One of the biggest components to fitness training that is often neglected is flexibility training.

How many times have you finished a race and felt sore? Was it from you thinking that you were ‘unfit’ or was it due to the fact your muscles and joints are so tight! How many times have you got a little ‘tippy’ in a corner and had to back off the power? Did you blame your poorly setup ATV or was this because you weren’t flexible enough to position yourself off the side of the ATV and keep all 4 wheels on the ground. How many times have you had a low speed crash and walked away injured? Was it due to poorly fitting body armor or was it because you are so inflexible that your body was rigid when it hit the floor?

If these are some of the questions you have asked yourself or heard others talk about then the problem might not be with your equipment but actually yourself! Optimizing your bodies range of motion and flexibility around a joint will allow you to get in better riding positions, become less stiff/sore and can help prevent injuries. How flexible you are depends on a number of factors including, joint structure, age, gender, connective tissue, muscle mass and activity level. The sport of ATV racing places such a high demand on your body a lot of people are missing out on a key component to making themselves faster and safer.

One thing that must be understood is there is a big difference between stretching and flexibility training. Stretching is great to do prior to training/racing but will only give moderate long term benefits. This is due to the fact that the stretches are usually held for only a few seconds and the whole body will be stretched within 5 minutes. Flexibility training requires you to hold stretches for a lot longer (30secs) and perform ‘sets’ of exercises similar to strength training. Most people have been shown how to do basic stretching in gym classes, but if you haven’t there are plenty of books websites available that will show you how to stretch every muscle in your body.

Static Stretching
Is a slow and constant movement with a definite end position which is usually held for 30 seconds. Holding a stretch for this amount of time deactivates the muscles stretch-reflex system and enables you to stretch further and improve flexibility. There are very limited risks with static stretching and has been shown to effectively improve range of motion in the joint. An example of this type of stretch would be the simple quadriceps stretch- which involves pulling your heel up to your butt while standing, stretching the front of your leg.

Ballistic Stretching
A Ballistic stretch typically involves active muscular effort and uses a bouncing-type movement which the end position is not held. Ballistic stretching is often used in pre-exercise warm-up, however due to the nature of the movement it does carry some risks if muscles are not completely warmed up and movements are practiced.

Dynamic Stretching
A Dynamic stretch involves flexibility during sport-specific movements. Dynamic stretching is similar to Ballistic Stretching in that it utilizes speed of movement, but avoids the bouncing and includes movement’s specific to a sport or movement pattern. In a sense, dynamic stretching is similar to a specific warm-up, the movements used help prepare the athlete for competition by improving sport-specific flexibility. A good example of this in ATV racing would be to stretch out your inside thigh muscles by bouncing around hanging off the side of the bike prior to your race. Performing sets of this to improve flexibility and warm up the muscles thoroughly that are about to be used.

	Starting a flexibility program will only help you in improving your performance and decreasing the chance of injury. You should complete a good warm-up routine prior to the stretching of any muscle. Make sure you include a ‘general’ stretching component as well as a ‘sport-specific’ component in your flexibility routine to maximize results.