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Rang: Administrateur
Nombre de messages : 8092
Localisation : Washington D.C.
Date d'inscription : 28/05/2005
 | | RESISTANCE FLEXIBILITY AND STRENGTH TRAINING | |
RESISTANCE FLEXIBILITY AND STRENGTH TRAINING
SOMETHING THE WORLD HASN’T YET SEEN.
What you thought and felt about stretching
will forever change.
Being more flexible!
We are the exclusive home and founders of
Resistance Flexibility and Strength Training® and The Meridian
Flexibility System®.
RESISTANCE FLEXIBILITY AND STRENGTH TRAINING® (RFST) offers
immediate, cumulative, and permanent increases in flexibility; takes
the pain out of stretching, and protects you from injuring yourself by
over-stretching.
THE MERIDIAN FLEXIBILITY SYSTEM® (MFS) provides stretches for 16 unique muscle groups with concomitant physiological and psychological benefits.
NEW AND ORIGINAL SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH ON FLEXIBILITY validates
this ‘revolutionary’ stretching system and is being used to create the
upcoming new Meridian Flexibility™ Fitness Equipment.
Excerpts from: The Genius of Flexibility by Bob Cooley © 2005
Shattering the False Myths
And Beliefs About Stretching Forever
There’s a ‘new way to stretch’ that will finally give you the results that you have always expected from stretching.
Myth: Muscles become more flexible by simply stretching them.
Reality:
You must CONTRACT a muscle continuously while lengthening it to produce
immediate increases in flexibility. Muscles do not stretch the way most
everyone in the world now thinks they do!
Most
everyone thinks that you increase the flexibility of muscles by simply
stretching them, and that the more time you spend stretching, and the
more often you practice, that you will eventually become much more
flexible. If this were true than everyone would be more flexible — but
they are not! Simply elongating muscles, holding the stretch for
whatever period of time, and breathing into the stretch has never
produced satisfying increases in flexibility.
Why aren’t people as flexible as they want to be? Is it that a handful of fortunate people are simply born
flexible, while most of us are doomed to being perpetually tight,
stiff, creaky, and getting worse with age? What is it that these
handfuls of naturally flexible people do when they stretch that makes
them truly more and more flexible?
In 1978, while
walking across the street, I was struck by an automobile traveling over
70mph. In an attempt to rehabilitate myself, I discovering the ‘inside
secret’ of stretching- that muscles stretch only when they CONTRACT those while lengthening them.
This is a natural or organic way muscles stretch. Contracting muscles
while lengthening them has come to be called Resistance Flexibility and
Strength Training®.
Resistance Strength Training versus Resistance Flexibility Training
Everyone knows how to strength train muscles: you begin in a position
where the muscles are as long as possible (without over extending the
joints of course) and contract those muscles while lifting additional
weight or resistance until the muscles are as short as possible-thus
called Resistance Strength Training (RST). And everyone experiences
immediate increases in their strength.
I discovered that flexibility training is the exact opposite of
strength training. To stretch muscles, you start in a position where
the muscles are as short as possible and then CONTRACT the muscles
while elongating the muscle as far as possible until the muscles can no
longer contract or resist- thus called Resistance Flexibility Training
(RFT). So in both traditional Resistance Strength Training and in this
new way to stretch called Resistance Flexibility Training you must
CONTRACT the muscles only in RST the muscles are shortening and in RFT
the muscles are lengthening and the starting and ending positions are
opposite. Except …
When you contract a muscle while it is being lengthened (eccentric
contraction) it naturally produces twice the force or resistance
compared to when you contract the muscle and shorten it (concentric
contraction). So to Resistance Stretch muscles once the muscles are
warmed up you must use TWICE the force to stretch it relative to the
amount of weight those muscles can lift. TWICE the force—who would have
guessed.
A revolution is truly occurring in the physical fitness and health
arenas. Flexibility training- the missing link in both exercise science
and alternative medicine- is the cause. Resistance Flexibility Training
is now becoming the prerequisite to aerobic and strength routines,
providing injury prevention, and credited for dramatic improvements in
athletic and artistic performance. It also yields potent physical and
mental health benefits.
Resistance Flexibility and Strength Training
is rooted in knowledge of the organic nature of muscular flexibility.
It is based on the principle that muscles stretch best if contracted
while lengthening them. This active contraction is called resistance
and is the key to producing rapid increases in flexibility.
