065 The Dynamics of Stretching with Steve Shreeve

This week Steve Sheere and I will explore the often misunderstood yet vital component of any fitness routine—dynamic stretching. This type of stretching, essential for effectively warming up the body and preparing it for physical activity, differs significantly from traditional static stretching by involving active movements that increase muscle temperature and flexibility.

About Sarah Bolitho:

Sarah Bolitho helps fitness and health professionals develop their careers and grow their businesses by providing specialist training in teaching, assessing, and internal quality assurance, together with qualifications in exercise referral and disability.   

With over 30 years in the health-related fitness and physical activity fields, Sarah has a wealth of experience and knowledge.  She has worked in most roles in the industry from group exercise to personal training but specialised in working with specialist populations.  For over 25 years Sarah has trained fitness and health professionals to work with clients with long-term conditions, mental health issues, disabilities, older adults and pre/post-natal women.  

She has a post-graduate diploma in exercise and health behaviour and extensive training in supporting behaviour change.  She has worked with awarding organisations to develop qualifications and training and with accreditation bodies to endorse high-quality non-regulated training. 

For more about the training and support Sarah offers, visit www.sarahbolitho.com or contact her at admin@sarahbolitho.com.

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Transcript

Sarah (00:02.401)

Hello and welcome to this episode of Creating Active Lives with me, Sarah Bolitho, as usual, and one of my regulars now, Steve Shreeve, who's back, I think, for the fourth time to talk about another aspect of activity. So, Steve, it's really, really nice to have you back again. Just a little brief intro about who you are and what you do for anyone who hasn't listened to you before, and then we'll crack on.

Steve Shreeve (00:24.046)

Yeah. So I'm Steve Shree from Shreeve Health and Fitness. I've worked in the fitness industry for, I mean, my 22nd year now. And I have also been running my business Shreeve Health and Fitness for 10 years in my 11th year now. And yeah, I help people feel physically younger. That's what I help people with as well as working with anti and postnatal participants helping people with sports specific fitness and also COVID rehab. And I just, I love fitness and the power for it to enhance all aspects of our lives, our health and our wellbeing.

Sarah (01:01.409)

And it is, you know, especially who doesn't want to feel younger. And, you know, so much of what we talk about with aging, and I know we've talked about this before, but so much of what we put down to the aging process is actually the inactivity process as much as anything. So, absolutely. But we're not talking about that today. We're talking about something that I think is a very misunderstood part of a fitness routine, and definitely a very misunderstood part of a workout. We're going to be talking about dynamic stretching. Anyone who's in fitness will know that, you know, we talk a lot about types of stretching, but there's very often not a lot of kind of really true understanding about what some of these types of stretching are. So we're going to talk about dynamic stretching today, aren't we?

Steve Shreeve (01:04.622)

Absolutely. I'm looking forward to talking about this. I think it's something that's often misunderstood and you know, sometimes people do it without knowing the how or the why behind it as well. So it's going to be really good, really fun to explore this further and and I hope people find it interesting.

Sarah (02:07.041)

I think they will. So before we really get into the dynamics of dynamic stretching, mobility versus dynamic stretching, because I think these are two kind of components or elements of a workout that people often get, they muddle them together. You know, mobility, dynamic stretching, same thing. They're not, are they?

Steve Shreeve (02:26.382)

No, I would say not. You know, mobility exercises, specific targeted exercises aimed at improving mobility, you know, the active range of motion around a joint, but dynamic stretching is different. That's not to say that it can't enhance mobility because through doing dynamic stretching, you will improve your active range of motion, but they do just serve different purposes and dynamic stretching is more about warming the body up and functionally preparing it for the activities that are ahead of you.

Sarah (02:58.209)

So I suppose its mobility is more specific to the joint, whereas dynamic stretching involves the joint, the muscles and all the connective tissue and everything as well. So when we talk about dynamic stretching, what exactly is it?

