Same prescription, different results

If you’ve ever worked out or rehabbed an injury, chances are you’ve been instructed to do certain stretches. Typically, you’ll get a quick demonstration and then it’s up to you to execute the stretch and feel it in the “right” place. But what happens when you don’t feel it in the right place?

At Driven, we do this with our clients every day, and one of the things that constantly amazes us is the variety of ways in which our clients can accomplish the task. Often we’ll expect a stretch to be felt in a certain place only to find that it shows up somewhere else.

Below you’ll see an example of this with our cage crossover hip stretch. In figure A, you’ll notice significantly more left lateral flexion in b than in c. Given the same starting position of the hands and feet, these two subjects accomplish the task in very different ways, with b getting more lumbar spine motion and c getting more hip motion.

What this demonstrates is the body’s amazing ability to adapt and compensate, but it illustrates to us as movement specialists the importance of taking all of the information into account rather than just picking stretches that “should work.” For example, if we were working with someone with a lumbar disc issue, would we be more concerned with the execution seen in b than in c? For person b, the significant amount of lateral flexion here may exacerbate the symptoms, while for person c it may alleviate the symptoms. It’s a fine line to walk, and without close supervision this stretch may very well be deemed to dangerous to do. That said, with close supervision it could be a powerful and effective technique.

For movement specialists, this is an opportunity to do a better job with our clients, prescribing the most effective stretching techniques we can for each person. For the athlete or client, it’s a reminder to use the same critical lens when evaluating a stretch you’re given as homework or see in a magazine. If it doesn’t feel right or doesn’t stretch what it is supposed to stretch, chances are it’s not a great stretch for your body, and you’ll either need to modify the stretch somehow or use a different stretch altogether.

The body is efficient. It moves down the path of least resistance. Movement will come from the places where it comes most easily. In b, that’s the lumbar spine, at least at the end range of this stretch. In c, it’s the hip. C has a significant lumbar spine injury in the past, which may have caused him to shift movement away from the lumbar spine over time. Alternatively, he may have always demonstrated this pattern – we don’t know. B has dealt with low back tightness, but has had no major lumbar spine injuries. He does have a previous ACL tear, and one could surmise that the lumbar hypermobility and limitations in hip internal rotation and adduction may have contributed to the injury. This is an impressive connecting of dots, but there’s no way to prove this theory. All we can know for sure is what we see happening.

Take home

• There are no perfect stretches
• A stretch can be good or bad, depending on the individual and the circumstances
• We can use FMR techniques to