Stretch Coach, Brad Walker » Articles

Stretching and Muscle Fascia

Brad — Wed, 16 May 2012 01:38:12 +0000

Have you ever wondered why you feel so stiff and tight when you wake up in the morning? Well… there’s more to it than just age or tight muscles.

There’s this thing called: Fascia.

Now everyone knows what a muscle is, but what is this fascia stuff and how does it affect your flexibility? And more importantly, how does it affect your recovery from injury?

Take a look at the video in our Stretching and Muscle Fascia article; it’s a light-hearted explanation of what occurs when the muscle fascia starts to bind together due to a lack of movement and stretching.

Click here to watch the Stretching and Muscle Fascia video

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The best 3 stretches for your sport

Brad — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 02:35:31 +0000

People are always asking me; what are the best stretches for running, or tennis, or hockey, or whatever sport?

Personally, I like to design stretching routines for the specific requirements of the individual, rather than a particular sport. But having a few key stretches that are beneficial for your sport is a good place to start.

And that’s exactly what we’ve done for over 40 different sports. You’ll find the best 3 stretches for your sport at the link below…

Click here to see the best 3 stretches for your sport

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Rotator Cuff Hurting? Shoulder in Pain?

Brad — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 06:05:15 +0000

I got a call from one of my clients a while ago. I hadn’t heard from Cynthia in a long time, but in her typical “no-nonsense” manner she said…

Brad, I fell over and broke my shoulder a while ago. The break has healed, but I really need some help to get my shoulder back to normal.

And boy did she break it! In fact, she shattered it. Plus she did a lot of soft tissue damage too: Tore one of the rotator cuff muscles; and strained the biceps tendon. So I really had my work cut out for me.

One good thing though; she remembered me saying how important ice was for immediate treatment after an injury like this, so she had been using ice since she broke it.

(Ice is very important for reducing swelling, inflammation and scar tissue formation, which makes future rehab a little easier.)

Anyway, to cut a long story short, her shoulder is now 100% healed. She has full range of motion and the strength in her injured shoulder is now equal to that of her good shoulder.

Apart from a couple of small scars where the surgeons had to pin her shoulder back together and repair the soft tissue damage, you’d never know she hurt it.

If you’ve hurt your rotator cuff or you’re trying to recover after a shoulder surgery, then you can see the procedure I used to fix Cynthia’s shoulder at the link below….

Click here to Fix Your Shoulder Now!

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4 tips for improving your flexibility fast

Brad — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 02:54:57 +0000

One of the most common questions I get asked is…

How do I improve my flexibility? I’ve tried everything and no matter what I do I can’t increase my flexibility past a certain point.

Does this sound familiar? Is your flexibility stuck, and nothing you do makes any difference?

Well don’t panic. I’ve got 4 tips for improving your flexibility fast, even when you think you can’t improve your flexibility.

These tips are guaranteed to smash through what’s holding you back and take you to a whole new level of flexibility. Click on the link below to get….

4 tips for improving your flexibility fast!

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Here are my secrets to healing quickly

Brad — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 05:26:14 +0000

A few weeks back I wrote an email titled: How to work around an injury, where I talked about how I broke my toe over Christmas. If you missed it, you can click on the link above to have a read.

In that email, I casually mentioned that… I tend to heal quite quickly.

Well, apart from all the well-wishes I got (thank you by the way, my toe is all better now); I had a number of people ask what my secret to healing quickly is?

I’d never really given it much thought before, so I decided to jot a few things down to try and explain why I heal quickly. And what you can do to speed up the recovery process if you’re trying to get over an injury.

Here are a few “Mindset” suggestions.

Be patient and respect the injury. Give it the time it needs to heal properly, and don’t rush it or push it before it’s ready.
Don’t ignore the injury and just hope it will go away. Especially small injuries.
Start treatment as early as possible, and follow a structured rehabilitation program.

Here are some “Diet and Nutrition” suggestions.

Eat 100% certified organic fruits, vegetable and meats. Cut out processed food and eliminate as many additives and preservatives as you can.
Eat slowly and chew your food. You shouldn’t just eat food for the sake of eating; you should enjoy and savour every mouthful.
Increase your intake of good quality, organic animal protein: It’s vital for soft tissue repair.
And I know you’ve heard this one before, but drink more filtered water.

Here are some “Lifestyle” suggestions.

Aim to get 9 hours sleep a night. I know that may seem unrealistic (and I rarely get 9 hours myself), but try to aim for that. You’ll be surprised what a good sleep will do for you.
Improve your general health and fitness: Stay active, get regular exercise, and work on your cardiovascular fitness, your strength and your flexibility.

I’m not a big fan of taking a lot of pills, potions and powders, but here are a few “Supplements” that have helped me.

Vitamin C: Good old vitamin C (or ascorbic acid) is a great antioxidant. Try and get it in powder form and look for a GMO free product.
MSM Sulfur: MSM Sulfur is very important for tissue regeneration. Look for it in a pure powder form.
Branch Chain Amino Acids: The BCAA’s L-Leucine, L-Valine and L-Isoleucine are very effective in assisting muscle recovery and repair. Again, look for it in powder form.
Heal-n-Sooth: Heal-n-Sooth helps to reduce pain, inflammation and swelling. You can order it or learn more about it here.

Until next time, stay healthy, keep stretching and God bless.

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How to work around an injury.