Steve Shreeve (03:13.966)

So I like to keep it simple and I just say that dynamic stretching is stretching through movement.

Sarah (03:19.553)

Right, 

Steve Shreeve (03:20.846)

That's how I explain it because that's what it is. Because people, when they think of stretching, they think about holding a stretch. And I think just that simple sentence, dynamic stretching is stretching through movement, just illustrates the difference between static stretching and dynamic stretching. We're taking those muscles through an active range of motion rather than just holding the stretch.

Sarah (03:41.985)

So what are the benefits of dynamic stretching?

Steve Shreeve (03:46.51)

there are loads of benefits and it's really interesting because kind of the history of dynamic stretching has taken lots of twists and turns in terms of what people think about it. So let's go back a little bit. So dynamic stretching was created as a warmup technique when it was discovered that static stretching before exercise was shown to reduce muscle power by up to 6%. And there were some other research studies that showed that static stretching before exercise or activity didn't necessarily reduce injury rates. So of course then a great deal of thought went into, well, what can we do differently? And of course, even if you look at it from a practical point of view, you know, in the old days, you know, you would do some cardiovascular exercise. If you were playing a sport, you know, an outdoor sport or something, you jog around the pitch and then you'd stand still and do some static stretching.

Or if you were in the gym, you might get on one of the cardio machines for a few minutes and then do some static stretching. But of course, one of the purposes of a warmup is to raise the core body temperature so that our muscles get warmer, more pliable, more resistant to injury. And of course then people go and stand still for five minutes doing their static stretching and the body kind of cools back down again. So kind of practically, it makes sense to have a more active warmup that serves all four purposes of that warm up activity at the same time by raising the body's core temperature, raising the temperature of the muscles, lubricating the joints, but also taking the body through an active range of motion so that it's less likely to get strains or pulls when you're doing your exercises. So hence the development of dynamic stretching, because when we dynamic stretch, when we stretch through movement, we don't get that same loss in muscle power that can be caused by static stretching before we do that physical activity. 

But interesting further reviews of studies have been done and it's been shown that if we hold our static stretches for a maximum of 30 seconds, actually we don't get the reductions in muscle power. Those studies that showed that reduction in muscle power, the stretches were being held for quite a long time or quite a lot of stretching was being done. So we can, we know now we can static stretch before exercise if we want to but it's still not necessarily the best way to warm up for an activity because it doesn't have that same effect as raising that core body temperature as dynamic stretching does.

Sarah (06:12.865)

And as well as all of that, I think it sounds like it's time efficient as well. It's something that you can do several muscle groups at the same time and probably more effectively than doing a half -hearted static stretch, which let's be honest people, a lot of people, their static stretching is a little bit half -hearted, whereas dynamic, I think because it is dynamic, it's more fun to do. It feels better. It feels good. And I think that's an important part of it, isn't it? You feel good. And like you say, there is a place for static stretching, but dynamic stretching is more efficient, more effective and keeps you, you know, you've just warmed up. You don't want to lose all that warmth by standing still for five minutes stretching and things like that. So it's, I mean, is this something that anybody can learn to do?

Steve Shreeve (06:30.222)

Yeah.

Steve Shreeve (07:02.67)

Absolutely. And I think the thing as well is, is to treat dynamic stretching like you would treat any other form of exercise. You start with what you can do now and then you build up. So if I'm working with a beginner, for example, one of the things that I'll do when I'm doing an assessment for someone, for example, is I'll look at the way their body moves when they do a body weight squat. That tells me so much about what's going on with their body.

