An Introduction to Stretching to ensure Football Fitness
Why stretch as a footballer?
Stretching can be used either for injury prevention or to gain improvements in the muscle’s elasticity. This can be useful in football in situations that require stretching to reach the ball or a tackle. Stretching will allow you to reach further, quicker and with greater ease. Stretching also helps loosen muscles, which can be useful in injury prevention. If muscles are tight this can cause individuals to run with poor technique which can lead to more serious injuries.
What types of stretching are there?
There are 3 different categories of stretching that can be performed. These include:
- Static stretching
- Dynamic stretching
- Proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation (PNF) stretching.
What are they?
Static: Static stretching is the type the large majority of people perform. It involves standing or sitting in a stationary position that results in the desired muscle group feeling a slight tension as the muscle is extended. It is advised that you perform each stretch twice and hold for 30s each time.
Dynamic: Dynamic stretching involves swinging the body part around, stretching it further each time until it reaches its capable limit. This type of stretch allows the range of motion around the whole joint to be tested rather than just a stretch in one direction. It is recommended to perform these for 20s as they are quite rapid actions.
PNF: PNF stretching is the most difficult type to perform. It requires an additional person to hold the stretches for you and is rather time consuming. It also involves a few actions for each stretch performed. This could involve the helper pushing the leg back to stretch the muscle to its maximum, which is held for 20s. The person being stretched would then try to push the leg in the opposite direction whilst the helper resists. The pressure is held for 10s. This makes the muscle contract without moving (isometric contraction) and loosens it. The first action is then repeated for a further 20s, and the muscle should be capable of stretching further than originally.
Advantages and Disadvantages?
Static stretching is the easiest and safest way to stretch. It can be done very quickly on your own and there should be no chance of injuring a muscle as it stays static. However, the improvements seen from static stretching are minimal and its main use is for injury prevention.
Dynamic stretching does not stretch the muscle in the same way and attempt to increase its elasticity; it mainly works on increasing the range of motion around the joint. This could be very useful for a footballer in match situations. The risk of injury using this type of stretching is not as high as in ballistic but it must be performed after a warm up and the improvements seen are not as great.
PNF stretching is recognised as the best if looking for greater range of motion, which is important in football. Research shows it gives similar, if not greater improvements to dynamic stretching. The disadvantages are that it’s much more complex and time consuming and there is a high chance of DOMS the next day, especially the first few times it is performed.
What is recommended?
If looking for improvements in range of motion ballistic and dynamic stretching are recommended. However, due to the fact this may cause injury it is not recommended this is used prior to a game where static stretching should be used just to loosen the muscles and give them a greater capability to stretch.
Although stretching has been used for many years before and after matches to stop players pulling or tearing muscles, scientific research is very much undecided regarding its value, as some research believes it can help while others contradict that viewpoint. Despite this, it is still advisable to include a stretching regime before and after a game or training as part of the warm up and cool down.