your hamstring
contracts, and, to some extent, so does your gastrocnemius and lower buttocks.
Meanwhile, your quadriceps are inhibited (relaxed and lengthened somewhat) so
as not to resist the flexion (see section Reciprocal Inhibition). In this
example, the hamstring serves as the agonist, or prime mover; the quadriceps
serves as the antagonist; and the calf and lower buttocks serve as the synergists.
Agonists and antagonists are usually located on opposite
sides of the affected joint (like your hamstrings and quadriceps, or your
triceps and biceps), while synergists are usually located on the same side of
the joint near the agonists. Larger muscles often call upon their smaller
neighbours to function as synergists.
The following is a list of commonly used agonist/antagonist
muscle pairs:
pectorals/latissimus dorsi (pecs and
lats)
anterior deltoids/posterior deltoids
(front and back shoulder)
trapezius/deltoids (traps and delts)
abdominals/spinal erectors (abs and
lower-back)
left and right external obliques
(sides)
quadriceps/hamstrings (quads and
hams)
shins/calves
biceps/triceps
forearm flexors/extensors
Types of Muscle Contractions
What happens When You Stretch?
How Muscles Contract
The way in which all these various levels of the muscle
operate is as follows:
Nerves – connect the spinal column to the muscle.
Neuromuscular Junction – The place where the nerve
and muscle meet are called the
When an electrical signal crosses the neuromuscular
junction, it is transmitted deep inside the muscle fibres. Inside the muscle
fibres, the signal stimulates the flow of calcium which causes the thick and
thin myofilaments to slide across one another. When this occurs, it causes the
sarcomere to shorten, which generates force. When billions of sarcomeres in the
muscle shorten all at once it results in a contraction of the entire muscle
fibre.
Muscle fibres contract completely. There is no such thing as
a partially contracted muscle fibre. Muscle fibres are unable to vary the
intensity of their contraction relative to the load against which they are
acting. If this is so, then how does the force of a muscle contraction vary in
strength from strong to weak? What happens is that more muscle fibres are
recruited, as they are needed, to perform the job at hand. The more muscle
fibres recruited by the central nervous system, the stronger the force generated
by the muscular contraction.
Fast and Slow Muscle Fibres
The energy which produces the calcium flow in the muscle
fibres comes from mitochondria, the part of the muscle cell that converts
glucose (blood sugar) into energy. Different types of muscle fibres have
different amounts of mitochondria. The more mitochondria in a muscle fibre, the
more energy it can produce. Muscle fibres are categorized into slow-twitch
fibres and fast-twitch fibres.
Slow-twitch fibres (Type 1) are slow to contract, but they
are also very slow to fatigue. Fast-twitch fibres are very quick to contract
and come in two varieties: Type 2A muscle fibres which fatigue at an
intermediate rate, and Type 2B muscle fibres which fatigue very quickly. The
main reason the slow-twitch fibres are slow to fatigue is that they contain
more mitochondria than fast-twitch fibres and hence can produce more energy.
Slow-twitch fibres are also smaller in diameter than
fast-twitch fibres and have increased capillary blood flow around them. Because
they have a smaller diameter and an increased blood flow, the slow-twitch
fibres can deliver more oxygen and remove more waste products from the muscle
fibres.
These three muscle fibre types (Types 1, 2A, and 2B) are
contained in all muscles in varying amounts. Muscles that need to be contracted
much of the time (like the heart) have a greater number of Type 1 (slow)
fibres. According to Health for Life Training Advisor:
When a muscle begins to contract, primarily Type 1 fibres
are activated first, and then Type 2A, then 2B. This sequence of fibre
recruitment allows very delicate and finely tuned muscle responses to brain
commands. It also makes Type 2B fibres difficult to train; most of the Type 1
and 2A fibres must be activated already before a large percentage of the 2B
fibres participate.
Health for Life Training Advisor further states that the
best way to remember the difference between muscles with predominantly
slow-twitch fibres and muscles with predominantly fast-twitch fibres is to
think of “white meat” and “dark meat”.
Dark meat is dark because it has a greater number of
slow-twitch muscle fibres and hence a greater number of mitochondria, which are
dark. White meat consists mostly of muscle fibres which are at rest much of the
time but are frequently called on to engage in brief bouts of intense activity.
This muscle tissue can contract quickly but is fast to fatigue and slow to
recover. White meat is lighter in colour than dark meat because it contains
fewer mitochondria.
Types of Muscle Contractions
The contraction of a muscle does not only mean that the
muscle shortens; it means that tension has been generated. Muscles can contract
in the following ways:
Isometric contraction – This is a contraction in
which no movement takes place, because the load on the muscle exceeds the
tension generated by the contracting muscle. This occurs when a muscle attempts
to push or pull an immovable object.
Concentric contraction – the muscles that are
shortening serve as the agonists and hence do all the work. During an eccentric
contraction the muscles that are lengthening serve as the agonists.
Isotonic contraction – This is a contraction in which
movement does take place, because the tension generated by the contracting
muscle exceeds the load on the muscle. This occurs when you use your muscles to
successfully push or pull an object.
Isotonic contractions are further divided into two types:
Concentric contraction – This is a contraction in
which the muscle decreases in length (shortens) against an opposing load, such
as lifting a weight up.
Eccentric contraction – This is a contraction in
which the muscle increases in length (lengthens) as it resists a load, such as
pushing something down.
What Happens When You Stretch?
The stretching of a muscle fibre begins with the sarcomere,
the basic unit of contraction in the muscle fibre. The sarcomere contracts, the
area of overlap between the thick and thin myofilaments increases. As it
stretches, this area of overlap decreases, allowing the muscle fibre to
elongate. Once the muscle fibre is at its maximum resting length, additional
stretching places force on the surrounding connective tissue. As the tension
increases, the collagen fibres in the connective tissue align themselves along
the same line of force as the tension.
Hence when you stretch, the muscle fibre is pulled out to
its full-length sarcomere by sarcomere, and then the connective tissue takes up
the remaining slack. When this occurs, it helps to realign any disorganized
fibres in the direction of the tension. This realignment is what helps to rehabilitate
scarred tissue back to health.
When a muscle is stretched, some of its fibres lengthen, but
other fibres may remain at rest. The current length of the entire muscle
depends upon the number of stretched fibres.
Picture little pockets of fibres distributed throughout the
muscle body stretching, and other fibres simply going along for the ride. Just
as the total strength of a contracting muscle is a result of the number of
fibres contracting, the total length of a stretched muscle is a result of the number
of fibres stretched — the more fibres stretched, the more length developed by
the muscle for a given stretch.
