The 21-Day Commitment Fulfilled

Bent knee hamstring stretch

On Wednesday of this week, we marked without fanfare a mini-celebration: completing the 21-day commitment to the Wharton active-isolated stretching routines. Yes, the timelapserunner stuck to his promise to try this method of stretching for twenty-one straight days, to give it a chance, to see if this technique would alleviate some of the really tight muscle areas generated by months of running with little or no stretching. In today's post we'll discuss what we've discovered as a result of these three weeks of active-isolated stretching.


Too much time?

I've never actually timed the routine I'm doing - the 14 stretching exercises - but I'm pretty sure it takes less than 10 or 12 minutes to do. This is a good thing. In the morning when I'm ready to go run or walk,  deciding to stop and take time to do this is not easy. Indeed, on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, I'm want to be on the street by a couple minutes after 6AM. So now I set the alarm clock for 5:30AM to give myself time to dress, stretch and drive to the Lakes. It's working. It's working well.

Stretch before or after?

On days that I run, I stretch before; on days that I walk, I stretch after. This seems to make some sense from a physiological perspective. To make the running easier, stretching before helps; it acts like a warm-up. With walking, there's not a great need to warm up first. I fell into this accidentally but it seems to work well.

Doing the right stretches?

I think so. We spend a whole morning doing the nearly five dozen stretches in the evaluation to arrive at those that showed the areas of least flexibility, so we've surely targeted the tougher challenges. Limiting the actual routine to only 14 is probably not what the Whartons would recommend but it's fitting my time and patience level rather well. My suspicion is that I might not have completed the 21 day commitment had I tried to do 30+ stretches every day.

Too frequently?

I didn't challenge the notion of doing these every day and I didn't understand well - until I got into it a bit - that I'd be exercising muscles to do these stretches. For example, the two routines shown in the photos are for stretching the hamstring area. The way they're executed, however, is that the quadriceps actually do the work to pull the lower leg or whole leg into place (as the rope is only there to help hold the final position). Believe me, after a week of these, I understood well what was going on: a number of muscles were getting a bit sore from doing workouts they were not used to. Still, in sets of 10 each, everyday does not really seem to be an issue (some of the soreness is subsiding), and if I'm working out (almost) everyday, I'd better do something proportional to counteract the tightening.

Is it working?

Straight leg hamstring stretch

Even though we've done three weeks of these (actually more by now), progress is only slightly perceptible, but I will venture out there and say, "Yes, it's working." Take a look at the inset pic to the right here. If you gaze carefully at that elevated, well-sculptured leg in the picture, you'll notice that it's at about 10:50 on the clock. When we started out, that leg could only reach about 10:30 on the clock. That might not sound like much of a change, but it is. Now, there's a long ways to go to get to 12:00, the desired position. But I do believe that progress is being made. Add to that the general impression of fewer hamstring aches than previously, both during runs and later during the day. This is a qualitative assertion; I don't have a measure for this. But I do believe it to be true.

Will we continue?

Yes, we will. I believe we have found a stretching routine that works for us. I believe we have done it long enough to make it a habit of sorts. I believe it is doing good, even if I must be more patient than typical to see results.

TODAY'S WORKOUT: Three miler walking around the neighborhood at 15:42 per mile. No problems.