But some people can't, you know, can't do a full squat yet just with their body weight. So when you're working with someone that's, that's quite new to exercise or perhaps isn't as mobile and we're working as part of their workout in improving in areas like that, then their dynamic warmup is going to be very straightforward and very, very simple. It's going to be things like arm circles. There's a couple of, dynamic warmup exercises I really love called wipers and hugs that warm up the chest muscles, the shoulders, the upper back, but they're very, very straightforward, you know, knee lifts, heel lifts, just getting the lower body, muscles moving through a range of motion. And then of course, when somebody can do a full range of, of motion body weight squat, and they're now in their workouts, they're doing, you know, squats with weights or squats with resistance bands that body weight squat can now become one of their dynamic stretches and form part of their warmup, you know, and then that prepares them for the resisted squats that they're doing, you know, now in their workouts. And again, dynamic warmups can be very simple, but they can always also be progressed over time as the person participating in the activity, you know, progresses in their ability.

Sarah (08:48.993)

And that's something I always talk about is, when I'm on training courses and things is the importance of rehearsing the moves that you are going to be doing in the workout. You wouldn't go for a run to warm up for swimming. You would do a very specific movement. So, like you're saying, body weight squats will prepare people for doing resistance squats, whatever type of resistance you're using. But the good thing is as well, presumably it will trigger that kind of that muscle memory, but also it gets you focusing on your technique before you go into using the resistance, which means that actually when you are using resistance, it will be more effective because your techniques better. So is that part of it as well? It's kind of getting that muscle memory, getting those neuromuscular pathways kind of warmed up as well, if you like.

Steve Shreeve (09:35.662)

Yep. Absolutely. And mental rehearsal as well. You know, when somebody's learning to squat, for example, we want them focusing on making sure that their knees are staying in line with their toes and not traveling inwards or outwards. Where, you know, on their range of motion, we want them getting their femur parallel to the floor. We want them focusing on their back position. If they're doing body weight squats as part of their dynamic warmup.

then they can focus on all those things all in advance so that when they then go to do it with the resistance in their hands, that they're already switched on to that mentally, physiologically and neurologically as well.

Sarah (10:12.993)

And that, I mean, that is so important. Whenever I'm teaching classes, whatever they are, I really do, I always teach the base moves. Even if I'm working with people who are quite advanced, been coming to me for years, they will always get a few reps of the very basic move before we progress up. Because for me, I think it's, A, it's warming up its rehearsal, but it's just priming those neuromuscular pathways. And like you say, it's just that mental rehearsal, which means that when you actually come to do the more advanced moves, you're kind of in the zone, if you like, that you want to be in. And I think this is something that, you know, again, quite often, and this isn't a criticism with everybody necessarily, but I just think it's something, you know, certainly for instructors to talk about a little bit more with clients is quite often we don't necessarily explain why we're using certain approaches to stretching. 

We don't necessarily say why we're doing static, why we're doing maintenance, why we're doing developmental, why we're doing dynamic. And I think adding that information in just means people will take on board, right, okay, so that's why I'm doing it. That's why it's so effective. I'll carry on doing it. So I think it's important as instructors we don't just say, right, here's what you're going to do, here's why you're going to do it. And it's not like every single time you talk to your clients, you give them that lesson, but you would certainly at the beginning, you would be explaining why as well as what, how and things like that, wouldn't you?

Steve Shreeve (10:41.358)

Absolutely. And it's important to understand how dynamic stretching works as well. And it's quite exciting in its simplicity really. And it just works on the principle that muscles work in pairs. So if one muscle is contracting, the other opposing muscle to it has to stretch to allow that muscle contraction to occur. And this is why dynamic stretching doesn't necessarily have to be massively complicated.

So a simple dynamic stretch as part of a warmup can be literally just to put your hands on the back of your head and squeeze your elbows backwards. And that contraction of the upper back muscles in order to take those elbows back forces the chest muscles to stretch. Yeah, we're both doing it. Yeah.

Sarah (12:24.033)

Yeah, I'm doing it. You can't see me, but I am doing it. Yeah. But yeah, so because I think again, I think the word dynamic can be a bit misleading. People think it's it's frantic or a bit like, you know, another type of stretching that we don't recommend, unless it's for specific sports, but it's ballistic stretching. So I think sometimes people think dynamic stretching has got to be very fast and frenetic, which it doesn't does it doesn't have to be these big, fast, wildly swinging your arms like a goalkeeper.

