Pressed for Time? Stretch Your Benefits

When pressed for time, exercisers can be tempted to forget about stretching. After all, isn’t the heart-pumping part of the workout most important?

Not so fast, pleads Bob Anderson, America’s stretching guru, who has convinced the Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Jets and the Denver Broncos that stretching should be part of their lives.

His book, “Stretching,” which has sold a million copies in the United States since its first printing in 1975, has helped spread the gospel. “Stretching is something everyone can do,” Anderson says, “whether in shape or not.”

Santa Monica physical therapist Bob Forster shares Anderson’s passion. “If I had to give up all my fitness activities, stretching would be the last,” insists Forster, who mountain bikes five hours a week and encourages his patients to stretch.

So what do Anderson and Forster know about stretching that others don’t?

Power of Stretching

“If you stretch regularly, you will feel better,” Anderson says. “Stretching improves circulation. It gives you a better sense of body awareness.” Regular stretching is widely credited with reducing risk of injury during workouts, but experts say the evidence is anecdotal, not scientific.

If you stretch regularly, you can outwit time, becoming even more flexible with age. It might improve your performance while running, skiing, hiking, biking and doing other workouts. Last but not least, stretching might make desk jobs and gridlock more tolerable just by reducing everyday aches and pains.

Does stretching really prevent injury while exercising? Anderson says the evidence is mostly anecdotal. “Besides, that’s a negative way to look at stretching.” He prefers to focus on other benefits.

Consider stretching a pleasant transition from work to exercise, Anderson suggests.

Flex and Stretch

Stretching is the safe way to improve flexibility, defined as the ability to move joints freely through a wide range of motion, according to the American College of Sports Medicine. Flexibility is an important component of physical fitness, along with heart-lung fitness, muscular strength and endurance and body composition.

Work Those Muscles

Stretching should be slow, gentle, almost meditative. It should include major muscles groups of the shoulders, chest, upper and lower back, abdominals, hamstrings, thighs, quadriceps, hips, gluteals and calves.

Bounce Not!

Ask stretching experts to expound on do’s and don’ts, and they exclaim: No bouncing! It can strain the muscles and activate the stretch reflex--that’s the built-in protective mechanism that tells your muscle to contract to keep from being injured. Stretch too far by bouncing or overdoing and you end up tightening the very muscle you’re trying to stretch.

Warm vs. Cold

“Stretch only when your body is warm,” advises Corey Deetzer, a Santa Monica body mechanics teacher. If you stretch early in the morning, consider taking a warm shower first, she adds. “Never do anything that hurts. Stretching should not be painful. If there is pain, you are stretching too far or too long.”

Warm-Up vs. Stretch

“Most people think if they start (exercising) slowly they don’t need to stretch,” says Forster. They’re confusing warm-up--starting a workout slowly by, say, walking before running--with pre-exercise stretching.

Stretching before and after exercise is ideal, but not always feasible. If you have to pick? After-exercise stretching wins hands down, experts concur.

“After exercise, the muscle is fatigued,” says Werner Hoeger, director of the Human Performance Laboratory at Boise State University. “A fatigued muscle will tend to shorten,” he adds, and that can lead to soreness, spasm and pain. Stretching can help ward off those evils.

Pre-exercise stretches are more important for athletes, Hoeger says, than for everyday exercisers and are more important if you’ll be engaging in activities that require complex skills, such as volleyball or gymnastics.

Stretching Time

Among exercise experts, there is controversy about how long to hold a stretch. Thirty seconds is recommended by many experts; others say up to 60. The American College of Sports Medicine takes a more conservative stance, suggesting a maximum of 20 seconds per stretch.

“Long stretches are not wise for someone with flexibility problems,” Forster warns.

People think stretching will add an inordinate amount of time to workouts. Not so, contend experts.

Once you’ve improved your flexibility--or if you were born naturally flexible--it takes very little time to maintain it, Forster says. “Seconds for each stretch,” he says.

A good stretching routine can take as little as 10 minutes a day, Anderson promises. To get started, ask an exercise consultant or physical therapist or get a highly recommended book on the topic, which can help you match stretches to specific workouts.

Preventing Boredom

Even people who have experienced the joys of stretching first hand can find it, well, boring. Deetzer has heard students dutifully stretching, all the while muttering, “I hate this. I hate this.” To the rescue: A trapeze-like device called the BodyStretch, marketed by Deetzer for the last decade. Affixed to a doorway, the device helps stretch major muscle groups in about 10 minutes.

“When people use the trapeze, stretching is fun,” says Deetzer, who charges $259 for the device and personal how-to instruction.

For those who prefer lower-cost stretching, there are other options.

“Let yourself enjoy the stretching,” Deetzer says. “You might do it in an environment conducive to relaxation . . . whether outside on the grass or in a cozy living room.”

A Place to Start For more information on stretching, experts most often recommend these books:

* “Stretching” by Bob Anderson (Shelter Publications, 1992, $9.95).

* “The American College of Sports Medicine Fitness Book” (Leisure Press, 1992, $11.95), (800) 747-4457.

* “Sport Stretch” by Michael J. Alter (Leisure Press, 1990, $15.95).