Dance Recommendation | Stretching versus Over-Stretching

Stretching is among the finest methods to enhance your flexibility and vary of movement. It promotes circulation and retains the joints and muscle tissue versatile, permitting the physique to stay supple and vibrant. When your fascia is feeling supple and hydrated, it provides you a way of spaciousness and connectedness to your physique because the nerves within the fascia can optimally talk with our mind. The connective tissue in your physique can also be partly liable for your proprioception, your physique’s sense of the place it’s in area and the way it pertains to itself. Feeling a slight pull within the muscle in a manner that’s not completely comfy is a constructive factor – it means you’re working to extend your flexibility. A productive power ought to really feel barely uncomfortable however any stabbing or sharp ache is a no-go.

Whereas stretching can alleviate compression and enhance flexibility, over-stretching could be counter productive and really result in stiffness. Over-stretching occurs if you stretch your muscle tissue past their capability by way of flexibility and vary of movement. It means the size of the tissue is bigger than ones potential to manage stated size. It might probably additionally infer {that a} muscle is stretched previous its level of pure elasticity and wholesome tissue size. This may usually occur in these with hyper-mobile joints as they’ve actually free ligaments which permit the joint to maneuver additional than it must.

Inside the muscle stomach lies ‘spindles’ that are sensory receptors that choose up the velocity and depth of a stretch. If a stretch is just too quick or too intense, the spindles set off a reflex arc to the spinal twine and again to the muscle tissue to contract so as to keep away from tearing muscle fibres. We need to stretch additional however our spindles intercede to guard us, leading to stretching with a sense of stiffness and resistance, locked right into a contraction and going nowhere. To maintain the muscle spindles at bay, consider lengthening into softness and preserve that size over time. It will enable the spindles to habituate to the brand new size and hearth much less often.

Over-stretching may trigger ligament injury. Ligaments are designed to assist every joint and might get increasingly relaxed from extreme stretching. If over-stretching continues it will possibly trigger inner shifting of the joint surfaces in opposition to one another. By lowering the integrity of the ligaments, it will possibly additionally trigger put on and tear on cartilage resulting in joint ache and degeneration.

There’s a high quality line between difficult our muscle tissue so as to improve our flexibility and hurting ourselves. Not warming up previous to stretching is the first purpose strains and pulls happen. Warming up consists of the inclusion of dynamic actions that may encourage the circulation of blood across the physique and improve the vary of movement. As soon as the physique is heat, we are able to progress into static stretching and proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation (PNF) – stretching that contracts and holds a focused muscle in a stretched place. To be taught extra concerning the significance of warming up, take a look at our different article right here.