17 July 2021 | New Scientist | 37range of motion, that just keeps the flexibility”,
he says. Tilp, too, recommends prioritising
strength throughout the whole range of
motion of the joint. Active stretches, such as
yoga poses that involve holding your body
weight in a stretched position, like a downward
dog, strengthen and stretch muscles at the
same time. “You have not only the flexibility
but also strengthening,” he says.
But don’t abandon your flexibility
training just yet. Not only can it help
prevent sporting injuries (see “Stretch then
exercise?”, page 38), it has surprising benefits
for the cardiovascular system as well.
Over the past decade or so, studies have
revealed a link between inflexibility and risk
factors for cardiovascular disease. For instance,
a 2009 study of Japanese adults led by Kenta
Yamamoto at the National Institute of Health
and Nutrition in Tokyo found that the stiffest
participants (as measured by a sit-and-reach
test) aged 40 or over had stiffer arteries,
and this effect was independent of the
aerobic fitness levels of the participants.
What’s more, a 2018 study of 1354 Japanese
men aged 35 to 59 found that the least flexible
(as measured by the sit-and-reach test, plus
range of movement in the shoulder and arm)
showed the highest levels of atherosclerosis,bicep curl or walking down the stairs) –
has the same effect on the muscles as pulling
them into a stretch, he says. Doing this, you get
strength as well as flexibility, with no need to tag
on a series of stretches afterwards. “If people
only have a limited amount of time and you
want to make them healthier, I would argue that
taking up chunks of their workout time with
lots of stretching is not a good use of their time.”
In fact, keeping the joints oiled doesn’t need
to involve anything that you might think of as
exercise. Squatting onto your haunches when
you need to reach something on the floor will
release sitting-related tension without the
need to contort your body into an “official”
glute stretch. Reaching to grab something
from a high shelf or playing frisbee will help
free up the shoulders too.
The benefits of choosing strong mobility
over flexibility is that you get side benefits
in terms of increased strength and endurance,
which – unlike flexibility – are proven to
bring significant benefits for overall health
and longevity.
Tilp also says it is a lack of movement, rather
than a lack of stretching per se, that causes us
to stiffen up in the long term. “We know that
when you get older, you become less flexible.”
But “if you move your joints through the wholeWhat happens
when you
stretch?
The short answer is that the
muscles, tendons and fascia –
a kind of connective tissue that
surrounds the muscles – all get
longer, at least temporarily.
While this had long been
suspected, it wasn’t until around
10 years ago that studies by
Markus Tilp at the University of
Graz in Austria using ultrasound
confirmed that stretching
temporarily increases the length of
the muscle-tendon unit by between
5 and 10 per cent. The effect comes
down partly to the lengthening of
individual sarcomeres, the basic
units of the muscle, and partly
down to viscoelastic effects that
make the muscle and connective
tissue more pliable for an hour or so.
In the medium term – six to
eight weeks, say – studies have
found that a regular programme of
stretching significantly increases
range of motion. However, no
changes in the muscles or other
tissues have been identified on
this timescale. This has led Tilp
and others to speculate that
increased range of motion is
explained by an increase in stretch
tolerance: essentially, a sign that
the nerves don’t sound the pain
alarm so easily, because the
nervous system has learned that
this level of extension is safe.
Less research has been done on
what a long-term programme of
stretches does to the muscles and
other tissues. Observations of ballet
dancers suggest that, over long
periods, individual muscle fibres
do get longer, which may be
caused by adding new sarcomeres
to the muscle’s length. Tilp’s study
on this was postponed during
the pandemic, however, so we
still don’t know for sure.
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TY
IMAGESYou don’t need
to go to the gym
to exercise your
body’s full range
of movement