Developing "cold" flexibility

[Oldrich Polreich]

How can you develop flexibility which is available to you without warming up?

 

Obviously stretching is a must, but is there anything specific to increase carryover from "warmed up" ROM to "cold" ROM?

Edited September 13, 2014 by Oldrich Polreich

[Douglas Wadle]

I'm not the best to answer this question, but it's my sense that you need to develop strength through the ROM so that it is available to you anytime.  The more strength, the more you can do it without warmup.  This usually means weighted stretching, or isometric contractions, or more likely, both.  For instance, for Side Splits you would do iso contractions in your deepest stretch and as that gets easier you would add more weight. In the pike you would do jefferson curls.  In the pancake you would do weighted pancakes, hold iso contraction in the deepest stretch just above the ground.

[David McManamon]

You will always be more flexible after warming up your joints & muscles.  If you want to drop into the splits cold then you would have to train over-splits, similar for any other position.  You can't try to reach the edge of your ROM without a warm-up.

[jack wealthy]

The best way in my experience is to consistently do small stretches throughout the day towards end of ROM. For example, if thoracic extension is an issue, 4-5 times a day reach your arms over head standing as tall and flat as possible and focus on depressing and elevating the scapula without moving your low back. This is because flexibility is mostly nervous, not physical, it is more habit than attribute.

[Cole Dano]

Iyengar style yoga can include a good deal of 'cold stretching' generally it's done in a very passive supported manner and focused on completely relaxing to let the stretch deepen on its own. The positions can be held for a good length of time, minutes.

My subjective experience is that it did help my max rom stick.

However as many mentioned above, you'll always be most flexible when fully warm, but not exhausted.

[Alessandro Mainente]

Cold stretching is suggest by different school of physioterapist. for my experience there some muscles fascia that are so tight that the biggest idea is stretch them when you are cold so that the stretch is on the connective tissue. passive and in particular STATIC elongation is the best one. use some technique like PNF is quite good of fascia release but you need to be hot. in that case some of the stretching result is provided by the elastic component of the muscles so there is no real elongation of the muscles , exactly what makes you stronger in negative contraction. this factor works against you, you can avoid that by inserting  a good number of contractions and relaxations in the same set and finishing with a long (1-2 minutes) hold at the greater stretched position.

 

So the benefit of cold stretch is that it works the connective a lot but the rom must be safe and must remain the same during the stretch. on the other side the pnf can improve a lot rom of a joint but needs warm up, dedication and much more muscles strength to provide enough assistance and free rom exploration.