Stretching Scientifically: A Guide to Flexibility Training - Softcover

Kurz, Thomas

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0940149451 ISBN 13: 9780940149458

Publisher: Stadion Pub, 2003

Synopsis

The fourth edition of Stretching Scientifically: A Guide to Flexibility Training teaches:

• How to stretch safely and quickly to achieve and maintain your maximum flexibility

• How to make your muscles grow stronger and longer so you stay flexible all the time

• How to do splits even if you are over 40 or 50

• How to kick high and do splits with no warm-up

• How to develop each of the three kinds of flexibility--dynamic, static active and static passive--to suit every athlete's needs

• What exercises are "no-no's" if you want to stretch your muscles

• All the factors limiting flexibility

• Brilliantly simple tests of hip joint mobility and muscle length that dispel common misconceptions of what limits flexibility the most

About this title

From the Publisher

The fourth edition of STRETCHING SCIENTIFICALLY, A Guide to Flexibility Training (copyright 2003), by Thomas Kurz, is now available from Stadion Publishing Inc. Improved layout and more photos enhance the most up-to-date science explained in practical terms for athletes, instructors, and coaches.

As always, flexibility expert Kurz stresses the correct sequences of exercises and stretches that make up his safest and fastest stretching method. If you teach others, you must know this method. "You have to know when to do which stretch to get the most out of it," Kurz said. "It is like putting on your socks and shoes--what goes on first makes a lot of difference!"

The "Questions and Answers" chapter is bigger and divided into sections such as Injuries and Stretching, Pain or Soreness and Stretching, Age and Stretching, What and When, Sounds In and Around Joints. Kurz also includes a simple test that will let you test your flexibility potential.

From the Author

In this book you will find all the information about flexibility training you may need for your sport.

My first book on this subject, published in 1985, was a great success. Several readers wrote me about the gains they had made thanks to my instruction. There were readers, though, who had difficulty understanding these instructions because of their preconceptions about training. Others after initial rapid gains reached a level well short of their goal (and their potential) and could not progress any further. Using the feedback from all these readers, in this, the fourth edition, I have completely reorganized the book and rewritten parts to make it even more understandable and more informative.

Now, let the table of contents speak for the book:

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction

Getting the Most Out of This Book -- 1

1. Flexibility in Sports -- 3

Injury prevention and flexibility --  9

2. How to Stretch -- 13

Methods of stretching -- 14

Early morning stretching -- 19

Stretching in your workout -- 19

The use of partners in stretching -- 25

Children and flexibility training -- 25

The elderly and flexibility training -- 27

3. Dynamic Stretching -- 31

Arms -- 33

Legs -- 34

Trunk -- 37

4. Static Active Stretching -- 39

5. Isometric Stretching -- 49

When you are not ready for isometrics -- 49

When you are ready -- 50

How to select your stretches -- 55

Neck -- 56

Forearm -- 57

Arms, shoulders, chest -- 58

Legs -- 61

Stretches leading to the side split -- 61

Stretches leading to the front split -- 67

Splits and high kicks -- 71

Trunk -- 72

Recap -- 74

6. Relaxed Stretching -- 75

Neck -- 77

Forearm -- 78

Arms, shoulders, chest -- 79

Legs -- 81

Stretches leading to the side split -- 81

Stretches leading to the front split -- 84

Trunk -- 86

7. Sample Workout Plans -- 89

8. All the Whys of Stretching -- 101

Anatomy, physiology, and flexibility -- 105

Tests of flexibility potential -- 108

Practical conclusions for sports training -- 120

Recap -- 124

9. Questions and Answers on Stretching -- 125

Does This Method Really Work? And How? -- 125

Body Alignment for Hip Stretches -- 128

Dynamic Stretches and Morning Stretch -- 134

What and When -- 136

Stretching in Workouts for Various Sports -- 141

Flexibility and Other Athletic Abilities -- 146

Age and Stretching -- 156

Gender and Stretching -- 157

Sounds in and around Joints -- 158

Pain or Soreness and Stretching -- 161

Injuries and Stretching -- 165

No Success -- 172

Impatience -- 178

Stretching Machines and Other Strange Practices -- 181

Other -- 183

Resources for Further Study -- 183

Appendix A: Hip Joint and Shoulder Joint -- 185

Appendix B: Normal Range of Motion -- 189

Bibliography -- 191

Index -- 203

Edition details

• Publisher: Stadion Pub
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0940149451
• ISBN 13: 9780940149458
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 4
• Number of pages: 214