Proprioceptors – The nerve endings that relay all the
information about the musculoskeletal system to the central nervous system are
called proprioceptors. Proprioceptors, also called mechanoreceptors are the
source of all proprioception: the perception of one’s own body position and
movement.
The proprioceptors detect any changes in physical
displacement (movement or position) and any changes in tension, or force,
within the body. They are found in all nerve endings of the joints, muscles,
and tendons. The proprioceptors related to stretching are in the tendons and in
the muscle fibres.
There are two kinds of muscle fibres: intrafusal
muscle fibres and extrafusal muscle fibres. Extrafusal fibres are the
ones that contain myofibrils and are what is usually meant when we talk about
muscle fibres. Intrafusal fibres are also called muscle spindles and lie
parallel to the extrafusal fibres.
Muscle spindles, or stretch receptors, are the primary
proprioceptors in the muscle. Another proprioceptor that comes into play during
stretching is in the tendon near the end of the muscle fibre and is called the
Golgi tendon organ.
A third type of proprioceptor, called a Pacinian
corpuscle, is located close to the Golgi tendon organ and is responsible
for detecting changes in movement and pressure within the body.
When the extrafusal fibres of a muscle lengthen, so do the
intrafusal fibres. The muscle spindle contains two different types of fibres
(or stretch receptors) which are sensitive to the change in muscle length and
the rate of change in muscle length. When muscles contract, tension is placed
on the tendons where the Golgi tendon organ is located. The Golgi tendon organ
is sensitive to the change in tension and the rate of change of the tension.
The Stretch Reflex – When the muscle is stretched, so
is the muscle spindle. The muscle spindle records the change in length (and
speed) and sends signals to the spine which convey this information. This
triggers the stretch reflex (myotatic reflex) which attempts to resist the
change in muscle length by causing the stretched muscle to contract. The more
sudden the change in muscle length, the stronger the muscle contractions will
be (plyometric training is based on this fact). This basic function of the
muscle spindle helps to maintain muscle tone and to protect the body from
injury.
One of the reasons for holding a stretch for a prolonged
period is that as you hold the muscle in a stretched position, the muscle
spindle habituates and reduces its signalling. Gradually, you can train your
stretch receptors to allow greater lengthening of the muscles.
Some sources suggest that with extensive training, the
stretch reflex of certain muscles can be controlled so that there is little or
no reflex contraction in response to a sudden stretch. While this type of
control provides the opportunity for the greatest gains in flexibility, it also
provides the greatest risk of injury if used improperly. Professional athletes
and martial artists at the top of their sport are believed to possess this
level of muscular control.
The stretch reflex has both a dynamic component and a static
component. The static component of the stretch reflex persists if the muscle is
being stretched. The dynamic component of the stretch reflex lasts for only a
moment and is in response to the initial sudden increase in muscle length.
The reason that the stretch reflex has two components is
because there are two kinds of intrafusal muscle fibres: nuclear chain
fibres, which are responsible for the static component; and nuclear bag
fibres, which are responsible for the dynamic component.
Nuclear chain fibres are long and thin and lengthen
steadily when stretched. When these fibres are stretched, the stretch reflex
nerves increase their firing rates as their length steadily increases. This is
the static component of the stretch reflex.
Nuclear bag fibres bulge out at the middle, where
they are the most elastic. The stretch-sensing nerve ending for these fibres is
wrapped around this middle area, which lengthens rapidly when the fibre is
stretched. The outer-middle areas, in contrast, act like they are filled with
viscous fluid; they resist fast stretching, gradually extend under prolonged
tension.
So, when a fast stretch is demanded of these fibres, the
middle takes most of the stretch at first; then, as the outer-middle parts extend,
the middle can shorten somewhat. So, the nerve that senses stretching in these fibres’
fires rapidly with the onset of a fast stretch, then slows as the middle
section of the fibre can shorten again. This is the dynamic component of the
stretch reflex: a strong signal to contract at the onset of a rapid increase in
muscle length, followed by slightly “higher than normal” signalling which
gradually decreases as the rate of change of the muscle length decreases.
The Lengthening Reaction – When muscles contract,
they produce tension at the point where the muscle is connected to the tendon,
where the Golgi tendon organ is located.
The Golgi tendon organ records the change in tension,
and the rate of change of the tension, and sends signals to the spine to convey
this information. When this tension exceeds a certain threshold, it triggers
the lengthening reaction which inhibits the muscles from contracting and causes
them to relax.
Other names for this reflex are the inverse myotatic
reflex, autogenic inhibition, and the clasped-knife reflex. This basic
function of the Golgi tendon organ helps to protect the muscles, tendons, and
ligaments from injury. The lengthening reaction is possible only because the
signalling of Golgi tendon organ to the spinal cord is powerful enough to
overcome the signalling of the muscle spindles telling the muscle to contract.
Another reason for holding a stretch for a prolonged period
is to allow this lengthening reaction to occur, thus helping the stretched
muscles to relax. It is easier to stretch, or lengthen, a muscle when it is not
trying to contract.
Reciprocal Inhibition – When an agonist contracts, to
cause the desired motion, it usually forces the antagonists to relax. This
phenomenon is called reciprocal inhibition because the antagonists are
inhibited from contracting. This is sometimes called reciprocal innervation,
but that term is really a misnomer since it is the agonists which inhibit the
antagonists. The antagonists do not actually innervate the agonists.
Such inhibition of the antagonistic muscles is not
necessarily required. In fact, co-contraction can occur. When you perform a
sit-up, one would normally assume that the stomach muscles inhibit the
contraction of the muscles in the lumbar, or lower, region of the back. In this
instance however, the back muscles (spinal erectors) also contract. This is one
reason why sit-ups are good for strengthening the back as well as the stomach.
When stretching, it is easier to stretch a muscle that is
relaxed than to stretch a muscle that is contracting. By taking advantage of
the situations when reciprocal inhibition does occur, you can get a more
effective stretch by inducing the antagonists to relax during the stretch due
to the contraction of the agonists.
You also want to relax any muscles used as synergists by the
muscle you are trying to stretch. For example, when you stretch your calf, you
want to contract the shin muscles by flexing your foot. However, the hamstrings
use the calf as a synergist, so you want to also relax the hamstrings by
contracting the quadriceps.
