Don't stretch! Relax...

How often do you hear the word ‘relax or relaxation’ in sports? Every coach…every trainer and trainee aim at relaxation because they understand the importance of a relaxed body vis-à-vis tired. However, can you call 10/15 minutes of cool down proper relaxation? Is it enough? Read on…

Relaxation, to me, can be divided into two parts – mental and physical. Both are important if you are chasing a relaxed body. So how about achieving mental relaxation in our pursuit to relax physically? I have been working on it for quite some time now and I thought it would be great to share my experiences with you all.

To be able to feel relaxation you need to first feel the tiredness in muscles.

Obviously because otherwise what’s the point of relaxation! But ask yourself…do we feel tiredness in the muscle every time we go about relaxing a muscle!? Or do we go by the standard stretches that are prescribed!?

First step: pay attention to your muscles during your movements while in the gym, on a mat, or on the field and perhaps, you already know which muscles are tight; only this time you feel the tightness in your muscles through the activity. 

Once you do that, you will then experience the muscle tension in your body and relieving your body from this tension would take your muscles automatically in the state of rest. And because you are in sync with yourself, your mind is also rested from the outside world, giving you complete relaxation.

 Whether it is the levels of amino acid or a mild ecstasy coming from the frontal lobe of the brain; the fundamental principle of relaxation is being at ease with self. 

As discussed in my previous articles - any repeat action causes imbalance in our body. Therefore, to me, relaxation is also about bringing balance in body and thereby, bringing muscles/joints to their original shape and position. You cannot easily measure balance and therefore, focus on relaxing and balance will happen!

To understand this better, let’s look at some simple stretches that we do in our everyday life for our back: Forward bending, Side bending, Back bending or Twisting etc.; and learn how we can make these more beneficial:

We do these stretches, almost every day, whether to warm up the back or relax it in cool down. And since these simple postures don’t exactly fall into stretching either, or let’s say, we don’t treat these as one for stretching; we do these mostly to open or relax our back. Right!? 

Note & caution: don’t try to copy the depth/extent of twist or bending from the pictures because it would vary from person to person. Aim for structural alignment and concentrate on the internal feelings in your muscles.

(Unfortunately, I couldn’t use full pictures - so please assume the feet in all the pictures as nicely/fully grounded and straight)

The left picture is showing a simple side bend where we are aiming at opening the middle & lower back with a mild shoulder stretch. Opening of the middle back (lats & QL) will provide huge relief and relaxation to the entire back.

Now, let’s look at how we can achieve more from this posture: In the picture below, the trainee is made to straighten his upper hand which further pulls on the middle back to further assist the twist at the middle. The lower hand – left in this case, is pushing the rod away to further straighten the upper hand. This can be called a whole back stretch because you are literally elongating one side of the back fully, while simultaneously contracting the other. 

Now, let’s assume you are left hand fast bowler or badminton/tennis player; what changes would you bring in this posture?

My suggestion would be to loosen up the grip of left hand and relax the left shoulder and pull away the rod just by using the upper hand. Why? Because you don’t want to tire your already tired left shoulder to facilitate the stretch on the right!

Relax what is tired and yet achieve what is required.

In sports, it is important to know your muscularity and understand, whether the body part that you intend to attend to, requires complete rest, relaxation, stretching or strengthening as per the demands of the game. Unfortunately, we mostly assume weakness and approach strengthening which further damages the already tight muscles or joint.

Remember, relaxation brings the power back in muscles!

Let’s admit that our body is never structurally aligned. Period. Therefore, there is a need to seek proper relaxation by working through the muscles and relax the babies literally. It’s not about flexibility here; it’s about relaxation. Remember, the best way to bring your body back in balance is to come in line with your structural alignment and that is only possible when you do something about it.

The left picture shows a good stretch for shoulder – rotator cuff muscles. The lower body gets locked by the tree in a perfect lunge making the hip stable. His left hand locks itself onto the tree to stop the twist from the hip and lower back. And then, when he twists to hold the rod; he manages to give a nice relaxed stretch to his shoulder (rotator cuff) muscles - exclusively.

In the right picture, same posture as above, but this time the focus is on the middle back and not shoulders. Therefore, lock the left hand/elbow in such a manner that it allows for the back to twist and back hand grip changes to pull on the middle back to twist. Shoulder just follows the twist. This helps open the upper back, chest and middle back nicely, while simultaneously working on your hip and leg muscles in the lunge.

Difference between relaxation and stretching? 

The difference is same - when you are working in the gym for fitness vis-à-vis when you are working to gain strength in a specific area. More focused approach with heavier weights perhaps. Or, when you increase the intensity of drills in cardio to improve on your stamina and endurance.

Would you do these when you are tired?

The posture showing on the right could be a nice relaxing pose for some; and it could be stretching for others who have extremely tight bodies. Therefore, the parameter to measure the extent is within you and no written document can prove it right or wrong.

In relaxation we don’t tire the already tired muscle, we relax them! Working towards bringing your muscles back to their original position to bring normal range of motion is relaxation. Taking it beyond the normal range of motion or putting a time to it, is stretching. 

It’s as simple as nursing an injury as soon as you get it. Relax when you feel the tension and don’t set any timelines or standards. Don’t look into literature to check whether relaxation is suitable at any given point of time! It’s your internal communication with your body which no outsider can ever understand. You sleep when you are sleepy…you eat when you are hungry…and similarly, you relax when you are tired.

It is relaxation…feel it and enjoy till it lasts. Of course, you need to learn the art of relaxation before you start enjoying it!

And when we refer to stretching in sports; it should be about going a little beyond your limit to improve your range of motion/flexibility. It is equally important and it is just that - it involves the muscles to go beyond their range of motion and hence it may be tiring for muscles and joints sometimes. The picture on the left shows the athlete lengthening his back to its maximum.

Whereas, the picture on the right shows the same stretch but this time the middle back is going beyond its original range of motion and straightening. Once the hips are locked to not fall or move forward; one can seek length in the spine by making an effort to elongate the spine - shoulders fully extended forward and middle back elongated to maximum. 

And, when one seeks length within the body; their mind gets relaxed automatically!

Therefore, the need is to make an effort - not in the sense of what we think relaxation/stretching is; but literally, diving deep into our muscularity and finding it.

Relaxation requires just one thing – attention!  

And therefore, it can be sought at the gym, on a mat, on the field, in any training studio or even in bed. It may not require any equipment.

The art of relaxation is in finding stretch within a stretch; relaxation within a relaxation and posture within a posture - to ultimately find comfort within discomfort!

The picture on the left shows a simple back bend stretching the entire back. Whereas, the picture below shows the tweaked version of the same back bend. By holding the rod with straight hands, the trainee is not only getting a nice stretch in the shoulders but by locking the shoulders in opposite direction; he manages to bring more stretch in his neck muscles - trapizius.

Similar looking posture but different muscles.

 I won’t be surprised if some of you feel stretched more in the shoulders in this posture. Well, that is a strong indication that your shoulders are tight and need relaxation.

Therefore, bring your hands to your hips, relax your shoulders and do simple back bend. Attend to one body part at a time if you feel the pain in other parts. However, other parts – shoulders in this case, need to be attended separately. Don’t leave it for the future!

Submission: If one feels a niggle anywhere in the back or shoulder region doing these basic stretches (properly) then I can say with certainty that regardless of your schedule; you must relax that part every day until such time you stop feeling the niggle. 

Live less out of habit and more out of intent – Gautam Buddha

Umesh Chhikara

Training Therapist

[email protected]