Superior Stretching of Sciences

Brought to you by The Founder of The Mobiltiy Clinic

        What Makes a Stretch a Stretch?

You’ve probably wondered how a stretch is connected to science, in this case biology. What really is a stretch, and what is it considered? What actually makes a stretch a stretch? When there's a stretch, there are two main types of classifications, active and passive. Active stretching forces you to not only get the stretch but also actively using other muscle groups to support the stretch. On the other hand, there is Passive stretching. This is where there is assistance in the stretching, and no strengthening muscle groups are being used.  It’s important to have a balance of muscle and flexibility to have overall mobility success without getting hurt. Here, you’ll get to understand the main scientific components of a stretch. Stretching has many benefits such as posture, joint mobility, disease removal, enhanced athleticism, and more. Here, you will see the scientific possibilities of what exactly makes a stretch so powerful and why exactly it’s something that should always never be taken lightly. These all will be a little more in-depth dso if you saw my previous article it was more focused on the vitamins needed and it explained water content and reflex loops. Here, I also have them listed mpre in-depth, it will help you to understand better about them more along with other different topics.

       Water Content

When a stretch is done a lot more often, the water content in your bones will change. Why is there exactly water in the bones? Water is needed because it regulates bone structure. Without this, bones will become brittle and the nutrients will start becoming less of such as collagen, phosphate, and other various important substances needed for healthy bones. When a stretch is done, the mechanical pressure makes the water go through small channels in the bones, allowing bone cells to change blood flow. Your bones can understand how to manage the internal cells, and other inner materials while more stretching is done. Overall, this is ONE way improvement can happen. The water content can also be helped for stretching by consuming vitamin C, which is an excellent source of collagen creation (found in the bones).

To go more in-depth of cell composition in bones, there are several bone cells that relate to the ease of biomechanics. Osteoblasts (bone creation) and Osteocytes (mature tissue). These cells, in bone fluids (water concentration) measure the amounts such as proliferation (dividing into 2 daughter cells), maturation, or maybe even bone morphogenetic proteins. Not many studies have shown that these molecules actually show biomolecular interactions, like how cells respond to certain biomechanical interactions (stretching) or response to altering the state of the cell.

     Reflex Loop

While water content in bones is very helpful in multiple different ways, psychologically, it can also make stretching “seem” easier. In the world of connecting biology to the nervous system, the term “alpha-gamma reflex loop” makes a slight misunderstandment without studying the definition. The word came from 20th century neurophysiology. It comes from a feedback loop in our nervous system that regulates the tension of our muscles. In other words, when a muscle is stretched, the signal goes right away to the spinal cord. The spinal cord will “tell” the muscle to contract. When you are starting to stretch, there's a clashing effect going on. Over time this loop will be regulated by the gain of the reflex with adjusting the level of tension in the intrafusal fibers (muscle fibers as sensory organs) of the muscle spindle (stretch detectors). With this the muscle fibers of it get lengthened and add sarcomeres (“the contractile unit”) to get the product. Similarly, this is the psychology of muscles that work! 

The loop overall is connected to biology because it’s a neurological + muscle circuit created using neurological cells (regulate homeostasis), muscle fibers (myosin heavy chain), and using electrical signals neurologically which connects the brain - spinal cord - muscle. Without these different materials, you wouldn’t be able to stretch! If you can tell your brain that it is capable of making a stretch, then it’ll actually create a deeper and more impactful stretch. Think like doing a deep lunge or hamstring stretch: At first there will be a lot of pain because your body doesn't know how to adapt to this new kind of activity. Later, though, it will become conceptually and mentally easy once doing the stretch a couple times a week!