Flexibility
Many people are unaware of the fact that there are different
types of flexibility. These different types of flexibility are grouped
according to the various types of activities involved in athletic training. The
ones which involve motion are called dynamic and the ones which do not are
called static. The different types of flexibility are:
Dynamic flexibility – also called kinetic
flexibility is the ability to perform dynamic (or kinetic) movements of the
muscles to bring a limb through its full range of motion in the joints.
Static-active flexibility – also called active
flexibility is the ability to assume and maintain extended positions using
only the tension of the agonists and synergists while the antagonists are being
stretched. For example, lifting the leg and keeping it high without any
external support.
Static-passive flexibility – also called passive
flexibility is the ability to assume extended positions and then maintain
them using only your weight, the support of your limbs, or some other apparatus
(such as a chair). Note that the ability to maintain the position does not come
solely from your muscles, as it does with static-active flexibility. Being able
to perform the splits is an example of static-passive flexibility.
Research has shown that active flexibility is more closely
related to the level of sports achievement than is passive flexibility. Active
flexibility is harder to develop than passive flexibility (which is what most
people think of as “flexibility”); not only does active flexibility require
passive flexibility to assume an initial extended position, it also requires
muscle strength to be able to hold and maintain that position.
Factors Limiting Flexibility
Flexibility (mobility) is affected by the following factors:
Internal influences.
The type of joint (some joints
simply aren’t meant to be flexible).
The internal resistance within a
joint.
Bony structures which limit
movement.
The elasticity of muscle tissue
(muscle tissue that is scarred due to a previous injury is not very
elastic).
The elasticity of tendons and
ligaments (ligaments do not stretch much, tendons should not stretch at
all).
The elasticity of skin (skin has
some degree of elasticity, but not much).
The ability of a muscle to relax and
contract to achieve the greatest range of movement.
The temperature of the joint and
associated tissues (joints and muscles offer better flexibility at body
temperatures that are 1 to 2 degrees higher than normal).
External influences
The temperature of the place where
one is training (a warmer temperature is more conducive to increased
flexibility).
The time of day (most people are
more flexible in the afternoon than in the morning, peaking from about
2:30pm-4pm).
The stage in the recovery process of
a joint (or muscle) after injury (injured joints and muscles will usually
offer less flexibility than healthy ones).
Age (pre-adolescents are generally
more flexible than adults).
Gender (females are generally more
flexible than males).
One’s ability to perform an exercise
(practice makes perfect).
One’s commitment to achieving
flexibility.
The restrictions of
any clothing or equipment.
Some sources also suggest that
water is an important dietary element regards flexibility. Increased water
intake is believed to contribute to increased mobility, as well as increased
total body relaxation.
Rather than discuss each of these factors in significant
detail, I will attempt to focus on some of the more common factors which limit
one’s flexibility. The most common factors are:
Bone structure – Depending on the type of joint
involved and its present condition, the bone structure of a joint places very
noticeable limits on flexibility. This is a common way in which age can be a
factor limiting flexibility since older joints tend not to be as healthy as
younger ones.
Muscle mass – can be a factor when the muscle is so
heavily developed that it interferes with the ability to take the adjacent
joints through their complete range of motion (for example, large hamstrings
limit the ability to fully bend the knees).
Excess fatty tissue – imposes a similar restriction.
Connective tissue – Most of “flexibility” work should
involve performing exercises designed to reduce the internal resistance offered
by soft connective tissues.
Physical injury or disability – Most stretching
exercises attempt to accomplish this goal and can be performed by almost
anyone, regardless of age or gender.
How Connective Tissue Affects Flexibility
The resistance to lengthening that is offered by a muscle is
dependent upon its connective tissues: When the muscle elongates, the
surrounding connective tissues become tauter. Also, inactivity of certain
muscles or joints can cause chemical changes in connective tissue which
restrict flexibility. To quote Michael J Alter directly:
“A question of great interest to all athletes is the
relative importance of various tissues in joint stiffness. The joint capsule
(i.e., the saclike structure that encloses the ends of bones) and ligaments are
the most important factors, accounting for 47 percent of the stiffness,
followed by the muscle’s fascia (41 percent), the tendons (10 percent), and
skin (2 percent). However, most efforts to increase flexibility through
stretching should be directed to the muscle fascia. The reasons for this are
twofold.
First, muscle and its fascia have more elastic
tissue, so they are more modifiable in terms of reducing resistance to
elongation.
Second, because ligaments and tendons have less
elasticity than fascia, it is undesirable to produce too much slack in them.
Overstretching these structures may weaken the integrity of joints.
As a result, an excessive amount of flexibility may
destabilize the joints and increase an athlete’s risk of injury.” When
connective tissue is overused, the tissue becomes fatigued and may tear, which
also limits flexibility.
When connective tissue is unused or under used, it provides
significant resistance and limits flexibility. The elastin begins to fray and
loses some of its elasticity, and the collagen increases in stiffness and in
density. Aging has some of the same effects on connective tissue that lack of
use has.
How Flexibility Affects Ageing
With appropriate training, flexibility can, and should, be
developed at all ages. This does not imply, however, that flexibility can be
developed at the same rate by everyone. In general, the older you are, the
longer it will take to develop the desired level of flexibility. Hopefully,
you’ll be more patient if you’re older.
According to Michael J Alter, the main reason we become less
flexible as we get older is a result of certain changes that take place in our
connective tissues:
“The primary factor responsible for the decline of
flexibility with age is certain changes that occur in the connective tissues of
the body. Interestingly, it has been suggested that exercise can delay the loss
of flexibility due to the aging process of dehydration. This is based on the
notion that stretching stimulates the production or retention of lubricants
between the connective tissue fibres, thus preventing the formation of
adhesions.”
Michael J Alter further states that some of the physical
changes attributed to aging are the following:
An increased amount of calcium
deposits, adhesions, and cross-links in the body
An increase in the level of
fragmentation and dehydration
Changes in the chemical structure of
the tissues.
Loss of suppleness
due to the replacement of muscle fibres with fatty, collagenous fibres.
This does not mean that you
should give up trying to achieve flexibility if you are old or inflexible. It
just means that you need to work harder, and more carefully, for a longer
period when attempting to increase flexibility. Increases in the ability of muscle
tissues and connective tissues to elongate can be achieved at any age.
