…..Personally I stretch every day, though some days are lighter than other ones. As I have gotten older I have taken steps to protect my knees during stretching. One of the things I do is very rarely do I continue to do full splits and particularly I do not drop down into a full split. I have noticed that when stretching and doing full splits the strain on my knees bothers me. So I have taken corrective measures to protect them and yet still maintain flexibility. One stretch in place of full splits is to be on your knees and do a modified cat stretch of in other words to push your knees as far apart as possible and them slightly lean forward. This gives great pressure and yet protects at least my knees very well. I also do a lot of static stretching or slowly moving into a stretch and holding it. When I was younger in training we used to do ballistic stretching or bouncing into a movement and while this does tend to produce some great results at my age it simply is to much of a risk or tearing or pulling a muscle. The point of this blog post is that you have to modify your stretching routine so that it fits your personal body and that you get results and not injuries. Everyone will be a little different and what works great for me may not work great for you. Yet always stretch with and eye for not being injured!
See You On The Mats!
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Brian R. VanCise
Note: This Blog is opinion only and Instinctive Response Training LLC nor Brian R. VanCise is responsible for any third party actions taken.
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