Issue 2: Somatic Muscle Science Unveiled - The Stretch Reflex + How It Can Help Or Hinder Your Yoga Practice
Hello Somatics Fanatics,
Issue 2: Somatic Muscle Science Unveiled
What Is The Stretch Reflex? How It Can Help Or Hinder Your Beloved Yoga Practice
The Stretch Reflex (myotatic reflex) is a protective mechanism that resists stretching.
Stretching causes a reflex response to contract a muscle. It is a muscle contraction in response to stretching a muscle. When a muscle is stretched or lengthened beyond its normal range of motion (ROM), sense receptors in skeletal muscle immediately send information to the spinal cord to indicate that muscle length has changed. In response to a stretch sensation, the spinal cord then returns an impulse to the muscle being stretched (agonist) to contract or tighten, and also sends an impulse to the opposing muscle to inhibit the contraction (reciprocal inhibition), so the opposite muscle to the muscle being stretched (antagonist) stays relaxed, or lengthened.
Stretching sends sensory information to the spinal cord– not the brain.
The stretch reflex is a spinal cord reflex which means messages are not relayed to the brain. If the brain is not involved in the process it is an unconscious, involuntary movement– an automatic, reflexive response. If the brain IS involved in the process then movement is conscious and voluntary– giving a person movement choices and options. THIS is the Somatic Muscle Science that conventional yoga asana practices are missing and unfortunately what most classes offer. I am on a mission to bring Somatic Muscle Science into conventional yoga asana to help people release unconscious muscle tension and regain conscious control of their bodies– and lives. #PutYourMindIntoYourMuscle
The Stretch Reflex Functions to Contract a Muscle.
In order to maintain muscle tone and regulate movement the Stretch Reflex contracts a muscle in response to a stretch sensation. The stretch reflex or myotatic reflex is a nervous system reflex found in humans and most animals. You’ve experienced the knee-jerk reflex yourself. Remember watching your lower leg kick up in response to the doctor tapping your knee with that little hammer? Your foot kicks up when muscle spindles in the the top of your thigh (quadriceps) sense a sudden increase in length. The stretch reflex signals an automatic message to contract the quadriceps in order to prevent the muscles from over-stretching. Just like your heartbeat, blood pressure, and digestion this reflex is automatic and is not under conscious control.
Your 6th Sense, Proprioception-- Why It's Important
Proprioception is your Personal Global Positioning System.
This 6th Sense allows you to perceive the location, position, movement, of your body in space without having to look. This is why you can close your eyes and touch your nose with your index finger. You’ve likely heard of the word Proprioception. I talk about it a lot. You’ve heard of the 5 Senses: sight, sound, touch, taste and smell. Two other senses not often discussed are Proprioception, considered the 6th Sense our internal GPS, and Interoception referred to as the 7th Sense, or the "Hidden Sense” which I will discuss in another post. Proprioception is your body's ability to sense its movement and location in space. Muscle Spindles are sensory receptors, known as proprioceptors, located within skeletal muscles that detect changes in muscle length. Proprioceptors help you sense where your body is in space by providing feedback about the muscle length. Proprioception allows you to sense where your limbs are in relation to one another– as well as creating a relationship with the external world and stimuli around your body.
The Stretch Reflex Exists To Avoid Injury And Stay Alive.
The Automatic Nervous System (ANS) responds to the action of stretching within a muscle as a protective mechanism to regulate skeletal muscle length. As you can guess, this is an important survival reflex to the sensation of stretch. The stretch reflex function protects muscles, tendons, ligaments, and fascia from strains, pulls, and tears. One of the fastest reflexes in the body, it fires within 1-2 milliseconds. The impulse is so rapid because it only travels to the spinal cord and then back to the muscles without involving the brain. This ensures your safety by preventing injury. The stretch reflex is beyond conscious control. The issue here is that we as humans, in our sedentary lifestyle glued to computers and social media with lack of embodied tools to overcome physical injury and emotional trauma, and exercise routines that perpetuate fight-flight-freeze postural reflexes, all lead to ineffective movement patterns and physical compensation.
Why Bypass The Stretch Reflex if It's Crucial to Survival?
We are what we do as much as what we don't do.
Humans are creatures of habit. Some habits are good, such as drinking 8 glasses of water a day. Other habits, not so much. We are what we do as much as what we don't do, and over time, our muscles get stuck in a feedback loop of unconscious reflexes. Somatic Mobility Drills Sequences, Bilateral Somatic Movement for the Myofascial Meridians, and Embody Your Core Self-Myofascial Release integrate advanced stretch (“no-stretch”) techniques such as dynamic movement and dynamic and active stretching that are not commonly practiced in conventional yoga practices. These methods work with– not against the Somatic Nervous System reflexes for optimal flexibility, strength, and joint range of motion. Adding these techniques to any style of yoga or exercise routine will balance the over-firing of the Gamma Feedback Loop permitting you to become physically unstuck from the cycle of unconscious muscle bracing. The Gamma Loop is a circuit that controls muscle tone and posture. Gamma motor neurons innervate muscle spindles (as we discussed earlier, they are sensory receptors within skeletal muscles) and when these neurons fire excessively, it can result in muscle stiffness, spasms, limited range of motion, and pain. Working with the stretch reflex helps balance Gamma Loop Activity and provide overall nervous system regulation freeing you from fight-flight-freeze postural compensations.
Issue 3
Now you're in the loop watch out for Issue #3 where we reveal Why You Feel Flexible Immediately After Yoga Classes... Spoiler Alert– That Kind Of Flexibility Does NOT Last. You will continue to learn the process involved in Retraining Your Brain to enhance flexibility, strength, joint range of motion, pain relief, postural improvement, and performance in yoga-- and daily life.
Missed Issue #1? Read here.
What is Somatic Muscle Science?
Somatic muscle science focuses on somatic nervous system functions and pathways that control the body's voluntary muscle movements. We investigate how voluntary and involuntary muscle movements are affected by the stretch reflex, delving into muscle spindles, the gamma feedback loop, pandiculation, and stretch techniques. You will learn how to speak about and apply this knowledge by putting it into practice in your yoga and movement classes. Let's unveil somatic muscle science and retrain your brain, and your students' brains, to gain flexibility, strength, joint range of motion, pain relief, improve poor postural habits from injury, physical and emotional trauma, and social conditioning. Woven into this dialogue are the reasons why I think conventional yoga lacks in somatic movement education and what I am doing about it.
Questions? Comments? Looking forward to connecting with you.
Love,
Alyson
connect@alysonwish.com | Yoga Somatics Online | Yoga Somatics Website