Steve Shreeve (12:46.766)

No, absolutely not. It should always be slow and controlled because again, it's a warmup. We're going to gradually raise our body temperature. And the reason that we do that is if our muscles are colder, we're more prone to muscle tears. So we want to gradually move slowly and controlled so that we, while we're going through that process of going from an inactive state to an active state. As we're going through that process of raising the body temperature, it's really important that our movements are controlled so that as our body heat is raising, we're also minimizing our risk of injuring ourselves during that warmup.

Sarah (13:28.929)

And that's, you know, again, that's a really important part because it's something that, you know, I'll often see people, I mean, stretching before they've even done any kind of warm up. Whereas at least with dynamic stretching, because there's movement, it's less risky, it's less, there's less potential for injury. But I'm, I've just started thinking, you know, if you think about sports and I know you coach basketball, you know, again, you've got to, it's rehearsal, isn't it? Because most sport, most activity is dynamic in and it's in the way it works. I mean, I know that we do hold things sometimes, but generally there is movement involved in all the activity and exercise we do. So rehearsing that movement even to a smaller scale. So just thinking like with basketball, because there's a lot of jumping and stretching and reaching, to replicate that to a slightly lesser extent in your warm -up through dynamic stretching is it's not just preparing the muscles and the bodies it's really getting into the movements that you're going to have to do during a game.

Steve Shreeve (14:29.518)

Yeah. And I'm a big fan when it comes to sports activities of, so for example, what I say about basketball warmups is, you know, our time on the court is precious. So I want the players to have the basketball in their hands as much as possible. So what I do is, when we're warming up, I divide half the core into half again, into two halves. And I have them all place a basketball on the free throw line level with the free throw, right? A halfway across the first half of the court. And I have them do their dynamic warmup exercises on the move to the basketball. And then when they get to the basketball, I get them to do a basketball move to the halfway line and then back to where the basketball was. And then they do that same dynamic warmup exercise back to where they started. So they're getting that combination of a general warmup and a specific warmup for what they're about to do. So we want them doing those general movements that are going to raise their core body temperature. And they also might be semi -specific in that some of the warmup exercises might involve knee lifts and things like that, or side stepping movements that they're going to be doing in the game. But it's serving that purpose of warming up, preparing their bodies for that. And then they're doing some specific work with the basketball that's continuing to warm their body up as they're going through that motion of warming themselves up and preparing for that activity ahead of them.

Sarah (15:48.481)

And it's, you know, just even listening to that, I'm thinking one of the things as instructors, as anybody who's involved in any kind of exercise, physiology or sport or anything will know that we actually, we don't move in single planes of movement. We don't just move forward and backwards. We don't just move sideways. We move our bodies, you know, in a combination of different planes of movement. And so, you know, whereas if you were to do a static hamstring stretch, I think most people are familiar with a hamstring stretch. It's a very, it's in one plane. It's there, but actually, hamstrings are very involved in movement in different ways in different planes so something dynamic is actually going to be much more efficient and effective for the whole of the muscle fibres rather than just in one position.

Steve Shreeve (16:31.47)

Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And we can also create that side to side movement without having to move side to side as well. So, you know, if you're working out in a busy gym or you're, you know, you work out at home and you don't have a lot of space where you train, something that's really good for the hips, just standing up in place, holding onto something for balance. If you need it, lift one leg up with the knee bent. So the knee is just below the hip and literally move the leg side to side.

And then we're getting that side to side motion, which mobilises the hips, the inner thigh muscles and the outer hip muscles. They just wouldn't be working, you know, very much, even if you were just doing a squat on the spot, for example. So again, those, that kind of action is involved in side to side movements, but it's something that you can do stood in place if you're, if you don't have a lot of space to work with.

