streching time

[Squealagig]

I think someone here said that for a strech to be effective you have to hold it for 30 seconds. How about streching for longer periods of time? Is it that the longer you strech the more effective it is or is a that a 30 second strech will be just as effective as a five minute strech. Just wondering as last night I got bored and held a groin strech for 10 mins.

[Bernie]

It was me who posted that. As far as I know, holding for longer is fine, but up to a point. If you stretch for too long, and ten minutes on one muscle is probably too long, you can then increase your chance for injury because the muscle will start to tighten during the stretch. That's why it starts to feel uncomfortable after a while. This won't maximize your progress as you'd expect from stretching for such long periods of time.
A better way to stretch for 10 minutes would be to stretch for 2-3 minutes, relax 1 minute, then stretch another 2-3 minutes, relax, and repeat up to 10 minutes total time. Who knows, maybe you can go on 30 minutes that way? This way would have much better benefit than holding a stretch -and I certainly wouldn't hold a stretch for 30 minutes! Worse yet, I wouldn't want to try to stand up quickly after holding a stretch that long!

Bernie

[Squealagig]

That's what I thought the response would probably be. thx for the reply.

[Bryan]

My understanding (based on conversations with gymnasts, martial artists, and dancers), is that how frequently you stretch is more important than how long you hold it for.

[Bernie]

Bingo, Bryan!

I wish I had your gift for summing things up in 5 or 6 words like that!