1.6 - What Happens When You Stretch
Description
This article is from the Stretching FAQ, by Brad Appleton Brad_Appleton@ivhs.mot.com with numerous contributions by others.
1.6 - What Happens When You Stretch
The stretching of a muscle fiber begins with the sarcomere (See "1.2 -
Muscle Composition"), the basic unit of contraction in the muscle fiber.
As the sarcomere contracts, the area of overlap between the thick and thin
myofilaments increases. As it stretches, this area of overlap decreases,
allowing the muscle fiber to elongate. Once the muscle fiber is at its
maximum resting length (all the sarcomeres are fully stretched), additional
stretching places force on the surrounding connective tissue (See "1.3 -
Connective Tissue"). As the tension increases, the collagen fibers in the
connective tissue align themselves along the same line of force as the
tension. Hence when you stretch, the muscle fiber is pulled out to its full
length sarcomere by sarcomere, and then the connective tissue takes up the
remaining slack. When this occurs, it helps to realign any disorganized
fibers in the direction of the tension. This realignment is what helps to
rehabilitate scarred tissue back to health.
When a muscle is stretched, some of its fibers lengthen, but other fibers
may remain at rest. The current length of the entire muscle depends upon
the number of stretched fibers. According to `SynerStretch':
Picture little pockets of fibers distributed throughout the muscle body
stretching, and other fibers simply going along for the ride. Just as
the total strength of a contracting muscle is a result of the number of
fibers contracting, the total length of a stretched muscle is a result
of the number of fibers stretched - the more fibers stretched, the more
length developed by the muscle for a given stretch.
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