Stretching: AIS or regular

[Valkyrie]

I was just curious as to what stretching techniques people use.  For years I've either not stretched or used the standard "hold for 20 seconds" stretching procedures. 

Recently I was reading a book that really suggested Active Isolated Stretching.  The idea is that when you stretch normally, your body will compensate by putting some of the strain on the opposing and adjacent muscle groups.  So they say that you're only really stretching your muscles during the first 2-3 seconds of the stretch.  The remaining 18 or so seconds are just wasted.   The AIS technique suggest that you stretch a muscle group for 2-3 seconds, then relax, then repeat the stretch again for 2-3 seconds, then repeat relaxing and stretching the muscle about 10 times.

So, I was just wondering if there was anybody out there that had any opinions on this.

~ (another) Melissa

[saraswatidevi]

I'm sorry I didn't notice this thread before. I had a lot of luck with AIS. At the time, 10 years ago or so, I was barely walking. I could make it to the car and from the car to work if I get there early enough to get a parking space close to the front door. Those days are just a dream to me now. At the time I thought that even when I couldn't walk I could slide off the couch to the floor and do AIS. It got me on my feet feeling stable very quickly. Now I have moved onto ' Relax Into Stretch" by Pavel Tsatsoline. He used to train Russian Special Forces where his motto was "If you don't know how to do it we will teach you. If you don't wan't to do it we will make you." It seems to be a similar technique but more aggressive. I love it.