[quote]1 Man Island wrote:
Good point, BHOLL,
I was thinking I would basically do the routine in this video:
minus the rollovers for now.
The point I specifically felt it in the rollover was at the top where I had the most flexion… so perhaps it could be a disc… I don’t suppose there’s any way to tell w/ out a doc, is there? (no insurance yet)
Sento, I do that routine approximately 6 days/week. Though 2 of those days, my off days, I do a reduced version. My routine is a push/pull split, mostly around 10-15 reps per set.
FWIW, the following was prescribed by the PT at the beginning of the year:
-hamstring stretch w/ yoga strap
-quad stretch w/ yoga strap
-IT band stretch w/ yoga strap (my bands were REALLY tight before doing this, but I’ve stopped doing it for the past few months)
-foam roll quads and IT bands
All stretches are supposed to be done for 2 min. total, but it didn’t really matter how I split it up throughout the day. This was some time ago, though, so I’m certainly up for changing this.
So, Sento, to summarize what you’re saying, do dynamic work pre-workout similar to that posted in the video above and static work post workout. The post work-out routine would, for example, only having me stretch hamstrings on pull days, hips and glutes every day, and quads on push days. The sequence should be the opposite of lifting, and I should do the isolation stretches prior to the main stretch. I wouldn’t say I have any chronic tightness anywhere except the lumbar (hence, the post); and even then, I’d say it’s acute at this point.
Sound right?[/quote]
Well, first I’d like to make a clarification between “limbering/mobility work” and “stretching/flexibility work”. The former is safe to do just about every day (assuming you are not really pushing the envelope/intensity) and essentially just serves to get your body loose and ready to move. This type of work will not improve your end range of motion though (flexibility). All of the soft tissue work and dynamic stretching you are doing along with what your PT prescribed for you is essentially “limbering/mobility work” and while it will make you feel less tight and ready to move it will not do much to improve your “flexibility”.
“Stretching/Flexibility work” is a more intense (not to be confused with painful or forceful) activity which seeks to actually increase the end range of your ROM. This type of work should be done much less frequently (I’d suggest starting with once a week per muscle group/movement pattern). During this type of work you will be holding the positions for considerably longer than during “mobility work” and you will need to use Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitated (PNF) techniques to allow you to actually increase your flexibility.
So what I would suggest would be to do a dynamic warm-up for the specific muscles/movement patterns you are about to hit in your workout (along with any soft tissue work that you want to make a habit of), along with some static stretches for any muscles which might limit your performance (this is still technically limbering/mobility work though) prior to your workout. Then perform actual “Stretching/Flexibility work” for a specific muscle group of movement pattern (like hip flexion) after your workout (preferrably you’d want to choose muscles that were worked during your workout). You would actually “stretch” each muscle group out only 1 time per week.
If let’s say you were on a Upper/Lower split or some other type of program where you were working out each muscle group multiple times per week then you could stretch your Posterior chain leg muscles/hip flexion flexibility one day and anterior chain/hip extension flexibility the other. You can of course also feel free to throw in some stretches for other muscles/movements into either stretching routine as well if desired, but again, only actually “stretch” the muscles once a week.
Hope that clarifies your questions.
And also, you likely hurt your back (and BHOLL is correct, just because you weren’t lifting heavy doesn’t mean that you didn’t injure yourself) due to your hip flexion flexibility being poor, not due to your lower back flexibility being poor. Yes, this manifested in the lower back, but that wasn’t likely the cause. I would go get it checked out just to be sure that it isn’t a disk issue, but judging by the fact that you don’t seem to be in excruciating pain or having other related symptoms (sciatica, numbness, etc…) I’m guessing (over the Internet, so don’t take this as a diagnosis, go get checked) that the issue should heal itself with adequate rest and nutrition. In the meantime I agree with BHOLL that you should avoid spinal flexion work and instead work on hip flexion/extension/Abduction/Adduction/Rotation, and shoulder flexibility work.
Good luck