Don’t Skip the Stretch

An Overview : The Importance of a Daily Routine

The benefits of stretching are well-established.

Stretching increases your flexibility, allowing you to move more freely without pain; opens up channels for blood flow and nerve function; allows us to maintain our performance in our sports; improves the quality of sleep, and can slow down the aging process, in both our look and feel. There aren’t any downsides to safe, controlled stretching and yet so many of us find excuses to skip the stretch, especially triathletes. We are all too willing to cram an extra 5 minutes into our workouts before we jump on that Zoom call, but all too reluctant to spend 5 minutes stretching.

In this article we will explore a daily stretching regimen that is at once practical, efficient and easy for anyone to complete regardless of experience or time constraints. This regimen is borne out of years of professional, practical experience as a certified triathlon coach and owner of Stretch Zone, a practitioner-assisted stretch studio based in Encinitas, CA. If experience has taught me one thing, it has actually taught me two things:

First, stretching can solve a lot of our physical and mental problems.

When someone tells me that they are having low back problems, it is usually tight hips combined with sitting.

When someone is having knee problems, it is often tight IT bands and psoas, combined with sitting.

Same with plantar fasciitis, Achilles problems, sore shoulders, tight mid-back and on and on. Stretching can help with all of these things and more. Intellectually, people know that when they come in to see me, almost apologizing for years of stretching. Which leads me to the second part…

Just because we know it, doesn’t mean we do it.

I have heard all of the excuses – procrastination, apathy, even fear.

Therefore I have found that it I am far more likely to get buy-in when I prescribe short, easy to follow regimens. To get the most bang for the buck, I believe that the three components of a daily stretching routine are:

(1) morning routine, (2) post-workout and (3) evening routine.

Knowing people, I have learned to keep it short and manageable; knowing endurance athletes, you will want more. That is fine; view this as a starting place that can always be expanded upon as you get more comfortable.

The morning routine is the most important component of your stretching routine, and ironically doesn’t involve a lot of stretching. A 5:30am swim coach once compared our bodies in the morning to a piece of gum you chewed the night before and set on your car’s dashboard overnight. That gum would be hard as a rock when you get into the car the next morning. It takes time to warm it up and get our pliability back. So, the morning routine is about movement, about warming up the body for the day ahead.

The post-workout portion is the shortest but most critical. You know the drill; you’re up in time to get ready for the Tuesday AM Zwift workout, you push yourself past your max with Jim’s “pinch to grow an inch” and suddenly the clock says 6:50am. You have a call at 7:30am. The kids need to eat. You need to eat. Whatever the case, time is not on your side in the morning. It is far too easy to simply stretch the calves for 20 seconds and rush into your daily routine.

The problem here is that you just pushed yourself hard and are rushing to sit off and on for the next 8 hours. You can feel your hamstrings shortening, manifesting as low back pain. You can feel your psoas constricting, manifesting as knee pain. You need to allow 10 minutes to stretch off the bike and we are going to lay out an easy to follow routine here. That 10 minutes is going to allow you to transition from exertion to relaxation and can make the difference between pain and no pain.

Finally, the evening is the time for the relaxing stretching time. After a long day of life, we want to allow 15 minutes for slow, deep stretching, giving ourselves a fighting chance for a good night’s sleep and the opportunity to get up and do it all over again tomorrow.

The fourth discipline of triathlon is staying injury-free and this daily routine will go a long way to help you with just that.

Stay tuned for specifics and examples to integrate into your daily routine…

By Brian Melekian

ITCA certified triathlon coach; Owner, Stretch Zone; Tower 26 athlete