The
simplicity of how muscles truly stretch by using resistance is the
power behind Resistance Flexibility and Strength Training. The
discovery of this “new way” to stretch tells you to CONTRACT AND
LENGTHEN your muscles while STRETCHING them. Placing yourself in
over-extended positions is not stretching. Pulling and yanking on your
muscles is not stretching. Unknown to most people is the new discovery
that when you stretch a muscle it naturally contracts and resists to
produce the stretch. Your true flexibility range occurs only when you
maximally resist while lengthening.
It takes twice the
tension to stretch a muscle as to strengthen it! Contracting a muscle
while simultaneously stretching it is the secret to stretching. This is
called Resistance Stretching®.
Resisting while stretching is natural. Most people start stretching for
physical reasons, but they continue to stretch because they have
learned that predictable upgrades in their physiological and
psychological health can occur by doing specific stretches.
Here are sample Hamstring and Quadriceps Resistance Flexibility Exercises for you to try and test out this ‘new way to stretch’.
Benefits of this stretch
Stretches the muscles on the back of your hip, thigh, lower leg, ankle
and foot. This stretch improves the health of your bladder and all your
bones. It connects you to being more hopeful, honest and successful.
Positioning—how to get into this great stretch
Lie on your back and bring your right thigh towards your chest. Then
bend your right knee so that your right heel is near the back of your
right hip. Your left leg can be either straight or bent.
Resisting—how to create the stretch without pain
Grab hold of your right foot with both hands. Make the muscles on the
back of your thigh (your hamstrings) contract so that your heel pulls
towards the back of your hips. Keep contracting your hamstrings, but
simultaneously use your hands to pull your heel upwards, unbending your
knee and straightening out your lower leg as you lengthen your
hamstrings. You are lengthening but also contracting your hamstrings at
the same time. Yes, you can contract and lengthen a muscle at the same
time! And yes you must maximally contract to discover your true
flexibility range. Return to the starting position and do 6-10 repeats,
then attempt the same stretch with your left leg. Stand up and check
out your flexibility.
What you discover
You discovered you are more flexible and light! Everyone does… and
everyone is much more flexible than ever before. Why? Because you
traditionally only lengthen a muscle to try to stretch it. But this
time you lengthened and contracted your hamstring to stretch. You’ve
probably never done this before.
You
pull yourself together when you use Resistance Stretching, instead of
yanking yourself apart as you do in traditional stretching.
Benefits of the stretch
Stretches the muscles along the front of your hip, thigh, lower leg,
ankle and foot. This stretch improves the health of all your muscles
and aids in stomach digestion. It also connects you with being more
self-expressive and promotes sobriety!
Positioning—how to get into this great stretch (See photo above)
From a standing position, kneel onto all fours with the wall directly
behind you. Flex your left knee and bring your left leg up against the
wall as shown, resting the top of your foot against the wall (you might
use a towel or small pillow to protect your foot). Step up onto your
right foot, lunge deeply forward, and slant your torso slightly
forward.
Resisting: how to get a stretch without pain
While leaning forward in a lunge, push against the wall with your left
foot by contracting the muscles on the front of your left thigh. As you
continue to push your left leg and foot against the wall, bring your
hips back to your foot against the wall by pushing yourself forward
with your right leg. Moving your body backwards will lengthen the
muscles on the front of your thigh, but because they are also
contracting they will STRETCH. After resisting only once, you should be
able to bend your knee further and get your ankle closer to the back of
your hips. INSTANT FLEXIBILITY! After repeating the stretch 6–10 times,
you’ll notice even greater increases in your muscle’s elasticity.
Remember, the same muscles that are being stretched are being contracted! Stretching
and contracting a muscle are not mutually exclusive endeavors! And you
must maximally contract while lengthening to see your true flexibility
range. They work together to create the most powerful stretches
possible!
What you discover
This
use of resistance results in greater flexibility—muscles begin to
stretch further than they usually do. In principle, to generate great
resistance in any stretch, you will need to oppose or fight against the
stretch, so to speak. Now you are learning just how to resist in a
stretch by feeling how your body naturally does it. You’ll absolutely need to resist maximally sometimes in order to make any muscle really flexible.
That’s right! You’re getting it! Trying something new isn’t always
easy. You may feel uncertain, doubtful or think that you already know
what I’m about to tell you. But if you “hang in there,” for only ten
minutes, I’m confident you will realize—in a flash!—that what I’ve
discovered is new, true, and transforming.
http://www.meridianstretching.com/flexibility_strength.html
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