Stretching and lengthening: Are they the same?
Well when we are referencing muscles, the answer is no. Both however are beneficial, although it has been found that the lengthening activity has better results for rehabilitation purposes.
- To stretch a muscle, we increase the distance between where it originates to where it inserts. An example of this is when we round our back forward we are stretching the muscles which run along each side of the spine called the para-spinal muscles.
- To lengthen a muscle, we also increase the distance but the muscle is putting its brakes on to prevent us overstretching it. An example of this is when we move into a deep back arch, the abdominal muscles are lengthening but also putting their brakes on to prevent a crazy over arch of the back. This is called eccentric lengthening.
Tight, inflexible muscles are surely a limiting factor in our movement and comfort and may be caused by varieties of reasons such as:
- Lack of movement – For example too much sitting down can tighten the muscles of your hips.
- Injury – If a muscle is damaged the scar tissue which forms can make the muscle tight.
- Body type – Some people are born more flexible than others.
- Dehydration – Lack of electrolytes can cause the muscles to become stiff and cramp.
- Unbalanced strengthening – Repetitive movements from our sport, work or habits can bulk up our muscles, and if this is not moderated by stretching the muscle it may become tight and inflexible.
Muscle Stretching
To mitigate this tightness we often turn to yoga asanas or some other sort of stretching program. However it has been found that stretching a muscle has limited long term effects. As we stretch, the muscle filaments move apart and the joint gets more flexible but after the stretch they all move back to their original place. You may have experienced that no matter how many times you stretch your hamstrings, you still can’t touch your toes.
Stretching is a key component of practices like yoga asanas and Pilates, and while it increases flexibility, it does not actually lengthen the muscle. The increased flexibility can create the illusion that the muscles have lengthened, but in reality, muscles have fixed origin and insertion points and the distance between them doesn’t change through stretching.
Muscle Lengthening
It is possible to lengthen muscles to some degree for a short time. This isn’t done through stretching though. Resistance training (using movements with eccentric contractions and stretch-activated muscles) is said to be the most effective route. If we take a muscle into a stretch, say for example, a deep lunge like Crescent Moon, we are stretching the hip flexor muscle. Now once in the stretch, if we consciously tighten the hip flexors and hold that tightness as we challenge the stretch, the soft tissue around the muscle will gradually reorganise and the joint will become more flexible. The muscle temporarily lengthens but afterwards returns to normal.
When we are working with our flexibility either by stretching or lengthening, we are actually working more with our nervous system. It is the nervous system which puts the brakes on the muscle and prevents it from stretching. Therefore in many cases simply learning to relax tight muscles will help to increase our range of motion and along with some sort of flexibility training will gradually help those tight joints to work better.
By Vrndavan Dasi
Founder and Principal of Veda Yoga Teacher Training