The Power of Stretching

Simple Practices to Promote Wellbeing

Bob Doto

• Publisher: Fair Winds Press
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781631598470
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Sport & Exercise Science
• Index: Biological Sciences

With the aid of beautiful illustrations and easy-to-access organization, teacher and licensed massage therapist Bob Doto teaches you how and what to stretch to reclaim your power and well-being—including 60 specific stretches spanning from your head to your toes. Stretching is accessible to anyone, is quick and easy, can be done in most environments, and has proven to relieve pain, increase rates of recovery, as well as help managestress and anxiety. With The Power of Stretching, quickly gain an understanding of this powerful tool. First, you'll learn:

• Why we stretch and why it feels good
• The basic anatomy of stretching
• The benefits of stretching
• General guidelines for performing stretches

Then find out how to stretch every part of your body using 60 different stretches, with a color-coded map of the regions of the body to use as a reference. Each stretch discussed includes an image, bulleted instructions, and helpful notes and tips. Another section helps you pinpoint the stretches that are right for you based on common occupational and sports activity profiles, along with common injury profiles. Each entry provides information on how the activity or injury relates to the body, interesting facts and statistics, as well as references to the appropriate stretches for rehabilitation. Feel better faster with this elegantly designed guide to stretching.

CHAPTER 1

THE WHYS AND HOWS OF STRETCHING

In this chapter, you will learn the basics of soft-tissue anatomy and the benefits of stretching. There are also guidelines on how best to perform the stretches, working in conjunction with the breath.

What are Muscles?

The primary functions of muscles are to move our limbs and help us lift heavy objects. However, there are other, in some ways more important, functions associated with healthy muscles.

What Don’t They Do?

Muscles help keep all of our internal organs organized and in their place, so that they function properly. Muscles stabilize the body when performing activities. They allow us to breathe, help to circulate the blood, and facilitate digestion. In short, without muscles we would not be able to live.

What is a Stretch?

Whether you are an athlete, a truck driver, a nurse, or a cave-dwelling yogi (or an apartment-dwelling yogi), you stretch. When you take a step and press your foot down onto the ground, the plantar fascia on the bottom of the foot stretches. When you stand up from sitting, the movement stretches your hamstrings. Without the ability to stretch muscles you would be virtually immobile, and each one of these “unintentional stretches” has the effect of taking a muscle from a shortened state to a lengthened one.

Intentional Stretching

If you were to exist solely within the limits of these forms of basic movements, your body would, over time, begin to feel very stuck. This is because limited and habitual movement patterns cannot make up for the many ways in which we perpetually hold our bodies in contraction.

When your muscles stretch from everyday activities, you elongate their fibers—the individual strands that make up the muscle itself. When you intentionally and slowly stretch a muscle past its maximal resting length, with synchronized breathing, as you might in a yoga class, misaligned muscle fibers get the chance to reorganize themselves along the line of the stretch.

The Benefits of Stretching

Creating and maintaining healthy, oxygenated, well-vasculated (blood-enriched) muscle tissue through regular muscle stretching will lead not only to a healthier life, but also a far more enhanced experience of life itself.

Stretching has been shown to be far more than simply a way to feel good. Stretching also:

Increases blood flow to muscles, therefore increasing the rate of rehabilitation after working out or injury.

Relieves stress.

Increases flexibility and range of motion.

Relaxes the nervous system and calms the mind.

Helps prevent injury by conditioning the muscles to be more alert and responsive to stimuli.

Helps increase athletic performance ability.

Soft Tissue

There are three forms of soft tissue that move the body and limbs, stabilize the joints, and help the organs perform their functions.

Muscles

Skeletal muscles attach to the skeletal body. This muscle tissue is considered voluntary, which means that we have control over its use and function.

Smooth muscle fibers line the walls of hollow organs. These fibers are considered involuntary, in that they function without our conscious control.

The cardiac muscle tissue is specific to the walls of the heart. Like smooth muscle, cardiac muscle tissue is involuntary, where the complete set of fibers contracts simultaneously to push blood out from within the heart.

Fascia

Basically speaking, fascia is a tightly woven, fibrous connective tissue that is found throughout the entire body, making its way through the muscle tissue, around individual muscle fibers, and encapsulating groups of muscle bellies. It is often compared to the white fibrous material surrounding and interwoven throughout a peeled orange.

Fascia helps to protect our muscles from each other and other structures in the body, as well as organize and support the structure and performance of the muscles. Over time, fascia and its functions have been the subject of innumerable studies, and, as more is learned, interest in this mysterious tissue continues to increase.

Stretch the Muscles

Muscles are the most elastic of the soft tissues. Tendons are less so, but still retain some elasticity to accommodate movements in the body, and ligaments have hardly any elasticity at all.

Stretching exercises pri...