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Lecture Notes

When we think about designing a program to improve flexibility, there are different types of stretching exercises that you can perform. The first are passive stretching exercises, and here this is a natural stretch, also could be called relaxed stretching, where you're not applying any additional force to create that stretch, so you're not trying to move the muscle beyond its normal range of motion. So an example here would be bending over from a standing position to touch your toes and just hanging in that position, nice relaxed position to stretch your hamstrings. If you compare that to active stretching, active stretching involves taking a muscle beyond its normal range of motion by having some sort of assistance. So in the example of stretching your hamstrings, this time you might sit on the floor, legs extended out in front of you, reaching towards your toes. That first part is a passive stretch, but then if you had a trained partner come behind you and press you forward to move you just past your normal range of motion—not until you have pain, but past your normal range of motion—that would become active stretching.