Stretching Philosophy

Featuring Jackson Sayers, B.Sc. (Kinesiology)

Duration: 1 minute, 25 seconds

The whole concept of flexibility today is evolving.

What we generally thought of as being right 10 years ago is now probably wrong. I started stretching when I was 13 and being close to 50 now I can say that I've probably learned a little bit about stretching.

In the late 90s I had a flexibility business where 10 hours a day all I did was stretch people, and I came to the conclusion very, very quickly that a tight muscle - in order for it to change - it wasn't going to necessarily change through stretching.

What it was going to change through was getting stronger. The concept that a tight muscle is actually a weak muscle became even more relevant to me. So while I stretch every day, what I focus on now is somewhat different than what I did 20 years ago.

What I focus on now is almost doing a small isometric when I'm stretching. It's taking that very tight, sore part of the muscle and it's injecting a little bit of strength into it; it's contracting it.

It's almost like protecting it in a sense, so that we don't rip it or tear it while doing a stretch. So what we're going to focus on is flexibility component in this library.

What we're going to be thinking about is not so much are we going to pull a muscle or are we going to do that on a repeatable basis every day. We're going to think about how can we get that muscle stronger.

Presenter: Mr. Jackson Sayers, Kinesiologist, Vancouver, BC

Local Practitioners: Kinesiologist