Stretching: Before or after warm-up?

[friendlypain]

*Warning-The views expressed here will not be found in a text book. The author of these opinions (ie. me) will withdraw from direct contact with people until the fury dies down into a small hurricane*

May I be so bold to say that I like the focus on the fascia but I really really really disagree with you... in a very nice way of course. (sheepish grin)

We really need to change the way we think about muscle so we can better understand it's function. Allow me to throw some brain teasers out there.

1. Muscle is NOT soft tissue.
2. Stretching does not exist in the terms we think of it (ie. we were taught in school)
3. Muscle and fascia are related... more to crystals (Going to duck the rotten tomoatoes being thrown my way)
4. I am CRAZY I know!

So let me discuss with you crazy notion number 1. Muscle is NOT soft tissue. Well... It's not. I cant leave it at that eh? Oh well... Muscle, the component we care about anyway, is the motor molecules actin and myosin. Please think of them as if they were a heavy duty cog and a heavy duty chain, and just like a chain we can't stretch it. If you can do it without breaking the links (eccentric damage) then bottle it and sell it to Nike for a fortune. The muscle length is determined by the amount of links in the chain. I believe I expressed the opinion before that the only way you can lengthen or shorten a muscle is to cast it into a position for a week(s) in order for the muscle to remove/add links to the muscle. Please view the motor molecules as the skeleton of the muscle cell and just like you cant make your arms longer by holding 100lb weights for hours on end, you cant do it to your muscles.

Crazy notion number 2. Stretching, like my personal life, doesnt exist! Honestly, how can I have a personal life if I spout off crazy stuff because I choose to bury my nose in crazy studies by crazier researchers???? Flexibility and strength or strength and flexibility.... there is no difference. They are the same thing! Strength comes in the ability to recruit muscle fibers in the ENTIRE range of the motion. To be a runner and only be strong in 10 - 20 degrees of hip, knee, and ankle flexion/extension makes you a weak biomechanical train wreck.... but one hell of a forest gump. As we excel in our sports, we train our muscles to conserve energy by compensating in many movements. As a runner, why on earth will I engage my ass when it is so HUGE(!) and uses so many calories when I can use my hamstrings which are smaller and use less???? This will allow me to have the energy to run from New York to LA via forest gump. So what we should be asking is what comes first, the stretch reflex or the cerebellum? Who freaks out when the muscle is brought beyond the range it can function with optimal strength.... To be honest, we all have the ability to do the splits.... our muscles are long enough to do it but we are just not strong enough in that range.

Crazy notion number 3. Muscle and fascia share may properties with crystals. I remember reading somewhere that the actin and myosin filaments are structured like any normal crystaline structure. I am reading more into this so I can prove I have no life to the next girl I meet... (hey baby, did you know that my body is "rock" hard?)

Point 4. Did I not prove it yet? sigh

So why am I making these points? I am sure I did not answer any questions but instead created a few more (like who the hell is this nob? A proponent for silcon life?) but to me it is very important to know what we are talking about in terms of thinking outside the antiquated text book.

Stretching does nothing as it is an isometric contraction. It activates the muscle and thereby increases blood flow into it in porportion to metabolic need. It forces the muscle to work outside it's normal range where it is weaker and unable to perform it's function properly.

Fascia is a covering of the muscle. It would impede the flow of fluid in and around the muscle (we are a sea of red after all) and is intimate with every inch of our body. As for it's true function, unless we see someone skinned and be made to endure lots of inhumane experiments on to further understand it's true role we can only make an educated guess. We are not a sadistic race (I will hold on to this fact so dont argue with me <wink>) after all. Hey look what they did to einsteins educated guesses after a few decades! The only thing he got right is E=MC2... for now.

NOTHING happpens unless you have blood.....

As for the joint protection.... well... muscle protects and endures... That is trade marked by the way... MY SLOGAN!!! NO STEALING! LOL

Adamo

[physiomitch]

Hi Adamo

Thanks for the input, LOL!