Strength and Flexibility
One of the best times to stretch is right after a strength
workout such as weightlifting. Static stretching of fatigued muscles performed
immediately following the exercise(s) that caused the fatigue, helps not only
to increase flexibility, but also enhances the promotion of muscular
development, and will help decrease the level of post-exercise soreness. Here’s
why: After you have used weights (or other stimuli) to overload and fatigue
your muscles, your muscles retain a “pump” and are shortened somewhat.
This “shortening” is due mostly to the repetition of intense
muscle activity that often only takes the muscle through part of its full range
of motion. This “pump” makes the muscle appear bigger. The “pumped” muscle is
also full of lactic acid and other by-products from exhaustive exercise. If the
muscle is not stretched afterward, it will retain this decreased range of
motion and the build-up of lactic acid will cause post-exercise soreness.
Static stretching of the “pumped” muscle helps it to become
“looser”, and to “remember” its full range of movement. It also helps to remove
lactic acid and other waste-products from the muscle. While it is true that stretching
the “pumped” muscle will make it appear visibly smaller, it does not decrease
the muscle’s size or inhibit muscle growth. It merely reduces the “tightness”
(contraction) of the muscles so that they do not “bulge” as much.
Also, strenuous workouts will often cause damage to the
muscle’s connective tissue. The tissue heals in 1 to 2 days, but it is believed
that the tissues heal at a shorter length (decreasing muscular development as
well as flexibility). To prevent the tissues from healing at a shorter length,
physiologists recommend static stretching after strength workouts.
Why Contortionists Should Strengthen
You should be “tempering” (or balancing) your flexibility
training with strength training (and vice versa). Do not perform stretching
exercises for a given muscle group without also performing strength exercises
for that same group of muscles. Judy Alter, in her book Stretch and Strengthen,
recommends stretching muscles after performing strength exercises, and
performing strength exercises for every muscle you stretch. In other words:
“Strengthen what you stretch and stretch what you strengthen!”
The reason for this is that flexibility training on a
regular basis causes connective tissues to stretch which in turn causes them to
loosen and elongate. When the connective tissue of a muscle is weak, it is more
likely to become damaged due to overstretching, or sudden, powerful muscular
contractions. The likelihood of such injury can be prevented by strengthening
the muscles bound by the connective tissue.
Dynamic strength training consisting of light dynamic
exercises with weights (lots of reps, not too much weight), and isometric
tension exercises. If you also lift weights, dynamic strength training for a
muscle should occur before subjecting that muscle to an intense weightlifting
workout. This helps to pre-exhaust the muscle first, making it easier (and
faster) to achieve the desired overload in an intense strength workout.
Attempting to perform dynamic strength training after an intense weightlifting
workout would be largely ineffective.
If you are working on increasing (or maintaining)
flexibility, then it is very important that your strength exercises force your
muscles to take the joints through their full range of motion. Repeating
movements that do not use a full range of motion in the joints (e.g.,
bicycling, certain techniques of Olympic weightlifting, pushups) can cause a
shortening of the muscles surrounding the joints of the working limbs. This
shortening is a result of setting the nervous control of length and tension in
the muscles at the values repeated most often or most strongly. Stronger
stimuli are remembered better.
Over flexibility
It is possible for the muscles of a joint to become too
flexible. There is a trade-off between flexibility and stability. The looser
you get, the less support offered to the joints by their adjacent muscles.
Excessive flexibility can be just as much of a liability as not enough
flexibility. Either one increases your risk of injury.
Once a muscle has reached its absolute maximum length,
attempting to stretch the muscle further only serves to stretch the ligaments
and put undue stress upon the tendons (two things that you do not want to
stretch). Ligaments will tear when stretched more than 6% of their normal
length. Tendons are not even supposed to be able to lengthen. Even when
stretched ligaments and tendons do not tear, loose joints and/or a decrease in
the joint’s stability can occur vastly increasing the risk of injury.
Once you have achieved the desired level of flexibility for
a muscle or set of muscles and have maintained that level for a solid week, you
should discontinue any isometric or PNF stretching of that muscle until some of
its flexibility is lost.
Types of Stretching
Just as there are different types of flexibility, there are
also different types of stretching. Stretches are either dynamic (meaning they
involve motion) or static (meaning they involve no motion). Dynamic stretches
affect dynamic flexibility and static stretches affect static flexibility (and
dynamic flexibility to some degree).
The different types of stretching are:
Ballistic stretching – Uses, the momentum of a moving
body or a limb to force it beyond its normal range of motion. This is
stretching, or “warming up”, by bouncing into (or out of) a stretched position,
using the stretched muscles as a spring which pulls you out of the stretched
position. (E.g. bouncing down repeatedly to touch your toes.) This type of
stretching is not considered useful and can lead to injury. It does not allow
your muscles to adjust to, and relax in, the stretched position. It may instead
cause them to tighten up by repeatedly activating the stretch reflex.
Dynamic stretching – Moving parts of your body and
gradually increasing reach, speed of movement, or both. Dynamic stretching
consists of controlled leg and arm swings that take you to the limits of your
range of motion in a controlled fashion. In dynamic stretches, there are no
bounces or “jerky” movements. An example of dynamic stretching would be slow,
controlled leg swings, arm swings, or torso twists.
Dynamic stretching improves dynamic flexibility and
is quite useful as part of your warm-up for an active or aerobic workout (such
as Karate, MMA, Football or Rugby).
Dynamic stretching exercises should be performed in sets of
8-12 repetitions:
Tired muscles are less elastic, which causes a decrease in
the amplitude of your movements. Do only the number of repetitions that you can
do without decreasing your range of motion. More repetitions will only set the
nervous regulation of the muscles’ length at the level of these less than best
repetitions and may cause you to lose some of your flexibility.
What you repeat more times or with a greater effort will
leave a deeper trace in your kinaesthetic memory. After reaching the maximal
range of motion in a joint in any direction of movement, you should not do many
more repetitions of this movement in a given workout. Even if you can maintain
a maximal range of motion over many repetitions, you will set an unnecessarily
solid memory of the range of these movements. You will then have to overcome
these memories in order to make further progress.
Active stretching – Also referred to as,
static-active stretching. An active stretch is one where you assume a position
and then hold it there with no assistance other than using the strength of your
agonist muscles for example, bringing your leg up high and then holding it
there without anything other than your leg muscles themselves to keep the leg
in that extended position. The tension of the agonists in an active stretch
helps to relax the muscles being stretched (the antagonists) by reciprocal
inhibition.
Active stretching increases active flexibility and
strengthens the agonistic muscles. Active stretches are usually quite difficult
to hold and maintain for more than 10 seconds and rarely need to be held any
longer than 15 seconds.
