Active stretching

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Active stretching eliminates force and its adverse effects from stretching procedures.

Before describing the principles on which active stretching is based, the terms agonist and antagonist must be clarified. Agonist refers to actively contracting muscle or muscles while their opposing muscles are termed antagonists.

The neuromechanisms conceptualized by Sir Charles Sherrington (1857 - 1956), “the philosopher of the nervous system”, as applied to active stretching are:

1. Reciprocal inhibition — While agonist muscles contract, contraction of the opposing antagonist muscles is inhibited. (Such as when alternately flexing and extending one's elbow.)
2. Muscle spindles — Sensory nerve endings in muscle detect the change in length of the muscle and its rate of change.

Force applied to a muscle stimulates the muscle spindles which activate protective reflexes resulting in contraction of that muscle. (Such as the knee jerk response of neurological testing procedures.)

While necessary for sports and ordinary motions, this protective reaction is counterproductive for stretching, i.e., lengthening muscles.