Yoga Anatomy

58 Yoga anatomY

In the fields of fitness and movement training, the words lengthen and stretch are used
in many different ways. It is important to understand that a muscle can lengthen and be
active (an eccentric contraction), can lengthen and be inactive (a relaxed muscle), or can
lengthen and gradually change from active to inactive or vice versa.
In any of these situations, the muscle lengthens because an outside force (such as the
pull of gravity or the pull of another muscle) acts more strongly than the muscle being
lengthened. Lengthening a muscle does not necessarily mean relaxing it.
The word stretch is sometimes used interchangeably with lengthen. If the term simply
means to change the distance between the attachment points of the muscle in such a way
that they move apart from each other, stretch is indeed interchangeable with lengthen.

E5267/Kaminoff/fig4.4/421800/alw/pulled-r2

Triceps

brachii

Figure 4.4 Examples of isometric, eccentric, and concentric contractions in the triceps brachii
when (a to b) moving from plank to chatturanga (eccentric), (b to c) returning to plank from chat-
turanga (concentric), and (a and c) maintaining plank (isometric).

b

a

c