                    ATP With Endothelial

The main source of energy use of cells is created in the mitochondria, which contains ATP, Adenosine Triphosphate. The relation of this to stretching is quite interesting. In a singular muscle, the amount of ATP stored is very low. For repeated muscle contractions. The ATP must be replaced quickly with still keeping a sustained amount of ATP in the muscle. When a stretch comes to play, yes your muscles stretch but also the cell, which contains ATP actually stretches also. In this case, the cell is called endothelial. All cells can stretch, but in the case of stretching and biomechanics, endothelial cells are what matches best. This is just a fancy name for blood vessel cells.  The ATP-driven cyclic tumbling mechanism exactly describes what happens. As addressed before, first the cell elongates and ATP releases. This decreases the inner concentration of ATP in the cell required to elongate enough. This leads the cell to becoming round. This rounding reduces the ATP from releasing too much and allows the production of ATP to be replenished sufficiently of the ATP in high levels. This enables cellular elongation, and the whole cycle starts again. When you start to stretch, more ATP will be taken out because it takes more energy to get to the stretch.

 Overall, this is a solid explanation why the total process of cellular respiration is important. Consuming energy (food) and converting that energy ATP helps the energy to get to your flexibility pose! As more stretching is being done, though, the ATP will be “a lot less under stress”. It’s not going to take as much energy as it did before. ATP isn’t the only attribute that supports stretching to other attributes such as the reflex loop and water content. Muscle cells on the other hand, actually have a totally different formation of ATP.

Here is a diagram to understand this more:

       ATP with Muscles

Muscle cells in relation to ATP are even more fascinating. A muscle contains muscle tissues, which are made up of muscle fibers (the muscle cell). There are different kinds of muscle tissues such as cardiac, smooth muscle tissue, and skeletal tissue. All of their structures are different! There are many different kinds of muscles, some with keys. When muscles move, it may seem like just an easy extension and contract. While ATP does fuel the contraction, relaxing the muscle is just as important. If you look into a myofibril (part of the cell), there are sarcomeres. This stores actin(thin filaments) and myosin(thick filaments). In this case, this whole other process is called the Sliding Filament Theory. For a simplified version of this, the sarcomere must shorten for muscles to contract. The thick and thin filaments of myosin and actin don’t shorten. What ultimately happens is that they both slide past each other. When the sarcomere is contracting, the thin filaments are pulled back by the thick ones to the center. The Z lines (shaped as a “Z” and are attached by the Actin) are closer together. Exactly, how does this happen? So the actin is on top and myosin on the bottom. The myosin has several myosin heads, which pop out and create a circular end. This hydrolyzes ATP (hydrolyzing itself gives ADP and phosphate) which attach to the myosin head (cross-bridge, happens 100+ times). The head gives out a power stroke (releases ADP and phosphate), which the actin slides to the center. The myosin now has an ATP molecule attached. ATP is vital for myosin to be away from the action. This is important for stretching because muscles are needed for stretching.

Here is a diagram to understand this more:

Scientific Myths + Facts

Myth 1

Water concentration in the bones DOES NOT cause pain or control

 flexibility, it just changes the concentration the more you stretch,

 helping to manage the stretch internally. - The mind sends signals saying 

that “it's okay to lift up your arm” - it makes your stretch seem safe. 

With this, your muscles “relax” and allow you to go further.

Myth 2

Oxygen has no correlation to muscles. 

 This is actually wrong. The way you breathe 

directly affects how you perform physical activity. 

Think about oxygen fueling your body and muscles. 

This will help to a healthy Cellular Respiration 

through oxygen and then ATP. This is why the

 muscles need to be fueled.

Myth 3

Active stretching always takes more ATP away than passive

 stretching. This is actually false. If you are working on a specific

 pose that you need other assistance on (such as a wall), this is

 considered passive stretching. Overall, most kinds of active stretching 

do release more ATP, but it really depends on what

 kind of activity is being done.

Fact 1: 

The reason why balancing muscle and flexibility is important

 is because exercising can increase sarcomere content, which helps in 

“protective” flexibility. It also prevents your bones from displacing 

in the wrong spots. The muscle helps to manage that. Overall, 

the body just becomes more protected. 

Muscle cells can grow up to 30 centimeters.

Fact 2:

Besides ATP, stretching releases a lot of other 

beneficial chemicals such as endorphins, and other 

mood-relating chemicals. (Serotonin, dopamine,

 oxytocin, cortisol, and even calcium sometimes).