Flexibility is the extent to which your body is able to bend — without breaking or injury. So when you get right down to it, flexibility is a function of the number of muscle fibers you have been able to coerce into lengthening and the number of them you can keep lengthened.
Flexibility occurs when an electrical signal transmits from a nerve into the muscle fibers and stimulates the flow of calcium, causing the sarcomere to shorten, which generates force. When billions of sarcomeres in the muscle shorten all at once, the result is a total and complete contraction of the entire muscle fiber. Think of muscle fibers as being digital —they’re either contracted or they’re not. On/Off. But if there’s no such thing as a partially contracted muscle fiber, how does the force of a muscle contraction vary in strength from strong to weak? Strength is a function of total muscle fibers involved — the greater the demand, the larger number of muscle fibers recruited to do the work. Likewise, the length of the stretched muscle depends on the number of stretched fibers, which means that the more precise and thorough your stretching movements are — the more fibers you can involve — the greater benefit you receive from them.
How can I keep my muscles and joints stretched?
If you don’t take your flexibility for granted, you can keep your muscle and joints stretched. Muscles are naturally inclined to contract for their own protection, so the only way to keep them elongated, and to keep your connective tissue lengthened, is to regularly stretch them. Remember, when it comes to stretching, the old saying “use it or lose it” truly applies.
Flexibility occurs when an electrical signal transmits from a nerve into the muscle fibers and stimulates the flow of calcium, causing the sarcomere to shorten, which generates force. When billions of sarcomeres in the muscle shorten all at once, the result is a total and complete contraction of the entire muscle fiber. Think of muscle fibers as being digital —they’re either contracted or they’re not. On/Off. But if there’s no such thing as a partially contracted muscle fiber, how does the force of a muscle contraction vary in strength from strong to weak? Strength is a function of total muscle fibers involved — the greater the demand, the larger number of muscle fibers recruited to do the work. Likewise, the length of the stretched muscle depends on the number of stretched fibers, which means that the more precise and thorough your stretching movements are — the more fibers you can involve — the greater benefit you receive from them.
How can I keep my muscles and joints stretched?
If you don’t take your flexibility for granted, you can keep your muscle and joints stretched. Muscles are naturally inclined to contract for their own protection, so the only way to keep them elongated, and to keep your connective tissue lengthened, is to regularly stretch them. Remember, when it comes to stretching, the old saying “use it or lose it” truly applies.
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