What Happens When You Stretch

Relate and Review

When you stretch, the muscle fiber is pulled out to its full length by the sarcomere, and then the connective tissue takes up the remaining slack. Stretching helps to realign any disorganized fibers, rehabilitating scarred tissue back to health.

Earlier this school year, I suffered a major pain injury in my quadriceps during the tennis season due to not stretching before the match. Stretching rehabilitates scarred tissue, and I usually never stretch.
Therefore, my quadriceps were never able to recover from the previous day's match; thus, my major pain in the quadriceps developed. Thankfully, I recovered from the pain with the help of BenGay and bags of ice.


Quotes

• "the stretch flex nerves increase their firing rates (signaling) as their length steadily increases"
• Author Brad Appleton's use of "firing rates" as a synonym for signaling to describe a static component of the stretch flex adds another dimension to the actions of the stretch flex. "Firing rates" really provides the reader information on the rapidity of the stretch flex sending the signal, which cannot be described in any better words.
• "Picture little pockets of fibers distributed throughout the muscle body stretching, and other fibers simply going along for a ride"
• The analogy of other fibers going for a ride really demonstrates the process within our body. While some fibers are distributed throughout the muscle body when stretching, others are just "going along for a ride."
• "proprioception: the perception of one's own body position and movement"
• Proprioception is the source of proprioceptors, which detect any changes in physical displacement. This process is very important, due to the fact that these nerve endings relay all the information of the musculoskeletal system to the central nervous system.