Stretching

Most of us have become accustomed to the idea that stretching is a useful way to maintain mobility and potentially reduce injury risk. The idea is fairly straight forward, the outcomes are fifty-fifty, and the chance of a negative response appears to be low. What is the intention and how does it get us where we want to be?

I would imagine that the intention for most is to improve flexibility by increasing the length of muscles and preventing them from getting “tight”. Flexibility is a term we use rather loosely, but ultimately, we are trying to reduce our sense of stiffness. The idea that muscles are doing the stretching, probably needs to be updated.

Research from several decades ago, circa mid-1960s, revealed that muscles do not stretch very much. Their elastic qualities are minimal, and this makes sense if they are the force producing agents we need to move things. Imagine taking a chicken breast by either end and pulling it apart, it doesn’t stretch much. Evidence does suggest that connective tissues (i.e. tendons, ligaments, bones), contain more elastic elements and are much more capable of stretching. This quality allows for them to bend more easily, store up energy and release that energy like a sling shot.

Training your body to produce force effectively requires muscles to be ready to take action, they become more active over time and reduce movement options. Stretching can be a useful activity, as it can restore some of the pliability lost in the connective tissues during high force output activities. Training yourself to reduce muscle output when it is not needed may be a more effective way to limit muscle activity, promote joint range of motion and restore connective tissue elasticity.

We should be cognizant of what our intentions are when we intervene via exercise and do our best to understand the mechanisms by which movement can impact our health.

Austin Ulrich, Physical Therapist