Hi guys,
Recently, I came across a book ny Pavel Tsatsouline called “Loaded Stretching”, which purportedly could be used to promote serious strength gains, not just flexibility. I was wondering if anybody was familiar with this book. Do you think stretching could be used for strength?
Thanks,
Martin
The answer is yes. Hence the term strength in extreme ranges of motion. That’s why isometric stretching is so good. If done properly, it does just that, provide strength in extreme ranges of motion, which in turn helps prevent injuries.
You’ll see Pavel in a full side split position holding a kettlebell above his head. Another example is an overhead squat, which is clearly an active stretch, and one of the best warm-ups for virtually most activities, not just squatting. Just a few couple of examples.
Nick
I read a study once that took two untrained groups of people. One went through a stretching only program and the other did nothing. The group that did nothing but stretch actually improved by 10% on a battery of strength tests while the other group, of course, didn’t improve at all.
Of course they were untrained, so the stretching might have had a greater effect on them than normally fit people, but I thought it was very interesting. I’m going to search for studies like that and see if I can find similar stuff.
[quote]avitohol wrote:
Hi guys,
Recently, I came across a book ny Pavel Tsatsouline called “Loaded Stretching”, which purportedly could be used to promote serious strength gains, not just flexibility. I was wondering if anybody was familiar with this book. Do you think stretching could be used for strength?
Thanks,
Martin[/quote]
Hmm…I think I saw that book once. Did it have plenty of photo’s, only 33 pages and sell for 200 bucks?
No…no wait, forgive me. That’s pure hypberbole on my part.
I’m sure it only sold for 35 dollars or so.
In CT’s “Theory and Application” E-book there is a section on EQI (eccentric quasi isometrics), by Tony Schwartz. If your interested you should check it out as he explains why this type of “stretching” works and it’s various applications.
Cheers,
Pat