Thursday, November 20, 2008

videos: dynamic stretching (part 1)

ok, so my post on stretching and warm-up discussing dynamic stretching got quite a bit of attention--not just in terms of comments, but in terms of visits to the post (reference: stretching and warm-up).

a fair number of people asked me what dynamic stretching actually looks like, so i decided it'd be worthwhile to write a follow-up post with some demonstrations to help people understand how the concept of dynamic stretching is translated into application. i took some time to look for videos on Youtube, and filtered out a selection that i thought were best.

i should caution that there are different kinds of dynamic stretching exercises, geared towards preparing different parts of the body for different kinds of motions involved in different types of sports. as a result, no single video can really be taken as comprehensive or universal, and you should recognize that your sport of choice (in my case, triathlon) calls for a sport-specific set of dynamic stretching.

to some degree i already talked about dynamic stretching in my posts discussing running drills, which showed a selection of what i considered to be excellent videos on Youtube showing drills common to running in terms of warm-up and technique work. you can check them out:
but in terms of videos actually identified specifically as dynamic stretching, i also found a few more that i think demonstrate the concepts involved. most of them come from other sports (it appears mostly basketball & football), but i think they're largely applicable to triathlon since they manage to cover most of the body:
there's also a series from DRIVE Fitness focusing on basic dynamic stretching:
i'd like to try and find some dynamic stretching exercises used by triathletes--or at the very least, used by swimmers, cyclists, and runners, just to see if there's anything different between the 3 disciplines. but for now, i think these will do.

you can see what dynamic stretching actually looks like. that, and you can see how each of these reflects the principles of dynamic stretching (i.e., gradually lengthening the muscle tissue through an increasing range of motion, but doing so while increasing blood flow and elasticity while under light resistance), and so can get an idea as to why they're good for the warm-up phase preceding workouts or competition.

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