Many of the movements (or stretches) found in various forms
of yoga are active stretches.
Passive (or relaxed) stretching – Referred to as
relaxed stretching or static-passive stretching. A passive stretch is one where
you assume a position and hold it with some other part of your body, or with
the assistance of a partner or some other apparatus. For example, bringing your
leg up high and then holding it there with your hand. The splits are an example
of a passive stretch in this case the floor is the “apparatus”.
Slow, relaxed stretching is useful in relieving spasms in
muscles that are healing after an injury. Obviously, you should check with your
doctor first to see if it is okay to attempt to stretch the injured muscles.
Relaxed stretching is also very good for “cooling down”
after a workout and helps reduce post-workout muscle fatigue, and soreness.
Static stretching – Many people use the term “passive
stretching” and “static stretching” interchangeably. However, there are several
people who make a distinction between the two.
Static stretching involves holding a position. That is, you
stretch to the farthest point and hold the stretch.
Passive stretching is a technique in which you are
relaxed and make no contribution to the range of motion. Instead, an external
force is created by an outside agent, either manually or mechanically.
Notice that the definition of passive stretching given in
the previous section encompasses both above definitions. Throughout this
document, when the term static stretching, or passive stretching is used, its
intended meaning is the definition of passive stretching as described in the
previous section. You should be aware of these alternative meanings, however,
when looking at other references on stretching.
Isometric stretching – A type of static stretching
which involves the resistance of muscle groups through isometric contractions
(tensing) of the stretched muscles). The use of isometric stretching is one of
the fastest ways to develop increased static-passive flexibility and is much
more effective than either passive stretching or active stretching alone.
Isometric stretches also help to develop strength in the
“tensed” muscles (which helps to develop static-active flexibility) and seems
to decrease the amount of pain usually associated with stretching.
The most common ways to provide the needed resistance for an
isometric stretch are to apply resistance manually to one’s own limbs, to have
a partner apply the resistance, or to use an apparatus such as a wall or the
floor to provide resistance.
Isometric stretching is not recommended for children and
adolescents whose bones are still growing. These people are usually already
flexible enough that the strong stretches produced by the isometric contraction
have a much higher risk of damaging tendons and connective tissue.
Precede any isometric stretch of a muscle with dynamic
strength training for the muscle to be stretched. A full session of isometric
stretching makes a lot of demands on the muscles being stretched and should not
be performed more than once per day for a given group of muscles, ideally, no
more than once every 36 hours.
The proper way to perform an isometric stretch is as
follows:
Assume the position of a passive
stretch for the desired muscle.
Tense the stretched muscle for 7-15
seconds (resisting against some force that will not move, like the floor
or a partner).
Finally, relax the
muscle for at least 20 seconds.
Some people seem to recommend
holding the isometric contraction for longer than 15 seconds; research has
shown that this is not necessary. So, you might as well make your stretching
routine less time consuming.
How Isometric Stretching Works
Recall, there is no such thing as a partially contracted
muscle fibre: when a muscle is contracted, some of the fibres contract and some
remain at rest (more fibres are recruited as the load on the muscle increases).
Similarly, when a muscle is stretched, some of the fibres are elongated and
some remain at rest. During an isometric contraction, some of the resting
fibres are being pulled upon from both ends by the muscles that are
contracting. The result is that some of those resting fibres stretch.
Normally, the fibres that stretch during an isometric
contraction are not very significant. The true effectiveness of the isometric
contraction occurs when a muscle that is already in a stretched position is
subjected to an isometric contraction. In this case, some of the muscle fibres
are already stretched before the contraction and if held long enough the
initial passive stretch overcomes the stretch reflex and triggers the
lengthening reaction inhibiting the stretched fibres from contracting.
At this point: When isometrically contracted, some of the
resting fibres would contract, many of the resting fibres would stretch, and
many of the already stretched fibres, which are being prevented from
contracting by the inverse myotatic reflex [the lengthening reaction], would
stretch even more. When the isometric contraction was relaxed, and the
contracting fibres returned to their resting length, the stretched fibres would
retain their ability to stretch beyond their normal limit. I.e. The whole
muscle would be able to stretch beyond its initial maximum, and you would have
increased flexibility.
The reason that the stretched fibres develop and retain the
ability to stretch beyond their normal limit during an isometric stretch has to
do with the muscle spindles: The signal which tells the muscle to contract
voluntarily, also tells the muscle spindle’s (intrafusal) muscle fibres to
shorten, increasing sensitivity of the stretch reflex. This mechanism normally
maintains the sensitivity of the muscle spindle as the muscle shortens during
contraction. This allows the muscle spindles to habituate to an even
further-lengthened position.
Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation (PNF) – PNF
stretching is currently the fastest and most effective way known to increase
static-passive flexibility. It is not really a type of stretching but is a
technique of combining passive stretching and isometric stretching to achieve
maximum static flexibility. The term PNF stretching is itself a misnomer. PNF
was initially developed as a method of rehabilitating stroke victims.
PNF refers to any of several post-isometric relaxation
stretching techniques in which a muscle group is passively stretched, then
contracts isometrically against resistance while in the stretched position, and
then is passively stretched again through the resulting increased range of
motion. PNF stretching usually employs the use of a partner to provide
resistance against the isometric contraction and then later to passively take
the joint through its increased range of motion. It may be performed, however,
without a partner, although it is usually more effective with a partner’s
assistance.
Most PNF stretching techniques employ isometric agonist
contraction/relaxation where the stretched muscles are contracted isometrically
and then relaxed. Some PNF techniques also employ isometric antagonist
contraction where the antagonists of the stretched muscles are contracted. In
all cases, it is important to note that the stretched muscle should be rested
(and relaxed) for at least 20 seconds before performing another PNF technique.
The most common PNF stretching techniques are:
The hold-relax – This technique is also called the
contract-relax. After assuming an initial passive stretch, the muscle being
stretched is isometrically contracted for 7-15 seconds, after which the muscle
is briefly relaxed for 2-3 seconds, and then immediately subjected to a passive
stretch which stretches the muscle even further than the initial passive
stretch. This final passive stretch is held for 10-15 seconds. The muscle is
then relaxed for 20 seconds before performing another PNF technique.
