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Definition: "An ergogenic aid is any substance or phenomenon that enhances performance "
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12.08.2010 |
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Strength athletes can stay flexible without stretching
Are you sick of those know-it-alls? Those irritating kids who tell you that because you pump iron every day you're less flexible than they are? The ones who are convinced that training with weights or machines reduces your joint mobility? If the answer is yes, then you'll definitely be interested in research done by James Whitehead of the University of North Dakota. According to his research, strength training actually makes you more flexible.
Whitehead did an experiment with three dozen students. One-third of them did nothing for 5 weeks. This was the control group. One-third did static stretches for the muscles and ligaments of the knee, hips and shoulders, for 5 weeks. The last third did strength training for 5 weeks, using weights that trained the same muscles as the stretch group.
Whitehead measured the mobility of the test subjects' joints before and at the end of the training period. It emerged that the stretch exercises for the hips had no effect. Strength training on the other hand had increased the flexibility of the hip joint.
When it came to the hamstrings, they reacted equally well to strength training and stretch exercises. In the shoulder joint neither strength training or stretching had any effect.
"Our results suggest that full-range resistance training regimens can improve flexibility as well as, or perhaps better than, typical static stretching regimens", Whitehead summarises. "If they hold up with replication, people really don't have to be worried about doing stretch exercises whenever they're doing resistance exercises."
News agency WebMD, which specialises in health subjects, asked William Lunn of the University of Connecticut to comment. Lunn was not surprised by Whitehead's results. "If you do resistance training - especially if you focus on full range of motion - you would promote flexibility", he said. "Look at Olympic weight lifters. They're extremely powerful, but they're also extremely flexible."
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