Sarah (17:22.337)

And again, it's really important to think about what you're going to be doing in your workout. I mean, if you're stretching before a workout, it's really important to think about the movements that you're going to be doing and kind of looking, I suppose, at how you can replicate those movements safely so that you are fully prepared for anything that you decide to do. And that's, again, I think it's, we, stretching quite often is, well, I'll stretch the back of my leg, the front of my leg, my chest and my back. And, it's, you know, like for a lot of people, their back is actually probably in a stretched position anyway, because they're slumped a lot of the time. So a static stretch is not necessary because it's already in a stretched position. Actually, what you want is something dynamic, which wakes it up rather than stretches it. And I think that's another way to look at it is dynamic stretching quite often will wake up muscles that might already be quite long, but actually they're long and tight rather than long and loose so it wakes them up and makes them think hang on a minute I'm going to be moving here.

Steve Shreeve (18:27.406)

Yeah. And it's good to discuss where people will feel those stretches as well, because as we've already mentioned, muscles work in pairs. So in the example we gave before about putting your hands behind your head and squeezing your elbows back, most people will just feel a muscle contraction in their upper back muscles. And that's that activation effect and that muscle working causes the muscle in front of it to stretch. On the other side of things, we can do a dynamic hamstring stretch where we're stood in place, supporting the thigh with our hands so that the knee is in front of the hip. And when people will dynamically straighten their leg from that position, most people have got tight hamstrings. So in that case, they'll feel the hamstring working a lot more than they will the actual working muscle in that exercise that's causing the hamstring to stretch. But again, when you rightly mentioned the difference between dynamic stretching and ballistic stretching, the importance of control, you know, my cue during an exercise like that is extend your knee, don't kick.

Sarah (19:05.569)

Mm.

Steve Shreeve (19:26.446)

You know, because again, when people have got tight muscles, they'll tend to start move a little bit quickly to try and generate a bit of momentum to get that movement. And again, there's a difference between extending your knee and kicking. And we want to make sure that we're always moving with slow controlled movements and being deliberate and being aware of what we should be feeling and making sure that we're locking our minds into feeling that as we do it.

Sarah (19:49.153)

I think yeah, and it's something that for most of us who stretch regularly, it feels good. But actually adding sort of dynamic stretches in, it's, you know, if you just go straight, if you sat down all day and you just go straight into static stretching, your muscles are probably going to be tight. They're going to be coldish. And, you know, straight into static stretching isn't really recommended, but making it more dynamic surely is going to be a lot easier and quicker and feel better.

Steve Shreeve (19:55.63)

It really does.

Sarah (20:19.059)

because you're incorporating that movement and again particularly if you've been sat down all day your circulation is going to be a little bit sluggish because you've been in the same position and you guys know who you are that sit down all day and don't do stretches when you should but it's so important isn't it that you know we start thinking about everything that we do in daily life you sit at the desk for four hours, actually your muscles are working all that time you know some dynamic stretching building in even if it's just right I'm going to dynamically stretch my chest and back on at 10 o 'clock and I'll do my quads and hamstrings at 12 o 'clock so even if you just build in pockets of dynamic stretching throughout the day it's not like you've got to do a whole warm -up and everything beforehand it's part and parcel of it which means that it becomes easy to do and just means that you are you're keeping yourself, you're keeping your body flexible, you're keeping your body mobile, but also it's that kind of mental boost as well that you get from that movement.

Steve Shreeve (21:20.654)

Absolutely. It's interesting to note as well is you can have differences between your dynamic flexibility and your static flexibility. So some people, for example, can do a dynamic hamstring stretch and get their legs straight. But if they were to do a passive static stretch might not have the same level of flexibility and some people can be the other way around they'll have more flexibility in their static movements and not so much in their active dynamic stretches and actually What I always say is moving well is its own reward Nothing will make you feel older quicker than just stiffening up and just finding your everyday movements just harder to do because you're stiff and because you're tight and actually if we want to move well Then actually getting a balance of static work and dynamic work can be really, really helpful because again, you move through your world and it's important to be able to move well when you do those things and it makes you feel better and it makes you want to move more when you can move well. So, I think, you know, dynamic stretching as a warm up is just brilliant because it ticks so many boxes at once.

