Why stretching is important

Part 1

Fitness and Health are not the same thing. Anyone who has trained in a single sport for any length of time, will start to understand this concept I ramble around a lot. Many people get into a sport to improve their fitness, and as we spend more time in the repetitive movements of our sports, we undergo adaptations. In some instances, these adaptations can help us to perform better in the chosen sport, but they very often suck for life outside the sport.

Take a a throwing athlete for example. Research has shown us that continual throwing results in the pec minor muscles in the chest, adapt in a way that sees them sit short. Not only does this impact the resting scapular position, it also detrimentally impacts throwing mechanics, through such mechanisms as compensatory patterns in scapula movement, due to the lack of shoulder external rotation. This position can also be responsible for pain, and increases risk of injury for the shoulder. 

Even though the research referenced in the link above suggests stretching routines in order to correct the adaptive imbalance on the shoulder, logic alone should guide us in the premise that stretching a muscle that sits short on one side of a joint (for simplicity’s sake), is probably a pretty good idea. Whether this is a transient change incorporated in a warm up, or a longer term targeted flexibility program, creating strategies to bring joints into positions where they are able to allow the muscles that attach to them, experience full ranges of motion, is good juju. 

Although this is a fairly easily understood example of how the body may create maladaptations in response to repetitive movement, sometimes the reason behind why a joint is not experiencing it’s full range is a little more difficult to comprehend.

Here’s where my personal fascinations around my own clinical practice lie.

The human body is instinctively a clever machine, and if, for whatever reason, something causes us pain, discomfort, or even brings stress into the system, that could otherwise be mitigated through compensatory movement, the body will choose to do so. For instance, if a poorly rehabbed ankle injury doesn’t allow you to load the right side of your body, you may well find yourself redistributing weight to the other side of your body, potentially causing your spine to laterally flex, and impeding your shoulder movement. This may be another reason to see a short resting pec minor muscle, and to create a little clarity around these differences, I refer to the adaptations as primary and secondary. A primary maladaptation is direct overuse in one motion of the joint in question, whereas a secondary maladaptation is the result of something happening somewhere else, causing the joint to limit it’s ability to journey through a full range of motion.

Harry Potter with his arm immobilised

One way to understand this a little clearer, is to think around what may happen when a joint is immobilised in a cast in a shortened position. This position causes the sarcomeres (the contractile part of a muscle fibre) to shorten. It’s reasonable to apply the same rationale to a joint that is unable to experience movement due to joint position and limited opportunity to move.

By no means, particularly in the case of a secondary adaptation, am I implicating that just stretching the shortened muscle will “fix” the problem. In my clinical experience however, it is often a good strategy to target these muscles with some stretching, to allow for some quick wins with the client, as often these muscles are giving them symptomatic issues. The goal however, should be to look beyond the affected area, and look to causes that create the secondary problem. My rants around the body being one piece are usually tailored to this subject matter. 

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