Hind Site is 20/20

In my job as a Strength Coach at a Physical Therapy Clinic I see a fair amount of injured athletes over the course of my day.  Many of them have two things in common.  Lack of mobility at a joint and poor flexibility.  The common answer when I ask them what their flexibility and mobility strategy is goes something like this, “I hate to stretch!”.  I am going to share with you how I effectively get my point across to people with this mindset about the importance of flexibility and mobility training.  Below is a typical line of questioning I will give one of the athletes I work with when I get such a response.  I will put the typical response to the questions in quotations.

How much do you love playing your sport?  “I love it a lot.”

How much does it suck when you are injured and can’t practice and compete in your sport?  “I hate it so much.”

So, if I could tell you I could help you not get hurt by doing something for 5 minutes a day and save you from missing time from your sport. Would you do it?  “Of course I would!!!”

Ok, Then why do you hate to stretch?  “uhhhh”

You can effectively decrease ones risk of injury with flexibility and mobility training, everyone knows this.  But, some of the techniques to effectively do this can be tedious and many athletes just hate doing it.  But, once they understand the power of 5 minutes of performing these exercises or stretches they may be more open to doing them.  Especially if they have missed time due to injury.  Most athletes love their sport and participating.  When they have perceived value to something that will give them better results in there sport, then they will pursue it with as much vigor as their sport.  Giving Injury prevention and flexibility/mobility training this perceived value with my athletes by using this line of questioning I have seen great success with getting them to perform the exercises to reduce their risk of injury and promote mobility/flexibility and in turn improvement in injury rates and performance.

 

Next time you come across one of those Stretching haters try this method and provide them this hind sight is 20/20 enlightenment on stretching.

 

Good Luck