"What Happens When You Stretch"

"What Happens When You Stretch" Bradford D. Appleton 1993

This article discusses what happens when a person stretches. According to Appleton, when a person stretches their muscle fiber, it begins with the sarcomere which stretches, decreasing an area of overlap and allowing the muscle fiber to elongate, also helping realign disorganized fibers. The length of a stretched muscle is the number of fibers that were stretched. When a person stretches quickly, the nerves causing the contraction and relaxation of the muscles fire rapidly as well, increasing muscle length. The lengthening reaction causes muscles to relax and is controlled by the golgi tendon organ, preventing muscle, tendons, and ligaments from injury. Reciprocal inhibition is a bit like the lengthening reaction as they both inhibit things from contracting. Stretching also has dynamic and static parts: static occurs when the muscle is being stretched and dynamic occurs quickly in response to the increase in muscle length. This relates to my Monday Wellness project first semester since I did my subject on stretching and how it is beneficial. I also went into the physical components of stretching and muscle fibers during my presentation and it was interesting to go in depth regarding the reactions that are immediate results of stretching muscle fibers.

"Another reason for holding a stretch for a prolonged period of time is to allow this lengthening reaction to occur, thus helping the stretched muscles to relax. It is easier to stretch, or lengthen, a muscle when it is not trying to contract" I like this quote because it seems odd that a person would want to stop contracting muscles as that is what makes them stronger but that the lengthening reaction actually helps relax the muscles. Since the contraction stretches them originally, the lengthening reaction makes it easier to stretch.

"You also want to relax any muscles used as synergists by the muscle you are trying to stretch." I think this is helpful information since they work as opposites and it is not something that is commonly thought of. For example, if a person is stretching their calf, they want to contract the shin muscles, or the hamstrings use the calves as synergists and relax them.

"Triggers" This word was used quite often in the articles, such as when it mentioned triggering the lengthening reaction or reciprocal inhibition or the stretch reflex. The word "trigger" helps embody how the body works since, to maintain homeostasis, the body and hormones and reactions must continue and send out signals to keep the body in balance. Thus, reactions are triggered by hormones or other signals sent throughout the body.