PNF Stretching
Whew, busy morning at the clinic!
It’s an awfully wet and dark day around here and I am already longing for that gorgeous weather we had over the weekend. I spent the whole weekend outside, under blue sky days and starry nights.
And apparently flying pigs…but that’s another story…
The musical highlights of The Festy Experience were Brett Dennen, Lake Street Dive, and The Two Man Gentleman Band. Good times, check ’em out.
Personal highlights included good quality time with friends, camping in October, and leading a post bike race PNF stretch session.
You’re never too young (or too old) to stretch!
I first learned about PNF in my Kinesiology for Dancers class in college then later became a big fan when Tate started using it on me in my chiropractic treatments.
It’s helpful to have a partner, trainer, or health care provider to assist you with this type of stretching because it makes some positions easier but there are a few ways to do PNF on your own.
PNF utilizes muscle contractions to fatigue the fast twitch fibers and allow you to get deeper into a stretch and increase the length of the muscles. In the above quadriceps stretch we stretched, then kicked our foot back into our hand (activating the quad) for 15 seconds, and then stretched again. We repeated this sequence about 3 times for each leg.
To stretch the hamstrings you can put your foot on a bench/step, stretch forward for 20-30 seconds then press your heel into the bench/step to activate the hamstrings. Hold contraction for 15 seconds then repeat stretch. Continue for 2-3 cycles.
Note: The contraction only takes about 20% of your max strength, just enough to activate the muscle.
Stretch and Enjoy!