Brad — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 04:47:51 +0000

I broke my toe over Christmas; the long one next to my big toe on my right foot.

I was pulling my boat up onto the trailer at a local boat ramp, and my foot slipped forward and my toe caught on something.

It didn’t hurt much when I did it, but by the time I’d washed the boat down and put it away, my toe had turned a yellow-ee purple color and it was starting to throb.

I stuck some ice on it and sat on the couch with it propped up on a few pillows. There’s not much else you can do for a broken toe: I’ve broken my toes a few times in the past and the only advice I’ve ever got from a doctor is… strap it to the toe next to it.

I wasn’t too worried. I tend to heal quite quickly, and let’s face it; it’s only a toe. It wasn’t going to stop me from doing much… But it did stop me from doing one of my favorite pastimes; running.

So what do you do when an injury stops you doing the sport you love?

Answer: You work around it.

As an “Ex” professional athlete, I’ve had my fair share of injuries, and you learn pretty quickly that you can’t do the same activity day in, day out. You need variety!

You need to let your body rest from some activities and give it different activities to keep your conditioning up and work on areas that would normally be ignored.

So, what have I done to keep active and stay in shape while my toe heals? Quite a few things actually…

I like to swim, so I’ve added some deep water running to my usual swim training. I’ve also been meaning to do more core stability exercises, so I’m doing more of those. And I’ve added a few new upper body strength training workouts.

And of course, I’ve added some extra flexibility training to work on a few tight spots that I’ve noticed recently.

This is why I include over 130 different stretches in the Stretching Handbook. I know if you do the same old stretches day in day out, you’ll create imbalances that can lead to injury.

So if you’re trying to work through an injury at the moment, or you tend to repeat the same exercise routine over and over again, try something different. Get out there and mix it up a little. Do something you’ve never done before.

Until next time, stay healthy, keep stretching and God bless.

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There’s no one best type of stretching

Brad — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 04:49:25 +0000

You know what annoys me? People who make exaggerated claims about stretching and flexibility.

Things like…. Dynamic stretching is the revolutionary new warm up method, which comes from Mark Kovacs book titled Dynamic Stretching.

I’ve been using dynamic stretching as part of my warm up routines for 25 years, so I don’t see how it could be new or revolutionary.

Or the claim from the Wharton’s Stretch Book that; Active Isolated Stretching (AIS) doesn’t trigger the stretch reflex because the stretch is only held for 2 seconds.

This defies basic muscle physiology: The stretch reflex in the calf muscle for example is triggered within 3 hundredths of a second, so any claim that AIS can somehow bypass or outsmart the stretch reflex is nothing more than wishful thinking.

Don’t get me wrong; I’m not against any of these types of stretching, or the authors and books I mention above. In fact, I’ve found Active Isolated Stretching to be great for athletes and sports people. And dynamic stretching is imperative for sports that require a lot of quick, sharp movements.

The point is… There’s no one best type of stretching. Every different type of stretching has its own unique advantages and disadvantages. And they don’t need to be sold on hype or exaggeration.

This is why I cover every type of stretching in the Stretching Handbook. It’s important not to rely on just one type of stretching all the time. You need to know which type of stretching is best for the goal you’re trying to achieve and the individual you’re working with.

When you can match the right type of stretching to the individual and their goals, you’ll always get a better outcome.

Until next time, stay healthy, keep stretching and God bless.

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Stretching is Only One Part of a Bigger Picture

Brad — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 05:32:46 +0000

I know that may sound strange coming from me; but it’s true.

Most people expect me to say that stretching is the be-all-and-end-all of everything. Just do more stretching and all your troubles and cares will melt away.

But, that’s not the case. In fact stretching is just one part of a holistic health and wellness plan: An often ignored part, but all the same just one part.

What are some of the other parts? Diet and nutrition: Rest and recovery: Cardiovascular fitness: Strength, power, speed and agility: Balance and co-ordination. These all contribute to a person’s overall health and wellness.

And here’s the thing I’ve noticed over the years: When you improve one part, all the other parts benefit as well. For example, when you improve the strength of a muscle group it’s much easier to improve its flexibility.

Back in 2004 I wrote a book called 100% Health & Fat Loss Success, which covers this very topic. It’s NOT another book about the latest diet or newest exercise craze. It’s a common-sense approach for improving your health, energy levels and vitality.

And if you’d like a copy, all you need to do is recommend our website to 1 of your friends.

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Elbow Overuse Injuries

Brad — Tue, 17 May 2011 04:02:52 +0000

This week we’re covering the topic of elbow overuse injuries; in particular tennis elbow, golfers elbow and throwers elbow. And yes there is a difference between the three…

If you suffer from pain on the outside of your elbow take a look at the Tennis Elbow article.
If you suffer from pain on the inside of your elbow take a look at the Golfers Elbow article.
If you suffer from pain on both sides of your elbow take a look at the Throwers Elbow article.

I’ve also listed a few sports that are notorious for causing elbow injuries. Take a look at these articles if you play any of the following: Tennis, Squash, Table Tennis, Baseball or Volleyball.

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Best Stretching Exercises for Water Polo

Brad — Tue, 10 May 2011 05:43:37 +0000

We’ve just published a new article on Water Polo Stretches and Injury Prevention Tips. It includes the most common water polo injuries; treatment and prevention tips; and the top 3 recommended stretching exercises. Check it out at the link below…

Get the Top 3 Water Polo Stretches here

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