Why Stretching and Exercising The Same Muscles Will Not Increase Your Flexibility

Why Stretching and Exercising The Same Muscles Will Not Increase Your Flexibility

The definition of stretching is to increase the distance between two joints by pulling them apart using their adjoining muscles. Muscles attach to bones. With over 600 muscles and only 200 bones, there are several muscles that attach to the same bone, each pulling in a different direction. Imagine one muscle group becomes so tight from overusing it, and other muscles are weak and lax. This is putting a LOT of stress on your joints, and your overall structure.

When you perform static stretching ( or hold a stretch for approximately 15-30 seconds), it isolates and stretches only one set of muscles, such as in the hamstrings and does not include the surrounding muscles such as those that run alongside the quadricep ( upper thigh) and join at the hip. You could stretch the hamstrings all day, it wouldn't make you more flexible.

YOUR RANGE OF MOTION WILL BE DETERMINED BY YOUR LEAST FLEXIBLE MUSCLE!

With Assisted stretching and learning how to stretch the correct muscles on your own, you will improve your overall range of motion. If you do the same exercise such as riding a bike or running, you will use the same muscles day in and day out. Those muscles will become stronger, however they will also become very tight over time. You will tend to constantly stretch only the hamstrings and pay no attention to the IT band, the adductors, abductors, gluteus medius, obliques, and trunk and hip rotators. All these muscles are involved in running, walking and biking. We often have enough range of motion to perform the same exercise consistently. Often individuals believe they are functional in their daily activities but truthfully, they don’t veer from routine, leaving hundreds of muscles untouched and un-stretched!