You know, like we'd said at the beginning, if you get on the treadmill and walk on the treadmill for a five minutes, great, that's going to raise your core temperature, but it's not going to take you through an active range of motion and, you know, loosen up all of those, those muscles that have been stiff because you've been sedentary or even people who were on their feet, get tight muscles. People who stand up a lot, get tight quadriceps muscles. Whereas actually, if you start your warmup with your dynamic stretching, you're taking those muscles through an active range of motion, you're improving your active flexibility while you're warming your body up at the same time. So it's so, so time efficient and you're achieving so much more at once.

Sarah (23:05.921)

Absolutely, and for people who don't move much at the moment, dynamic stretching can be a really good way of building some activity into your day to start you off. I've said before, lots of times on this podcast, no one's going to go from sitting down most of the day to an hour of exercise. It's not sensible, it's not practical, and it's certainly not sustainable. But to actually build some dynamic stretching in is something that you could do for five minutes or 10 minutes.

Like I say, you could focus on a particular body part at a time. And it's again, it's building that kind of concept of activity, feeling good and making it manageable and sustainable. That is what we want. We want activity to be sustainable. So what should people not do when it comes to dynamic stretching? We've talked a lot about, you know, things that people do and the benefits and stuff, but what are the no -nos when it comes to dynamic stretching?

Steve Shreeve (24:00.686)

So don't do them quickly. And you know what's really interesting? You'll know this as well. People live in a rush these days and people are often, they rush through their day. They might rush to pick up the kids after school. Then they're rushing to the gym to do their workout. And they're still in that rush mode when they get to the gym. And so they'll get to the gym and they'll start their warmup and they're furiously rotating their arms like, you know, like a windmill in the middle of a tornado because they're still in that rush mode.

You know, it's, it's having that mental, when you step across that threshold into your workout space, whether it's a room that you set aside at home or whether it's a gym or whether it's a sports court, then make sure you, you, you transition from rush mode to being focused on where you are in the here and now. And, and really important to make sure that when you do those dynamic stretches, we're warming up the body gradually. So it's really important that we go slow and controlled.

And ideally, once you get a nice routine together, you want each stretch to flow into the next one so that you're moving continuously. So we don't want to be like taking long breaks in between those stretches because we want to do them consecutively, so that are raising that core temperature.

Sarah (25:13.089)

It's really important and again, something that people will have heard me say before is, and it's particularly relevant, like you say, people live in a rush, is I'll often say, you know, actually, we're so used to doing a bit of relaxation or something at the end of a workout. In some ways, it's almost more important to start. And dynamic stretching could be a form of dynamic meditation or dynamic relaxation in the sense that by you're moving in a controlled manner, relatively slowly. And actually, if you really focus on the movements where you're feeling it, how it's feeling, it can be that kind of meditative experience that helps you stop rushing and actually step into the workout with everything else just blocked out. So, you know, it's that mental benefit, isn't it? It's that mental sort of process of being able to switch off from the rush and just get into it. And that would, it would be, again, time efficient because you just focus exactly on what you're doing and it becomes really kind of, you know, lovely. I love things like that.

Steve Shreeve (26:18.926)

Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And some other no -nos are just bouncing and jerking movements. So that, so that, you know, one of the reasons we don't tend to recommend ballistic stretching is those, those bouncing movements can make muscles more prone to tearing. and, and same with jerky movements. So, so again, when, when people are doing dynamic hamstring stretches, you know, that, that cue, don't kick, stretch. There's a difference. Don't kick, extend your knee. And if you can't get your leg fully straight to begin with, that's okay.