The hold-relax-contract – This technique is also
called the contract-relax-contract, and the contract-relax-antagonist-contract
(or CRAC). It involves performing two isometric contractions: first of the
agonists, then, of the antagonists. The first part is like the hold-relax
where, after assuming an initial passive stretch, the stretched muscle is
isometrically contracted for 7-15 seconds. Then the muscle is relaxed while its
antagonist immediately performs an isometric contraction that is held for 7-15
seconds. The muscles are then relaxed for 20 seconds before performing another
PNF technique.
The hold-relax-swing – This technique (and a similar
technique called the hold-relax-bounce) involves the use of dynamic or
ballistic stretches in conjunction with static and isometric stretches. It is
very risky and is successfully used only by the most advanced of athletes that
have managed to achieve a high level of control over their muscle stretch
reflex). It is like the hold-relax technique except that a dynamic or ballistic
stretch is employed in place of the final passive stretch.
Notice that in the hold-relax-contract, there is no final
passive stretch. It is replaced by the antagonist-contraction which, via
reciprocal inhibition serves to relax and further stretch the muscle that was
subjected to the initial passive stretch. Because there is no final passive
stretch, this PNF technique is considered one of the safest PNF techniques to
perform as it is less likely to result in torn muscle tissue. Some people like
to make the technique even more intense by adding the final passive stretch
after the second isometric contraction. Although this can result in greater
flexibility gains, it also increases the likelihood of injury.
Even more risky are dynamic and ballistic PNF stretching
techniques like the hold-relax-swing, and the hold-relax-bounce. If you are not
a professional athlete, you probably have no business attempting either of
these techniques as the probability of injury is great). Even professionals
should not attempt these techniques without the guidance of a professional
coach or training advisor. These two techniques have the greatest potential for
rapid flexibility gains, but only when performed by people who have a
sufficiently high level of control of the stretch reflex in the muscles that
are being stretched.
Like isometric stretching PNF stretching is also not
recommended for children and people whose bones are still growing (for the same
reasons. Also, like isometric stretching, PNF stretching helps strengthen the
muscles that are contracted and therefore is good for increasing active
flexibility as well as passive flexibility. Furthermore, as with isometric
stretching, PNF stretching is very strenuous and should be performed for a
given muscle group no more than once per day (ideally, no more than once per
36-hour period).
The initial recommended procedure for PNF stretching is to
perform the desired PNF technique 3-5 times for a given muscle group, resting
20 seconds between each repetition. However, a 1987 study whose results suggest
that performing 3-5 repetitions of a PNF technique for a given muscle group is
not necessarily any more effective than performing the technique only once. As
a result, to decrease the amount of time taken up by your stretching routine,
without decreasing its effectiveness), perform only one PNF technique per
muscle group stretched in a given stretching session.
How PNF Stretching Works
During an isometric stretch, when the muscle performing the
isometric contraction is relaxed, it retains its ability to stretch beyond its
initial maximum length. PNF takes immediate advantage of this increased range
of motion by immediately subjecting the contracted muscle to a passive stretch.
The isometric contraction of the stretched muscle accomplishes
several things:
It helps to train the stretch
receptors of the muscle spindle to immediately accommodate a greater
muscle length.
The intense muscle contraction, and
the fact that it is maintained for a period, serves to fatigue many of the
fast-twitch fibres of the contracting muscles. This makes it harder for
the fatigued muscle fibres to contract in resistance to a subsequent stretch.
The tension generated by the
contraction activates the Golgi tendon which inhibits contraction of the
muscle via the lengthening reaction. Voluntary contraction during a
stretch increases tension on the muscle, activating the Golgi tendon
organs more than the stretch alone. So, when the voluntary contraction is
stopped, the muscle is even more inhibited from contracting against a
subsequent stretch.
PNF stretching techniques take advantage of the sudden
“vulnerability” of the muscle and its increased range of motion by using the
period immediately following the isometric contraction to train the stretch
receptors to get used to this new, increased, range of muscle length. This is
what the final passive (or in some cases, dynamic) stretch accomplishes.
Benefits of Stretching
Stretching can do more than just increase flexibility.
Benefits of stretching include:
Enhanced physical fitness.
Enhanced ability to learn and
perform skilled movements.
Increased mental and physical
relaxation.
Enhanced development of body
awareness.
Reduced risk of injury to joints,
muscles, and tendons.
Reduced muscular soreness.
Reduced muscular tension.
Increased suppleness due to
stimulation of the production of chemicals which lubricate connective
tissues.
Reduced severity of painful
menstruation (dysmenorrhea) in females.
Unfortunately, even those who stretch do not always stretch
properly and hence do not reap some or all these benefits. Some of the most
common mistakes made when stretching:
improper warm-up
inadequate rest between workouts
overstretching
performing the wrong exercises
performing exercises in the wrong
(or sub-optimal) sequence
Tiger Athletic Fitness & Conditioning is a private,
appointment only gym in Sandton, Johannesburg. We use sport science to assess client’s
health, set SMART goals and design custom fitness and lifestyle programs
delivered through personal training.
Together changes everything. Let’s work out!
Acknowledgement.
Sport Stretch, by Michael J. Alter.
Stretching Scientifically, by Tom
SynerStretch for Total Body
Flexibility, from Health for Life.
The Health for Life Training
Advisor, also from Health for Life.
Mobility Training for the Martial
Arts, by Tony Gummerson.
Tiger Athletic Fitness & Conditioning is a private, appointment only strength & conditioning gym in the heart of Sandton offering tailor made, goal-oriented fitness programs. This is the third of three resources, a modest attempt to address some of the frequently asked questions about stretching and flexibility. Here we look at different types of stretching.
Just as there are different types of flexibility, there are also different types of stretching. Stretches are either dynamic (meaning they involve motion) or static (meaning they involve no motion). Dynamic stretches affect dynamic flexibility and static stretches affect static flexibility (and dynamic flexibility to some degree).
The different types of stretching are:
Ballistic stretching – Uses, the momentum of a moving body or a limb to force it beyond its normal range of motion. This is stretching, or “warming up”, by bouncing into (or out of) a stretched position, using the stretched muscles as a spring which pulls you out of the stretched position. (E.g. bouncing down repeatedly to touch your toes.) This type of stretching is not considered useful and can lead to injury. It does not allow your muscles to adjust to, and relax in, the stretched position. It may instead cause them to tighten up by repeatedly activating the stretch reflex.
Dynamic stretching – Moving parts of your body and gradually increasing reach, speed of movement, or both. Dynamic stretching consists of controlled leg and arm swings that take you to the limits of your range of motion in a controlled fashion. In dynamic stretches, there are no bounces or “jerky” movements. An example of dynamic stretching would be slow, controlled leg swings, arm swings, or torso twists.
