A few months ago I wrote a blog on the perils of overstretching that seemed to strike a chord with many of my students and readers. But for every overstretched yogi or yogini out there, there are four times as many folks who are bound up and moving like the tin man! Most folks I meet want to know how they can become more flexible, not less flexible. So I dedicate this blog to all of you who wish to become more supple and mobile. Let the bending begin!

Jill’s hamstrings are happy to stretch like this – are yours?

Phase 1: Your muscles are tight. Tight-person anatomy lesson 101.

Do any of these describe you?

  • You recognize that you cannot stretch as far as you did when you were playing high school sports.
  • You attend a yoga class with your niece and are sore for days in lots of “weird” places.
  • Stretching hurts. It really hurts.

To understand what causes all that misery and tension, we have to understand a little basic muscle physiology. Take a breath; this can get a little “heady.”

1. Muscles are designed to contract. Yes, they actually love contracting, and they resist being told to lengthen. Your muscle cells (also called fibers) contain a special stretch receptor that receives signals from your nervous system via a motor neuron. When this signal is “ON” it tells those fibers to shorten. The fibers do what they’re told and remain in a shortened state unless that signal is turned “OFF.” There are many motor neurons assigned to each and every muscle in your body. Your brain decides how many neurons to assign to a task. Much of the time only some of the fibers within a muscle will contract because you may not need as many contracting muscle cells to lift a feather as you would a kettlebell.

But sometimes, our nervous system tells certain parts of your muscles to stay stiff and contracted. This is “unconscious tension,” and regular stretching is one of the best ways to help calm down that unconscious firing.

2. Muscles lengthen too, but not on their own! So when your brain tells the motor neurons to turn off, the muscle can stop contracting and be easily pulled into a stretch by two major assistive forces: 1) the position of the body and 2) the lengthening of the surrounding muscles coupled with the seeping of the connective tissues that permit the muscle to physically elongate and lengthen. Have I lost you yet? Take a deep breath, re-read and read on.

3. Muscles are surrounded and penetrated by fascia. Our muscle fibers and tissues are surrounded by a living cobweb-like blanket called fascia. Fascia is loaded with collagen and elastin fibers that are enrobed in liquids. This fascia is not an inert tissue — it responds and gives signals to the nervous system, and also assists (or restricts) movement of the muscles that it encases. When a muscle remains shortened, these fascias also shorten and can actually lose their liquids and become dehydrated and brittle and less able to “seep” and elongate.

4. What do we feel when we feel a stretch? So when you are stretching a tight muscle, you are actually feeling two main things. 1) you may be feeling the muscle’s natural resistance to being pried open, which is the stretch receptors within the muscle attempting to remain contracted (can someone please turn off my motor neuron!). 2) You are feeling the shortened and dehydrated fascias also lengthening and releasing a bit of heat.

Phase 2: You need to stretch more. Seriously, you need to stretch more.

Sorry to spoil the fun, but flexibility is a “use it or lose it” type of thing. When you don’t stretch, you keep your muscles in a chronically shortened state. Your muscles and fascias adapt to the way you use them, and over time, these soft tissues will start affecting the alignment of your joints. When those joints start wearing out because of inefficient movement patterns, you can develop osteoarthritis, bone spurs and other painful inflammatory responses and injuries. All because you didn’t stretch enough to improve and maintain flexibility.

Stretching isn’t just for athletes, or ballerinas, or yogis. Sitting at your desk, gardening, filing papers — these activities all involve repetitive actions that over-work some muscles while under-working others. Those over-worked muscles will benefit from stretching as they will be restored to a more functional length.

Check out our solutions for Tight hamstrings or IT Bands.

Read our “Stretch anytime, anywhere.” article.

[Reprinted with permission from Gaiam Life.]

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