Q: Matt, I watched a video where a fitness trainer was saying that people need to “stop stretching” but then he starts showing you some “stretches.” What do you think of that? Isn’t that just a bid of a contradiction?

A: I knows what youse talking abouts. It’s the “don’t stretch” call to attention to get you to do “their way” of stretching. Usually this involves a call to action to add weight to the stretch while telling you that you cannot become permanently flexible unless you use barbells, plates and/or dumbbells.

Part of this method is true – but there’s another part that is greatly overlooked, and that is the relaxation-tension-relaxation factor. You cannot get good at anything, much less attain the highest levels of excellence, unless you learn to embody both relaxation and regulated tension.

In basketball, shooting a brick shows that the shot was not as relaxed as the dribbling. To crack a whip, you remain relaxed almost to the end of the movement. You add a little tension, then as soon as the tension is released, you immediately relax again.

I know people who are “permanently flexible” who never used weights or additional resistance. All they did was tell their muscles to relax as they breathed out the excess tension.

You can also use deliberate isometric tension (no weights involved) of the muscles you are stretching to reset the automatic reflex that keeps you from reaching new dimensions of flexibility. Once you override the reflex that is holding you back, you are almost permanently flexible in that part of your body.

As an example, I can go for months without doing various stretches, yet when I decide to check and see if I’ve gone backward, I find out that I haven’t. Once again, this level of flexibility is more about programming the mind-body than it is adding resistance with weights.

Using this method alone you can make dramatic improvements in your flexibility in one session – and these improvements last. I cover this in detail in my Combat Stretching course.

Matt Furey