Dynamic stretching improves dynamic flexibility and is quite useful as part of your warm-up for an active or aerobic workout (such as Karate, MMA, Football or Rugby).
Dynamic stretching exercises should be performed in sets of 8-12 repetitions:
Tired muscles are less elastic, which causes a decrease in the amplitude of your movements. Do only the number of repetitions that you can do without decreasing your range of motion. More repetitions will only set the nervous regulation of the muscles’ length at the level of these less than best repetitions and may cause you to lose some of your flexibility. What you repeat more times or with a greater effort will leave a deeper trace in your kinaesthetic memory. After reaching the maximal range of motion in a joint in any direction of movement, you should not do many more repetitions of this movement in a given workout. Even if you can maintain a maximal range of motion over many repetitions, you will set an unnecessarily solid memory of the range of these movements. You will then have to overcome these memories in order to make further progress.
Active stretching – Also referred to as, static-active stretching. An active stretch is one where you assume a position and then hold it there with no assistance other than using the strength of your agonist muscles for example, bringing your leg up high and then holding it there without anything other than your leg muscles themselves to keep the leg in that extended position. The tension of the agonists in an active stretch helps to relax the muscles being stretched (the antagonists) by reciprocal inhibition.
Active stretching increases active flexibility and strengthens the agonistic muscles. Active stretches are usually quite difficult to hold and maintain for more than 10 seconds and rarely need to be held any longer than 15 seconds.
Many of the movements (or stretches) found in various forms of yoga are active stretches.
Passive (or relaxed) stretching – Referred to as relaxed stretching or static-passive stretching. A passive stretch is one where you assume a position and hold it with some other part of your body, or with the assistance of a partner or some other apparatus. For example, bringing your leg up high and then holding it there with your hand. The splits are an example of a passive stretch in this case the floor is the “apparatus”.
Slow, relaxed stretching is useful in relieving spasms in muscles that are healing after an injury. Obviously, you should check with your doctor first to see if it is okay to attempt to stretch the injured muscles.
Relaxed stretching is also very good for “cooling down” after a workout and helps reduce post-workout muscle fatigue, and soreness.
Static stretching – Many people use the term “passive stretching” and “static stretching” interchangeably. However, there are several people who make a distinction between the two.
Static stretching involves holding a position. That is, you stretch to the farthest point and hold the stretch.
Passive stretching is a technique in which you are relaxed and make no contribution to the range of motion. Instead, an external force is created by an outside agent, either manually or mechanically.
Notice that the definition of passive stretching given in the previous section encompasses both above definitions. Throughout this document, when the term static stretching, or passive stretching is used, its intended meaning is the definition of passive stretching as described in the previous section. You should be aware of these alternative meanings, however, when looking at other references on stretching.
Isometric stretching – A type of static stretching which involves the resistance of muscle groups through isometric contractions (tensing) of the stretched muscles). The use of isometric stretching is one of the fastest ways to develop increased static-passive flexibility and is much more effective than either passive stretching or active stretching alone. Isometric stretches also help to develop strength in the “tensed” muscles (which helps to develop static-active flexibility) and seems to decrease the amount of pain usually associated with stretching.
The most common ways to provide the needed resistance for an isometric stretch are to apply resistance manually to one’s own limbs, to have a partner apply the resistance, or to use an apparatus such as a wall or the floor to provide resistance.
Isometric stretching is not recommended for children and adolescents whose bones are still growing. These people are usually already flexible enough that the strong stretches produced by the isometric contraction have a much higher risk of damaging tendons and connective tissue. Precede any isometric stretch of a muscle with dynamic strength training for the muscle to be stretched. A full session of isometric stretching makes a lot of demands on the muscles being stretched and should not be performed more than once per day for a given group of muscles, ideally, no more than once every 36 hours.
The proper way to perform an isometric stretch is as follows:
Assume the position of a passive stretch for the desired muscle.
Tense the stretched muscle for 7-15 seconds (resisting against some force that will not move, like the floor or a partner).
Finally, relax the muscle for at least 20 seconds.
Some people seem to recommend holding the isometric contraction for longer than 15 seconds; research has shown that this is not necessary. So, you might as well make your stretching routine less time consuming.
How Isometric Stretching Works
Recall, there is no such thing as a partially contracted muscle fibre: when a muscle is contracted, some of the fibres contract and some remain at rest (more fibres are recruited as the load on the muscle increases). Similarly, when a muscle is stretched, some of the fibres are elongated and some remain at rest. During an isometric contraction, some of the resting fibres are being pulled upon from both ends by the muscles that are contracting. The result is that some of those resting fibres stretch.
Normally, the fibres that stretch during an isometric contraction are not very significant. The true effectiveness of the isometric contraction occurs when a muscle that is already in a stretched position is subjected to an isometric contraction. In this case, some of the muscle fibres are already stretched before the contraction and if held long enough the initial passive stretch overcomes the stretch reflex and triggers the lengthening reaction inhibiting the stretched fibres from contracting.
At this point: When isometrically contracted, some of the resting fibres would contract, many of the resting fibres would stretch, and many of the already stretched fibres, which are being prevented from contracting by the inverse myotatic reflex [the lengthening reaction], would stretch even more. When the isometric contraction was relaxed, and the contracting fibres returned to their resting length, the stretched fibres would retain their ability to stretch beyond their normal limit. I.e. The whole muscle would be able to stretch beyond its initial maximum, and you would have increased flexibility.
The reason that the stretched fibres develop and retain the ability to stretch beyond their normal limit during an isometric stretch has to do with the muscle spindles: The signal which tells the muscle to contract voluntarily, also tells the muscle spindle’s (intrafusal) muscle fibres to shorten, increasing sensitivity of the stretch reflex. This mechanism normally maintains the sensitivity of the muscle spindle as the muscle shortens during contraction. This allows the muscle spindles to habituate to an even further-lengthened position.
Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation (PNF) – PNF stretching is currently the fastest and most effective way known to increase static-passive flexibility. It is not really a type of stretching but is a technique of combining passive stretching and isometric stretching to achieve maximum static flexibility. The term PNF stretching is itself a misnomer. PNF was initially developed as a method of rehabilitating stroke victims. PNF refers to any of several post-isometric relaxation stretching techniques in which a muscle group is passively stretched, then contracts isometrically against resistance while in the stretched position, and then is passively stretched again through the resulting increased range of motion. PNF stretching usually employs the use of a partner to provide resistance against the isometric contraction and then later to passively take the joint through its increased range of motion. It may be performed, however, without a partner, although it is usually more effective with a partner’s assistance.
