Flexibility and Injury

I've been busy recently with work and that meant I had forgotten to post a link to this excellent piece by Colin Gordon of Edinburgh Deep Tissue Massage on Flexibility and injury:

When we talk about the need for improved flexibility in injury prevention we are not talking about the need to develop the range of movement demonstrated by a gymnast merely that we have the normal range of movement for our joints....

If we are to tackle flexibility issues fully with we need to think beyond simply stretching, in any form, as to why we lack ROM within a joint but that whilst stretching will not prevent injury, there is no evidence that it does, there is no reason not to utilise various stretching type techniques to help regain our normal range of motion.

Go and read the whole thing

Congruent Exercise 3: Injuries are to be avoided

One of the basic precepts in Bill DeSimone's Congruent Exercise (I'd encourage everyone to get a copy) is that :

"The absolute first priority for anyone training with weights should be to avoid a catastrophic injury."

Bill notes that this should be obvious, but points to a series of tragic and disabling accidents that have left people dead or disabled.

I thought this when reading some on the weird thing that is T Nation the other day.  It is a set of tales of catastrophic injuries including a powerlifter who shatters his spine while his pals laugh and triceps torn while benching, trying to present these dangers as acceptable, things to be overcome in a macho drive to success.    Actually it comes across as stupid.  Why the hell glory in disabling movements?

strange.


As I have said before:  KEEP IT SAFE