Think I am kidding? think again...If you raise your leg to waist height how tight does it feel? not too bad I bet, run your hand along the back of your thigh...how do those tendons feel? tight?
Here's mine!
You can almost hear those tendons go twangggggggg! That's as straight as I can make my leg whilst standing and raising my right leg to 90 degrees to the floor....and even then I had to prop it up on a radiator to get it that straight.
It does have its benefits, I can contract my leg a lot quicker than you would think; quicker than dumbo can say "jimny cricket!"
Its got its downsides, a lot of energy is wasted just straightening the leg - and when you are cycling thats a no-no.
So to resolve it, I'm going to use two things, Dynamic Stretching and good old fashioned stubbornness.
What is Dynamic stretching?
Basically tricking the leg into stretching further than normal. This involves gentle swings of the leg forwards and backwards gradually getting higher and higher each time. Around 10 to 15 swings on each leg should be enough. After that you start to look silly. The stretches can be done early in the morning (be careful not to force it) as this will set the length of muscle spindle for the rest of the day.
Why does it work?
This works by using the properties of muscle spindles. A muscle spindle is a sensor in a muscle that senses amount of stretch and speed of stretch. By gradually taking the leg higher and higher the muscle spindle allows it to go safely and lengthen the muscle. If the muscle is forced then a stretch reflex is initiated which causes a reflex contraction (shortening) of the muscle. This is called ballistic stretching and can damage muscles and lets face it, I don't need any help damaging my already stretched to their limits hamstrings!
Although, when you tear a tendon they tend to heal a lot looser...maybe thats an idea...
Feel free to leave a comment!
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