The Soccer Stretching Myth Debunked (meet The Reverse Hamstring Release)

So it’s really about time someone shouted this from the rooftops.

Soccer stretches can negatively effect your performance by up to 5.5%.

The question is why?

You’ve always been told that stretching prevents injury and muscle soreness.

So, what’s really going on?

Here’s The Real Performance Booster

First, some facts.

Your muscles are connected to your bones.

Your brain controls your muscles.

To loosen muscles, you have to engage your brain. Pulling on muscles will only make bad things happen.

Engaging the brain at a neurological level is the only way to make your muscles work efficiently.

This is what a typical hamstring stretch looks like, accompanied with the instructions: Hold for 10-30 seconds, relax, repeat

This is HORRIBLE advice.

Pulling on a tight area and expecting it to naturally lengthen is wishful thinking. The brain, for whatever reason, is causing that muscle or muscles to hold tension. The muscle is no longer under the brain’s conscious control.

Applying force is not going to change that.

Instead, you have to involve the brain through movement. Here’s an alternative. Here’s THE alternative to stretching that really works.

Try this yourself. It will release your lower back and hamstrings better than any stretch, guaranteed.

Introducing The Reverse Hamstring Release

Start Position

Lying on your front with your head turned to the left. Bend your right leg at a right angle.

Movement:

Inhale to lift your knee enough to sense hamstrings/buttock and lower back contract. Exhale to slowly lower your knee to the floor, then slowly straighten your leg. When rested, sense the release in the back and hamstrings.

Repeat:

x3, then slowly turn head to right and repeat for your left leg.

If you’ve got tight hamstrings, you have to try this today. And here’s why.

How The Soccer Stretching Myth Affects Your Game

There is SCIENTIFIC evidence that stretching does more harm than good.

A 2013 study by the Motor Control and Human Performance Laboratory at the University of Zagreb in Croatia concluded that an athlete’s performance after warming up with stretching is likely to be worse than if they hadn’t warmed up at all.

Stretching reduces strength in the stretched muscles by almost 5.5 percent, with the impact increasing in people who hold individual stretches for 90 seconds or more.

Muscle power generally falls by about 2 percent after stretching.

By loosening muscles and their accompanying tendons, stretching makes muscles less able to store energy and spring into action.

Giving Stretching The Red Card

“The most flexible athletes are not necessarily the most successful.” ~ Flexibility, by William Sands, p.389 (Tweet this)

Want to read the study?

It’s called Does Pre-exercise Static Stretching Inhibit Maximal Muscular Performance? A Meta-Analytical Review.

So the next time a teammate gives you an earful about stretching, you can send them a link to this post.

“Doesn’t warm up, pings balls around like you’ve never seen, kicks you, works hard, has a shower, goes home.” ~ Phil Neville on Paul Scholes

Over To You

1. Do you disagree with this? Tell us why in the comments.

2. If you’ve always suspected stretching doesn’t work, let us know too.

3. Try The Reverse Hamstring Release yourself

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