LONG GAME

Forget stretching as you know it. There's a better way to lengthen, strengthen, prime and protect your precious running muscles.

- SAM MURPHY

When you skip your 10 minutes of post-run stretching, do you feel a twinge of guilt? If so, good news: a growing body of research suggests there's actually a better way to improve and maintain flexibility, with huge benefits to your running.

The secret lies in eccentric training. That's 'eee-centric', not 'ex-centric', and refers to the use of a specific type of muscular contraction.

"Recent evidence suggests that eccentric contractions can improve flexibility and range of motion, and may also confer benefits not observed with other types of stretching," says Jamie Douglas, a strength and conditioning coach for High-Performance Sport New Zealand, who's working on a PhD in eccentric training and elite performance.

Recent research from San Jorge University, Spain, found twice-weekly eccentric training improved adaptation to load in runners' Achilles tendons and calves, while a study published in The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research found eccentric hamstring training increased flexibility, strength and the hamstring-to-quadriceps ratio reducing subjects' incidence of injury.

"An eccentric contraction, or active stretch, involves lengthening active muscle tissue against an external force," says Douglas. It's the opposite of a concentric contraction, when the muscle fibres are shortening. Picture someone doing a dumbbell curl. As the elbow bends, the biceps bulge as the contractile units (called sarcomeres) in the muscle fibres draw together - that's concentric contraction. As the arm straightens to lower the weight, the bulge disappears as the sarcomeres move further apart that's an eccentric contraction.

"Eccentric training combines strengthening and stretching," says Dr Kieran O'Sullivan, a specialist musculoskeletal physiotherapist and author of a review on the effects of eccentric training on flexibility, published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine (BJSM).