Nerves and Muscles

There are two parts to every nerve: sensory and motor. If you touch a hot stove, the sensory part of your nerve tells you the stove is hot. The motor part of the nerve tells the muscle to contract and pull your hand off the stove. A lot of motor function is autonomic and automatic. We never have to think about a lot of motions and movements once they are learned.

The point here is that we cannot just stretch muscles if we wish to become flexible. Someone can go to a stretching/yoga class, try real hard, make a little progress, and in four months their net gain in flexibility is small. Why? Their motor nerves are still sending a message to the muscle to stay tight. From learned physical responses, old injuries, bad posture, work habits, emotional stress, the body learned to keep a certain amount of tension in the body.

Only by stretching with the proper mindset can correct this. It is the mind that tells the nerves what to do, which in turn tell the muscles what to do.

Strength from Stretching

Thnk about this: muscles do one thing, and one thing only. Contract. You can get stronger by lifting weights and doing calisthenic exercises. That is a good thing.

Stretching lengthens your muscles, so for a given contraction, you get more work when your muscles are stretched out. Stretching consistently over time, widens your muscles, so they have more pull when you use them with less chance of injuries. If a muscle is tight, you can only contract it so much. Let us take the bicep muscle. If there is tension in the muscle, and it is tight, by let's say, 20 percent, you cannot use that 20 percent when you contract it to lift something.

However, if there is minimal tension in the muscle, you can use more of the muscle to lift something. Stretching can help you utilize what muscles you have to do more work.

So, stretching makes you stronger.

An Idea regarding Muscles..

I wanted to share an insight with you. A reader asked a question regarding using a weight to press down on a limb to help get more stretch.

Muscle cells are interesting. If you push on one, they push back. I mean this on a cellular level. So using a weight may be counter productive because while you are sitting in half lotus with
a weight on the leg, for example, your leg is actually contracting against the weight! The result is very little if any gain in flexibility. You may feel stretch, but you are TRAINING the muscle to contract.

When I teach stretching, I am not only working to stretch the muscle, but to retrain the nerve that is holding it tight.

Almost here

The new DVD How to Stretch, Vol. 1, should be here any day now. I will post it here and on my website, maybe a youtube video as well. Thanks for your patience. I think it will be worth it.

The artist is at work

The artwork for the cover of the DVD is being completed today. The master DVD for the stretches will get to the replication center this week. They informed me it would be a two week turnaround. It will then be available. International shipping is possible now, so for my out of country friends, you can order online and have it sent to you.

A New Video for you..

My New DVD

In a few weeks, I will have available a new DVD, Stretch with Dr. Mark, Vol. 1.
It is finished, and the artwork is being completed in the next few days. After that, off for replication! I am hoping to have it for sale by early March. The topics on this DVD are:

1. Stretching 101 : how to start stretching, even if you never have! A lot of info for common difficulties and how to work them out.
2. Stretch Class 1: this is how I would actually run a class for my students and patients. You can participate along with the video.
3. Stretch Class 2: Another follow along class, different than the first. I have so much to share it will be done over many classes like these.
4. Squatting: A more in depth tutorial on a very important stretch.
5. Core Exercises: we can't leave out strengthening exercises. This video begins to show what can be done to strengthen your core muscles, and stabilize your spine. There will be other classes like this, including some weight training.
6. Lotus: This is a long tutorial on lotus and how to work on the posture. I get more emails about this stretch than any other! Lotus opens areas of the hips/knees/low back in ways other stretches cannot.

Keep checking, I will post when it is ready on howtostretch.com, my youtube site, and this blog. Thanks!