You know, if you, if you couldn't get your legs straight in a static stretch, you wouldn't force it. You'd be patient with yourself and just try and get a little bit better each time. And again, as you might find with dynamic stretching that as you do each repetition of your dynamic stretch, you might find that as the reps go on, you were able to achieve even a little bit more repetitive range of motion than you do with your first repetition. So just be patient with yourself and mindful. And the other no, no is, is just, don't lose your posture.

So, you know, be aware of your whole posture. So when we're doing dynamic hamstring stretches, for example, you know, we don't want the back rounding when we're doing hip abductions and adductions to warm up the hips. We don't want the lower back to start rotating. We want to, you know, focus on keeping that core engaged and keeping the lower back stable. So, so a good cue for that is only the parts that are supposed to move should move. Everything else should stay still.

Sarah (27:45.537)

a really important one and actually honestly and truthfully people listening if you're doing it correctly then actually the range of movement may actually be smaller initially because you're fixing everything else to support you if there's too much it quite often means you're flinging your limbs around or your body around rather than actually controlling the movement so for me that's always a good one is if the rest of your body is moving or you're flinging then bring it in and really just focus on that particular muscle group or the joint or the movement. But making sure, like you say, that your posture, that everything else is supported. You know, things like the hamstring at first, you could do that seated and have your back supported while you get used to it. And then as your as your balance improves, as your muscle flexibility improves, then you can sort of try it standing. You know, don't rush into it, as you say, start slow, build gradually. And like you say, the first rep might feel quite tight, but actually the whole point of the dynamic movement is that it eases off as you warm up and you can find that you can do an awful lot more. So, I mean, we've talked about dynamic stretching at the start of a workout. What about at the end? Is there a place for it when you've finished, when you've done a workout or a walk or something?

Steve Shreeve (29:01.422)

Absolutely. I mean, you won't see a lot in the literature about using dynamic stretching as a cool down exercise, but I actually think it's a really good cool down exercise because again, you're taking your muscles through an active range of motion at the end of the workout. And again, like any type of exercise, dynamic stretching has progressions and regressions. So you can do quite a gentle, slow, dynamic stretch at the end of the workout that ticks all the boxes of a cool down. We're keeping the legs moving so that the blood isn't pooling in the lower body. So we're sending that blood back to the heart. We're transitioning from perhaps vigorous activity to less vigorous activity so that our heart rate has time to slow down. And we're keeping our blood circulating so that we can remove waste products of exercise from our muscles. And again, we're just doing more when we're doing that than if we just walk on a treadmill because we're not only keeping the body moving, but we're also continuing to build on our active range of motion as well, which is going to serve us well in all aspects of life. And again, there's nothing wrong with walking on a treadmill. I don't want to say there's anything bad about that, but in terms of its use in a cool down, and especially when we live in such a time crunched world, I think doing some dynamic stretches as a cool down activity can be really useful and a good way to tick multiple boxes at once, and then it transitions really nicely into static stretching. If you've been taking your muscles through that active range of motion, then it just progresses perfectly into those static stretches that you want to be doing at the end of the workout.

Sarah (30:41.217)

And again, you know, static stretching has an important part, particularly at the end of a workout, but the dynamic stretching almost warms up or prepares them for the static stretch, which means chances are you'll be able to stretch a lot further with a lot more comfort than before. And anyone wondering about the kind of we're talking about speed, you know, slow and controlled. Imagine that you're moving through water, that you're in a swimming pool and you're doing the movement. And that's kind of the speed in a way is that that resistance of the water would naturally slow you down so rather than flinging your arms around it's that kind of as if you're scooping through water initially just to sort of get a feel for it. I mean you might, people might find other ways of explaining it but I think for me that's kind of how I think it's that lovely full movement through as if I was in a swimming pool or something and it just means that I don't rush my stretching. So anything else then that you want to add about dynamic stretching, anything else that we haven't touched on?

Steve Shreeve (31:40.43)

Yeah. So one thing I'll say about it is it's useful everywhere. So I'm really glad you brought up swimming and swimming pools, because one thing you'll see when people get in a swimming pool more often than not, they'll just get in a swimming pool and just start swimming. and, and there's nothing wrong with that. You know, if you, if you're starting at a slow intensity and then building up to a workout in warmup intensity, that workout intensity, I should say, then that's fine.