Most PNF stretching techniques employ isometric agonist contraction/relaxation where the stretched muscles are contracted isometrically and then relaxed. Some PNF techniques also employ isometric antagonist contraction where the antagonists of the stretched muscles are contracted. In all cases, it is important to note that the stretched muscle should be rested (and relaxed) for at least 20 seconds before performing another PNF technique. The most common PNF stretching techniques are:
The hold-relax – This technique is also called the contract-relax. After assuming an initial passive stretch, the muscle being stretched is isometrically contracted for 7-15 seconds, after which the muscle is briefly relaxed for 2-3 seconds, and then immediately subjected to a passive stretch which stretches the muscle even further than the initial passive stretch. This final passive stretch is held for 10-15 seconds. The muscle is then relaxed for 20 seconds before performing another PNF technique.
The hold-relax-contract – This technique is also called the contract-relax-contract, and the contract-relax-antagonist-contract (or CRAC). It involves performing two isometric contractions: first of the agonists, then, of the antagonists. The first part is like the hold-relax where, after assuming an initial passive stretch, the stretched muscle is isometrically contracted for 7-15 seconds. Then the muscle is relaxed while its antagonist immediately performs an isometric contraction that is held for 7-15 seconds. The muscles are then relaxed for 20 seconds before performing another PNF technique.
The hold-relax-swing – This technique (and a similar technique called the hold-relax-bounce) involves the use of dynamic or ballistic stretches in conjunction with static and isometric stretches. It is very risky and is successfully used only by the most advanced of athletes that have managed to achieve a high level of control over their muscle stretch reflex). It is like the hold-relax technique except that a dynamic or ballistic stretch is employed in place of the final passive stretch.
Notice that in the hold-relax-contract, there is no final passive stretch. It is replaced by the antagonist-contraction which, via reciprocal inhibition serves to relax and further stretch the muscle that was subjected to the initial passive stretch. Because there is no final passive stretch, this PNF technique is considered one of the safest PNF techniques to perform as it is less likely to result in torn muscle tissue. Some people like to make the technique even more intense by adding the final passive stretch after the second isometric contraction. Although this can result in greater flexibility gains, it also increases the likelihood of injury.
Even more risky are dynamic and ballistic PNF stretching techniques like the hold-relax-swing, and the hold-relax-bounce. If you are not a professional athlete, you probably have no business attempting either of these techniques as the probability of injury is great). Even professionals should not attempt these techniques without the guidance of a professional coach or training advisor. These two techniques have the greatest potential for rapid flexibility gains, but only when performed by people who have a sufficiently high level of control of the stretch reflex in the muscles that are being stretched.
Like isometric stretching PNF stretching is also not recommended for children and people whose bones are still growing (for the same reasons. Also, like isometric stretching, PNF stretching helps strengthen the muscles that are contracted and therefore is good for increasing active flexibility as well as passive flexibility. Furthermore, as with isometric stretching, PNF stretching is very strenuous and should be performed for a given muscle group no more than once per day (ideally, no more than once per 36-hour period).
The initial recommended procedure for PNF stretching is to perform the desired PNF technique 3-5 times for a given muscle group, resting 20 seconds between each repetition. However, a 1987 study whose results suggest that performing 3-5 repetitions of a PNF technique for a given muscle group is not necessarily any more effective than performing the technique only once. As a result, to decrease the amount of time taken up by your stretching routine, without decreasing its effectiveness), perform only one PNF technique per muscle group stretched in a given stretching session.
How PNF Stretching Works
During an isometric stretch, when the muscle performing the isometric contraction is relaxed, it retains its ability to stretch beyond its initial maximum length. PNF takes immediate advantage of this increased range of motion by immediately subjecting the contracted muscle to a passive stretch.
The isometric contraction of the stretched muscle accomplishes several things:
It helps to train the stretch receptors of the muscle spindle to immediately accommodate a greater muscle length.
The intense muscle contraction, and the fact that it is maintained for a period, serves to fatigue many of the fast-twitch fibres of the contracting muscles. This makes it harder for the fatigued muscle fibres to contract in resistance to a subsequent stretch.
The tension generated by the contraction activates the Golgi tendon which inhibits contraction of the muscle via the lengthening reaction. Voluntary contraction during a stretch increases tension on the muscle, activating the Golgi tendon organs more than the stretch alone. So, when the voluntary contraction is stopped, the muscle is even more inhibited from contracting against a subsequent stretch.
PNF stretching techniques take advantage of the sudden “vulnerability” of the muscle and its increased range of motion by using the period immediately following the isometric contraction to train the stretch receptors to get used to this new, increased, range of muscle length. This is what the final passive (or in some cases, dynamic) stretch accomplishes.
Benefits of Stretching
Stretching can do more than just increase flexibility. Benefits of stretching include:
Enhanced physical fitness.
Enhanced ability to learn and perform skilled movements.
Increased mental and physical relaxation.
Enhanced development of body awareness.
Reduced risk of injury to joints, muscles, and tendons.
Reduced muscular soreness.
Reduced muscular tension.
Increased suppleness due to stimulation of the production of chemicals which lubricate connective tissues.
Reduced severity of painful menstruation (dysmenorrhea) in females.
Unfortunately, even those who stretch do not always stretch properly and hence do not reap some or all these benefits. Some of the most common mistakes made when stretching:
improper warm-up
inadequate rest between workouts
overstretching
performing the wrong exercises
performing exercises in the wrong (or sub-optimal) sequence
Tiger Athletic Fitness & Conditioning uses personal training to assess, motivate, educate and train you in a private, modern appointment only strength and conditioning in the heart of Sandton. Our rigorous pre-participation health appraisal screening process ensures that we design and deliver comprehensive exercise programs that safely and effectively meet your goals. Start your own Tiger Athletic fitness program by booking your initial interview.
Together changes everything. Let’s workout!
Acknowledgement.
Sport Stretch, by Michael J. Alter.
Stretching Scientifically, by Tom
SynerStretch for Total Body Flexibility, from Health for Life.
The Health for Life Training Advisor, also from Health for Life.
Mobility Training for the Martial Arts, by Tony Gummerson.
Tiger Athletic 
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