Amanda Wilde (Host): Join us as we dive into the world of stretching and mobility. Often overlooked, but a crucial component of a healthy lifestyle, stretching can help maintain flexibility, improve posture and prevent injuries. Welcome to Every Day Well, a health and wellness podcast brought to you by Memorial Hermann Health System. Tune in for the latest tips and information about health care topics that matter most to you. Our guest, Lisa Battles, a Physical Therapist at Memorial Hermann Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation East Houston, shares valuable insights on the importance of incorporating stretching into your daily routine.

Lisa, welcome to the podcast.

Lisa Battles, PT, MPT: Thank you. Good to be here.

Host: So is stretching something we should be doing every day? 

Lisa Battles, PT, MPT: I most certainly think that. I've been a PT for 29 years and I've seen quite a bit of injuries and quite a bit of life changes in people that stretching would really help either prevent or help people stay mobile. 

Host: How does stretching contribute to overall health and wellness? 

Lisa Battles, PT, MPT: Our muscles and soft tissue all generally are attached to a joint of some sort. And the joint, has a very tight joint capsule around it that's not very stretchable, very elastic like a muscle or soft tissue is. And so if those tissues get tight, then the joint can get very tight and cause joint pain because you have more compression because the soft tissues are very tight. 

Host: Does that mean stretching can also help prevent injuries?

Lisa Battles, PT, MPT: Yes, I believe it does, especially if people have low back issues, it can help decrease the amount of pressure on the lumbar spine or the neck as well. And if those muscles are stretched out, there's a lot less compression there and it can decrease the amount of injuries. Also in the shoulders as well, in our computer society, we're all hunched over our computers, head forward, and many shoulders get tight and necks get injured. So it's always a good idea to stretch out the shoulders as well as the neck. 

Host: Well, I was just going to ask, as you're talking about shoulders and backs and necks, are there specific types of stretches that are more beneficial than others? 

Lisa Battles, PT, MPT: It depends on the type of activity you're doing, I believe. If you're a young athlete and you're doing real explosive type sports like sprinting, running, with any of the sports, softball, basketball, baseball, field hockey, what have you, when you're doing explosive sports, then there's kind of stretch called dynamic, and it's a quick stretch that gets the muscles prepared for that explosiveness. 

But if you are Joe Schmo sitting at your computer or you go to the gym two or three times a week, a longer stretch is much more beneficial and stretching for, you can find different studies saying anywhere from 10 seconds to 60 seconds for a long stretch for people that are not quite as active as a high school athlete or collegiate athlete.

Host: Okay. So it depends on the kind of activity that you're doing. We talked about stretching daily. Is there a best time of day to stretch?

Lisa Battles, PT, MPT: Well, if people are having trouble getting out of bed, whether it's arthritis or spondylosis or whatever's going on, it's good to do some stretching even before you hit the floor. It helps you going from that sitting to standing and taking off portion of the beginning of your day. I always advocate for stretching after you exercise because your muscles and your joints are warmest at that time and it tends to give a much more effective stretch. But also if you're starting your workout routine, doing some light stretching is also beneficial. 

Host: What is the biggest misconception about stretching? 

Lisa Battles, PT, MPT: That you don't need to stretch. It is one of the most boring parts of people's routines. It takes a long time, depending on, I hold my stretches 30 to 60 seconds, and it just adds to the time that you exercise. Everybody needs to stretch. It's great that you're out there doing cardio and lifting weights, but you got to stretch afterwards to maintain your flexibility.

Host: And that's just a different type of staying healthy.

Lisa Battles, PT, MPT: Yes, it is.

Host: Are there common mistakes people make when stretching? 

Lisa Battles, PT, MPT: Yeah, it's kind of funny. I see it at the gym a lot. People doing really short bursts of stretching when maybe they're doing a lot of weight lifting and they just hold their arm up over their head for maybe 5 seconds, and then the other side for maybe 5 seconds. 

Or they just do a calf stretch on the step and they're bouncing up and down, bouncing up and down instead of holding it. And then some of the form and technique could be a lot better to get a much more effective stretch. 

Host: Is there more to explain about the importance of stretching for different ages and activity levels, whether you're an athlete or a senior, office employee? 

Lisa Battles, PT, MPT: If you're younger, your soft tissue and your joint capsules are a lot more pliable. They're much more elastic. And at the age of 30, our bodies start aging. And over time we become more plastic and not as extensible. And so the older you get, the more you should stretch and holding those stretches for longer periods of time, like up to 60 seconds, because our connective tissue and our joint capsules become a little bit more brittle than say a 21 year old, for the stretching. And it can just really help the joint compression and the pain.

Host: Are there physiological changes that occur during stretching?

Lisa Battles, PT, MPT: Yes, and this is a real simplified, but muscles stretch first, and then you go into the soft tissues like tendons, connective tissue, fascia, and it'll all stretch along the same longitudinal line. There's also a neurological component that coincides with this, and it's called the GTO, the goalie tendon body. It's a neurological reaction from the muscle spindle fibers that go up to the brain and say, hey, you need to do this. And then the neurological signal goes back down to the muscle to say, okay, we're going to do this. Very simplified. And there's different resources that you can look up.

And I have some places that are reputable and not just Dr. Google, that you can go and read more about this, if you would like that information. 

Host: When should someone consult a healthcare professional about their stretching routine? And where should we look for information if we're not seeing a healthcare professional?

Lisa Battles, PT, MPT: I think it's good if people are not quite feeling like they're getting the whole thing of working out and they still have pain. Or if they don't, do anything and they have pain. So I think those two places are a good time to get a professional to help with stretching is if you're sedentary or if you still having pain and you're very active, but you need a little tweaking.

Host: Now, what about chronic pain? Does stretching help with chronic pain conditions? 

Lisa Battles, PT, MPT: It does, but you have to find a fine line between stretching too much and stretching too little. Because in people that have chronic pain, they can over stretch and then it can create a more dull, achy pain if they overstretch. It's a fine line. And we do see a lot of people that have chronic pain and that's another time to go see a physical therapist to gradually move into a more beneficial workout routine.

Host: It's always good that you're there with the resources as well as the hands on.

Lisa Battles, PT, MPT: Yes.

Host: Lisa, thank you so much for sharing your expertise on stretching and how that contributes to improved flexibility and muscle function.

Lisa Battles, PT, MPT: You're welcome. I enjoyed it. Thank you for having me.  

Host: That was Lisa Battles, a Physical Therapist at Memorial Hermann Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation, East Houston.

To learn more about Memorial Hermann Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation, visit the Memorial Hermann website at mhhs.org/physicaltherapy. If you found this podcast helpful, please share it on your social channels and be sure to check out the entire podcast library for topics of interest to you.

Thank you for listening to this episode.