But again, one of the, purposes of a warmup is, is to lubricate our joints. and so actually going through a dynamic warmup in the pool before you start swimming can be really, really helpful. And again, you know, if somebody has been, you know, working at a desk for several hours before they get in the pool, certain muscles are going to be tight and then joints are potentially not going to be aligned as well as they could. And then that gentle swimming activity suddenly is a little bit more stressful on the joints than it should be.

So taking that time to do a dynamic warmup in the pool before you actually start going into your swimming motion can be really useful. I do it. I don't swim a lot. But when I do swim, I'll start in the shallow end and I'll do some dynamic stretches up and down or on the spot, depending on how much space I've got just to make sure that my body's nicely stretched out, nicely taken through a good range of motion. My joints are lubricated, my joints are mobilized, and then I start swimming. And it only needs to take a few minutes. I would say three minutes minimum for a good dynamic warmup, five minutes ideally. But yeah, just its application is universal. And all my clients that swim, I always recommend they do some dynamic stretching and dynamic warmups in the water before they start their swimming.

Sarah (33:26.273)

Is this something that you would recommend, somebody who really isn't sure about how to go about it and do it, to book a session with a personal trainer and just say, right, show me how to do some dynamic stretches before my workout. Is it worth getting proper advice on it?

Steve Shreeve (33:37.87)

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. And there are books out there about dynamic stretching as well, but I think you always have to put yourself in mind when you're learning about these things. So it's not unusual to see plyometric exercises included in dynamic warmups. I'm not a big fan of that.

Sarah (33:57.249)

For anyone who's in anyone who's not sure about plyometrics, it's where you jump a lot. It's a lot of jumping and yeah, anything very, very, very sort of jumpy is usually involves plyometrics.

Steve Shreeve (34:01.614)

Yes.

Absolutely. And, and yeah, I think for most people that's not necessary. Most people can just do ground based active movement activities and that's absolutely fine. And even some floor based activities. So I, if anyone's familiar with a glute bridge exercise, I actually consider that a useful dynamic stretch as well, because as you push your hips up from the floor, your hip flexors have to actively stretch n response to the contraction of your glute muscles. So again, for lots of us that sit in chairs, our hips will get tight and actually we cut off blood flow to the glute muscles when we're sitting on them. So as part of a warm up, doing some glute bridges, normally at the end of the dynamic warm up is really good for just flushing some blood into the glutes and actively stretching the hips as well. So yeah, ground -based exercises and even some floor -based dynamic stretches is enough for most people. So if you are learning about dynamic stretching and looking into resources that can help you. Just make sure you keep yourself in mind and just keep it low impact and just keep it as what you need to do to prepare for the activity that you're about to do.

Sarah (35:20.577)

start slow, progress at your own pace. I think that's the key message, isn't it? Steve, thank you so much for coming to talk about this. As I say, it's definitely a growing method of stretching, but I think a lot of people aren't really sure what it is or how to do it, and you've explained it really, really well, particularly the benefits. So any last pieces of advice you'd like to give to anybody?

Steve Shreeve (35:23.502)

No, I think we've covered everything. I think, you know, if anyone has any questions, I'm always happy to talk. So feel free to reach out. But yeah, I think we've covered everything and just, you know, I think the only bit of advice which I think is relevant to everything we talk about is just remember, keep it health first.

Sarah (36:00.673)

Yes and as I say start where you are and build up gradually which is the most important thing. Steve thank you for coming on again I'm sure you'll be back one of these days talking about something else. So everybody else thank you very much for listening in I'm Sarah Belythe and my guest this week is my regular now Steve Shreve. Thank you from both of us for listening in and have an active life.

Steve Shreeve (36:09.102)

Thank you for having me. Yeah.