The central nervous system, muscle length and the lie of stretching

Posted by Martin Koban on Dec 15, 2011 in Science behind it all | Comments Off

There are over 200 bones and more than 600 muscles in the human body. Some muscles can be voluntarily controlled; others are used without us contributing much. When it comes to movement however, we have to learn everything from scratch. So when we were born, we already had the hardware to move around, but were missing parts of the software. That basically means the central nervous system needed...

Limitations of stretching in fixing movement

Posted by Martin Koban on Dec 13, 2011 in Functional Movement | Comments Off

For most people stretching is the ultimate solution. You can fix tightness and thereby prevent injuries and pain, right? Well, sort of. Tightness in a muscle is just a result of previous behavior. Dr. Perry Nickelston points out that it is usually “a by-product of inefficient movement patterns where muscles unnecessarily have to compensate or work overtime to help you achieve the objective.”....