Types of Training & Stretching ~

background info-

In the strength training programs being rolled out on this website, there are a few types of training modalities used to create a hybrid program:

Strength Training–

building/maintaining large muscle groups, using progressive overload, and weight heavier than one’s bodyweight.

Uses- machines, free-weights, kettlebells, barbells

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Conditioning-

maintenance of accessory muscles & joints using repetitive motion and resistance with lightweight or resistance bands for an extended period (90-120 seconds)

Uses- light free-weights & kettlebells, resistance bands, balls, the wall, anything that can be resisted

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Calisthenics-

dynamic stretching, mobility & maintenance- strength, stability, and endurance of muscles and joints through continuous bodyweight movement and isometric contractions

Uses- bodyweight, ground or wall, yoga props and benches

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Cardiovascular-

There is a video of me doing cardio but you must have missed it because I am too fast for you! Just kidding, don’t have a video of myself doing cardio but I bet you can imagine it would be silly. My cardio story is in the previous post on this blog.

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Myofascial release– (foam rolling, MFR)

Utilizes bodyweight, gravity, balls, rollers, and other items to rest onto, or roll over muscles to relieve tension and increase proprioceptive awareness

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Perhaps you are wondering where in the world other types of stretching are on this list or why it hasn’t been mentioned so far. Well, it’s a whole other thing. Or maybe it’s the whole thing. We know that mobility (and hyper-mobility) are factors to look at while creating a strength training program, or navigating these types of movements.  

We will take some range of motion tests together to see where you are with flexibility so you can decide where you fall in different movement patterns, if you want to try and increase your range of motion, and how you feel when you stretch in various ways.

There’s a surprising amount of taboo I have found in the fitness world about stretching, and how or whether or not we should be doing it in the gym. It’s good to be able to acknowledge the difference between passive types of stretching in a yoga class for example, and the fact that every single time you do a rep it is a loaded stretch of some kind. The element that bridges the two I think is tension and that we have these complex layers and cross layers of our muscles, joints, and tendon tissues and that every time we do a rep or contract the tissues of one muscle, the opposing muscle lengthens and relaxes. For me building strength is one goal at the gym, a layer of that is re-creating different types of patterns for those fibers and tissues to adapt to under different types of tension, in different ways, and I think active mobility and bodyweight drills (technically dynamic stretching?) are important to include for a few reasons:

*First and foremost, dynamic stretching helps me to access deeper breathing

*When I am lifting and building muscle, but not doing resistance or bodyweight drills, the recovery period sucks and I feel fatigued and over-ly sore.

*I try to be strict about resting in between sets, but I also get bored so I like to stay very warm and active by doing conditioning drills in between sets during rest periods. As long as you are not picking up weights it is still resting.

*They can be fun and help to bridge the gap between the isolated lifts and more compound movements.

I have found for myself and with clients, that figuring out ways to thread these drills into workouts provides the soreness and 5-7 recovery feeling I am looking for- like I definitely did something and have been active, but I don’t need to go home and collapse, I can still work in the garden, go for walks, do some yoga, etc.  (This is personally important because of teaching classes and training clients, it can be a little taxing, I invite you to challenge yourself!)   

There are types of passive stretching in the yoga world that bring the body into deep stretches for several minutes and suggest releasing all tension in the muscles and joints and just “melting” into the stretch using props and pillows and things. I don’t do this or recommend it and fully agree that this type of stretching is not what we’re looking for before or after a workout.  I enjoy restorative or gentle yoga classes that have a similar structure but put the body in very gentle stretches rather than deep, with a lot of support from pillows and blankets- these types of classes are more for relaxation and nervous system restoration than deep stretching or exercising.

Here are some examples of different types of stretching, and how they end up looking in a workout practice.

Following a ratio of about 75% dynamic, active, or isometric stretching and 25% passive, chill stretches works for me but you may have a different preference.    

Types of Stretching:

Static- active & passive-

Static-active: “the ability to assume and maintain extended positions using only the tension of the agonists and the synergists while the antagonists are being stretched”. Increases active flexibility and strengthens agonistic muscles.

10 secs on/off

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Static-passive: “Ability to assume extended positions and maintain them using your weight, support of limb or a prop”–

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Dynamic- “involves moving parts of your body and gradually increasing reach, speed, and movement” sets of 8-12 reps, lotsa circles, cat/cows

Isometric- Static resistance through contraction, hugging the muscle onto the bone- 

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PNF- Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation- 

Technique that combines passive with isometric stretching 

Stretch passively-contract-stretch  

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So there are different types of stretching, myths about stretching, ways that we happen to stretch naturally while exercising and moving, and some intentional ways that we can try to deepen our mobility and flexibility through stretching AND strength and resistance training.

Does it matter? Do you care? Everyone has a different answer on this because of course it depends on your body, your goals, and what will keep you interested and showing up to train. For me, that is yoga. I love yoga and want to practice yoga forever. Like, forever ever. I don’t think it’s better than one way of being or another, I just love it and it aligns really well with many facets of my world. I think this is how a lot of people feel about golf or hiking or basketball or whatever!

There is something to be said for the fact that while we may end up adopting yoga practices as a whole life philosophy, many of us fall in love with it initially because of that good groovy blissed out feeling we experience when we first start practicing, and that has a lot to do with dopamine and serotonin, and how great it feels to have our skill level be met with a challenge and a different level of presence, so we get in the zone, and get this blissed out feeling.  If we only do the same movements over and over again, or never progress, or stop challenging our skill level and finding that level of engagement, we lose interest, and for me I was sore and fatigued in a way that I felt I was too young and health conscious to be experiencing on a mostly plant-based diet with a nourishing lifestyle.    

So I started strength training and immediately felt better. I began to love strength training as I learned about it, but in a totally different way, and for different reasons that I love yoga. I was able to re-discover that good dopamine feeling, both through strength training and cardio, and how I felt going back to yoga after spending time strength training. 

I still love yoga, and now I strength train so that I can continue to love yoga. So I always want to help people find the thing that they are going to be willing to show up for. If you know that you want to show up for golf until you’re 90, or get into pickleball, let’s make a program so that you can do that. None of these are complete exercise programs and neither is yoga and that’s OK and doesn’t make me less of a yogi. To me, it means being even more deeply dedicated because I am willing to alter my life to continue to include yoga by strength training and make it a more sustainable practice as I get older.

Even during the times when my yoga asana practice wasn’t fully aligned with how I wanted to feel in my body, I continued to implement it and the other facets of yoga, and I kept showing up until I was feeling it again, so it’s really just like any relationship that you commit to, it’s a practice and it ebbs and flows and that good feeling might not be there every second.

I wonder if people would like golf as much if it took place indoors, if you could convince someone who doesn’t like getting all wet to enjoy swimming, if basketball would be any fun if there wasn’t that swoosh sound and the promise of points to be scored, if people would like yoga so much if there wasn’t that “yoga high”. Can we learn to enjoy the pleasure of our practices without taking for granted that the feeling is only one little facet of the diamond?

Sidenote: my opinion is that the indigenous yogis had a less sedentary lifestyle in which they were regularly lifting things heavier than their bodyweight, just by having more active lifestyles, and so yoga asana might have been the only movement practice they needed and that felt complete to them. For me, in 2024, and what I am noticing, is that a lot of folks who love to do yoga and hike/walk/dance, eventually plateau into strength training the way I did, or are heavily persuaded to by a doctor or physical therapist upon experiencing pain or injury.

Here’s to riding the waves ~

reference: https://web.mit.edu/tkd/stretch/stretching_4.html