You have some valid points. Yes muscle is not soft tissue, just as tendons, ligaments and aponeuroses are not fascia (evidence given at the Conference on Fascia in the USA last year). I agree that we cannot seperate fascia from muscle as they for the myofascial unit. However, for the purposes of this discussion, we are talking of them as seperate entities to demonstrate the need and reasons for stretching. As a unit, the muscle depends more on the fascia for its ability to function than the fascia depends on the muscle. For movement to take place we need a give and take of the myofascial unit, so this natural 'flexibility' is what we are focussing on. Everyone differs to how much they can move, but working within this individual range is what is essential when we stretch. It is vital to maintain this ROM as without it we will lose strength and thus function. Too much exercise, maintained postural positions and injury lead to shortening of the fascial tissues, resulting in stiffness, and, as this restricts the space in which a muscle works, will lead to weakness. This is weakness in a part of the muscle range.

"Stretching does not exist." Again in the context of what we are talking about, here is the definition of stretch: "transitive and intransitive verb to lengthen, widen, or extend something, or become lengthened, widened, or extended, especially by force". If I were to put a limb or body part through its full ROM, this would be considered a stretch, merely the motion either passive or active is termed stretching. If the myofascial sheath has shortened around a muscle, the muscle will not have its ENTIRE RANGE available, thus it will not be strong in all its range. I prove this every day testing muscle strength before and after myofascial release. Strength and flexibility are a vital combination, but again, strength depends on flexibility, not the other way around.

You are correct that muscles and fascia are made up of a crystalline matrix. M W Ho and D P Knight have shown this in their research together with many other studies on the soft tissues. Here is a small extract from one of their research papers;" It is already widely recognised that all the major constituents of living organisms may be liquid crystalline (Collings, 1990) - lipids of cellular membranes, DNA, possibly all proteins, especially cytoskeletal proteins, muscle proteins, and proteins in the connective tissues such as collagens and the proteoglycans (Bouligland, 1972; Girnud-Guille, 1992; Knight and Feng, 1993). Recent nuclear magnetic resonance (nmr) studies of muscles in living human subjects show evidence of their 'liquid-crystalline-like' structure (Kreiss and Boesch, 1994). However, very few workers have yet come to grips with the idea that organisms may be essentially liquid crystalline".

Having similar properties means a general amount of movement is possible in both, but looking at the structure of the fibres in each shows muscles having more parallel fibres, and fascia having more crossed fibres, thus by design, fascia will not be able to 'stretch' as far as muscle, thus needs to be the container and restrictor to control movement and strength. I have never understood the term 'muscle recruitment' very well, as I see muscles as slave units of the nervous system, but they also need sufficient rate of blod flow and a fascial sheath that allows them the space in which to operate, without being too loose. Recruitment

"Stretching does nothing as it is an isometric contraction. It activates the muscle and thereby increases blood flow into it in porportion to metabolic need. It forces the muscle to work outside it's normal range where it is weaker and unable to perform it's function properly."...I think you may have a different concept to stretching than I have. Stretching I am talking about is passive, not active. The part being stretched should be relaxed. Bending my elbow actively is not stretching the triceps, as they have to be active to control the amount of movement, however, if the action was done passively, by using the other arm to do the movement, the triceps fascia will be stretched to the limit it will allow (the first feeling of stretch). Stretching is not meant to activate muscle, if so it would be difficult to reach full range. Muscle is passively drawn along with the movement of the myofascial sheath, still allowing better blood flow but purely due to opening up the space for vessels to flow through. The muscle will not be working outside it normal range as the range is controlled by the myofascial sheath, which is an integral part of the muscle. The muscle range is designed around the flexibility of its own sheath and will not be ompromised by moving the sheath through its full range. t is virtually impossible to 'over-stretch', which is what I think you seem to be assuming when we talk about stretch, it will be too painful and the inelastic properties of fascia and ligaments and tendons will not allow it.

Fascia is not just a covering of a muscle it is the body's most important communication system, as via the crystalline nature it generates electrical signals evertime it is manually stressed via movement or outside influence. Crystals generate electrical discharge when compressed (piezo-electric effect) and this is how the body can function with a brain that only sends signals in the nerves at a miserly 120 m.s., whereas it is postulated that fascia can transmit current at approx. 300 m.s. So a well as being a protector, seperator, suspender, supporter, and container, fascia is a communicator of some repute. Without it we are dead!!!

If fascia tightens yes it will restrict blood flow, that is obvious, thus releasing it will be the treatment of choice, as in compartment syndrome, but it only tightens if stressed physically or physiologically.

Soft tissues protect joints...they are the alarm systems having the majority of the sensory nerve supply, muscles are devoid of sensory nerve supply, so they cannot warn us of impending danger to a joint. Muscles move us, soft tissues keep us alive!

Hope this makes it clearer.