As soon as any sports team prepares to play, their stretch routine becomes evident. Top athletes strive to perform at their peak every game while reducing injury risk.
Dynamic stretches are the optimal way to warm up before exercising, or any aerobic exercise like cycling or skipping that gets your heart rate elevated and helps you perform dynamic stretches more effectively.
1. Increased Flexibility
If you have ever watched a professional sports team warm up for an event, chances are that they devote at least an hour or more to stretching routines to keep muscles flexible and play at their best, while also preventing and treating potential injuries. The ultimate aim is for muscle elasticity while preventing or treating possible damage caused by overexertion during competitions or practice sessions.
Traditionnally, athletes warm up by performing some form of static stretching; typically 20-30 sec of standard stretch held for each muscle group before exercise begins. Unfortunately for many individuals this method doesn’t increase flexibility as intended and could actually impair performance in some instances.
Dynamic movement patterns provide an alternative that involves multiple muscle groups/joints moving through their full range of motion instead of simply holding static positions. Dynamic stretching can serve both as a warm up or even replace full workout sessions as its key advantage lies in mimicking multidirectional movements characteristic of your sport of choice.
For squash players, stretching typically means lunges, controlled leg swings/thrusts and similar movements that maximize sensory habituation and flexibility gains instead of simply lengthening one muscle group statically to an exact point.
Dynamic stretching is both more efficient and safer, since it involves stretching muscles when they are still warm rather than when cold or stiff. Bouncing or ballistic stretching techniques may cause undue strain on a muscle/joint that is being stretched, potentially producing adverse effects or setting off reflexes that oppose stretching.
2. Increased Range of Motion
Dynamic stretching helps increase flexibility and lower injury risks while simultaneously priming muscles and joints for exercise – this increases active range of motion, improves joint function, and raises muscle temperature – all essential elements for optimal performance.
Stretching may seem tedious or pointless to many players and they might be tempted to skip it entirely; but by failing to perform a warm-up and stretch before your workout you run the risk of pulling or damaging muscles and potentially leading to injury in general. Stretching is also crucial to helping prevent injury as well as to speeding recovery time from previous injuries.
Static stretching entails stretching specific muscles for extended periods, often in static poses like touching your toes or doing high knees, before running or weighted strength sessions. Dynamic stretches incorporate continuous movement more specific to what sport or exercise you intend on engaging in; examples such as walking lunges and controlled leg swings/thrusts can help prepare muscles, joints, and the entire body for exercise.
Tight hip muscles can contribute to painful conditions like Iliotibial Band Syndrome. Therefore, stretching is crucial to keep tight hips at bay before engaging in any physical activities that involve stretching them. Start by standing with your feet shoulder-width apart and gradually lower into a squat position while keeping your back straight and core tight – hold this position for 20 rotations before returning back up again.
Add dynamic stretches to your squash warm-up and you will see an instantaneous difference in performance on court. In Part Two of this two-part series we will look further at different forms of stretching as well as static and dynamic stretching techniques, their advantages and disadvantages as well as ways to incorporate them into workouts.
3. Increased Strength
Stretching has long been used as part of pre-exercise routines to warm up and prepare muscles for movement, yet static stretching – the type of stretching typically employed before exercise – has no noticeable impact on injury prevention or performance, and may actually make matters worse.
Dynamic movements provide an alternative solution by activating similar muscle groups as those you will be working out, yet moving them through their full range. Exercise should be completed slowly with controlled joint movement rather than being held at one specific spot for too long; an example of such dynamic exercise would be standing with arms out in front of shoulders at shoulder height, palms facing down. You would then rotate shoulders slowly in a controlled fashion.
These movements offer numerous advantages. First, they allow muscles to activate immediately upon starting movement, helping prevent injury. Furthermore, these types of exercises allow blood circulation to increase more effectively for improved efficiency and performance.
Dynamic moves can benefit people at every fitness level, but are especially advantageous for athletes such as squash or those whose work requires heavy physical activity. If you need assistance choosing dynamic stretches that best suit you, ask your coach or personal trainer.
Stretching may seem tedious or pointless to some people, but those who possess an understanding of their body know the opposite to be true. You wouldn’t run six miles without first participating in yoga class first – similarly don’t dive headfirst into your squash session without first stretching properly first!
4. Improved Balance
Dynamic movements paired with regular stretching is an effective way to retrain your balance and coordination for squash, which requires multiple planes of movement including rotation, forward/backward motion as well as side-to-side. Lunges, cable chops from various angles, and push-ups performed using one hand on a medicine ball are fantastic ways to develop these essential abilities while also warming up muscles and joints for exercise.
Static stretching before workouts has been shown to offer little in terms of injury prevention or performance, actually increasing injury risk while decreasing muscle/joint capacity to perform when the workout commences. Today, elite sports are moving away from static stretching in favor of dynamic mobility drills as part of their warm-up routines.
When performing dynamic stretches, it is crucial that they are done slowly and with care. If a movement becomes painful or you feel that over-stretching has occurred, stop immediately.
Before beginning dynamic stretching, ideally perform five to ten minutes of light aerobic activity like swimming, jogging or cycling in order to increase blood circulation and raise muscle temperature more safely and gradually. This will increase circulation while safely increasing muscle temperature.
Subsequently, you can progress to dynamic stretching moves such as standing on one leg while swinging your other leg outward in a circle. Squatting controlledly begins with knee directly over ankle and gradually works its way up towards full range of motion; these multi-planar actions more accurately mirroring squash’s demands on muscle/joint composites and provide far better preparation than static “standing still” stretching approaches.
5. Reduced Injury Risk
Squash is an energetic sport and stretching is essential in improving performance, preventing injury and rehabilitation after injuries have occurred. Stretching increases muscle flexibility and joint mobility by increasing blood flow to muscles; stretching helps build strength, reduce soreness after exercise and decrease injury risk – this is where physical therapists come in! They can create and implement tailored stretching routines.
Dynamic stretching, also known as active movement stretching, uses controlled motions to gradually move body parts through their full range of motion, increasing core body temperature while warming muscles and ligaments in preparation for exercise, according to Leigh-Ann Bramble, a doctor of physical therapy at New York City’s Hospital for Special Surgery. Dynamic stretching differs from static stretching in that you hold each stretch position for 20 seconds or longer prior to beginning workout; dynamic stretching should generally be completed post-workout instead of prior to exercise.
Studies conducted over the last several decades have demonstrated that static stretching performed prior to exercise does not lead to any gains in terms of strength or injury prevention, while some research indicates it may increase injury risk by decreasing muscle force production and increasing passive stiffness. Recent evidence, however, indicates dynamic stretching as part of an exercise warm-up may actually have positive results in terms of injury prevention.
Preventing injuries through proper technique, balanced training programs and regular stretching is crucial to keeping you injury free. Should an incident arise, seeking immediate medical care will minimize damage and allow for rapid healing with minimum time off squash. Rest, ice therapy, compression (raising injured limb above your heart) and elevation (squats/lunges) are among the many recommended treatments for soft tissue injuries.