What Are Two (Bad) Reasons You Feel More Flexible Immediately After A Yoga Class?
Issue 3: Somatic Muscle Science Unveiled
Research explains why you feel gains in flexibility immediately after static yoga and stretch classes.
Spoiler Alert– that kind of flexibility doesn’t last.
REASON #1 that you feel more flexible immediately after a conventional yoga class: The sequencing and muscle science inherent in far too many yoga classes build your muscles tolerance to the act of forcing and pulling on them which desensitizes your nervous system to pain. Building tolerance to pain is not beneficial for increased flexibility or anything for that matter! Desensitization to feelings of pain generates sensory-motor amnesia (SMA) and develops body blind spots reducing #proprioception-- your 6th Sense. Besides reducing proprioception, pain sends messages to the nervous system to prevent injury. Flexibility gains from static stretching lasts about 24-hours. Long term, this type of flexibility is not worth the fleeting results nor the risk of injury.
Many yoga classes teach you that the ability to perform yoga poses is “mind over matter”.
Why is the motto "no pain, no gain” outdated?
The saying "no pain, no gain" is detrimental and injurious as it teaches students to push past physical limitations. Pain sensation causes muscles to launch into a heightened protective mode firing the stretch reflex stronger. As your mind continues to ignore pain signals from your brain and becomes familiar with the sensation of overstraining, what ensues is a desensitized nervous system. Straight out of a yoga class you might sense that loosey-goosey feeling but 24 hours later your muscles retract even tighter. That “yoga craving” you get the next day is the stretch reflex kicking back. My motto “no pain– all gain” does the exact opposite by allowing the nervous system to RELEASE tension safely.
Lab studies prove that static stretching temporarily reduces a muscle's ability to contract.
Spoiler Alert– that kind of flexibility is dangerous.
REASON #2 that you feel more flexible immediately after a conventional yoga class: Long static holds in various yoga pose stretches impede a muscles’ capacity to contract giving the illusion of increased flexibility due to slackened muscles. Overstretching disrupts the Gamma Feedback Loop resulting in the temporary inability of muscles to contract and return to a normal base level of tension. Once the temporary slackening reflex period ends, muscles and fascia snap back to a higher level of tension. That’s how the flexibility gains you think you’ve earned from your 60-mins yoga class has made your body even stiffer.
Muscles need to contract quickly to ensure physical safety on the mat and post yoga class.
Reflexes are your survival mechanism. We need them!
There are ways to gain flexibility, strength, and range of motion that maintain a balanced Gamma Loop. We discuss the Gamma Feedback Loop in more detail in future Issues of Somatic Muscle Science Unveiled. Incorporating Somatic Mobility Drills and Bilateral Somatic Exercises into your yoga classes ensures that you and your students won't be reducing your muscles capacity to function optimally. Somatic release exercises encourage balanced Gamma Loop Activity to increase your muscles ability to melt away inefficient movement patterns and move holistically.
Is a temporary increase in muscle length worth the risk?
Increased muscle length immediately after conventional yoga classes is temporary.
Temporary gains in flexibility from static stretch exercises are not worth the risk of connective tissue damage. When someone with already very tight tissues is pulling and forcing their body into shapes to look like everyone else, or A-type personalities that need to get their nose to touch their knee, or individuals who lack proprioception and cannot feel how far they have pushed their limits, injury occurs immediately or causes repetitive strain injuries years later. Doctors tend to recommend people with stiff, tight, weak muscles go to yoga and stretch classes and often this exacerbates the problem causing even more contracted muscles.
Does static stretching stretch ligaments?
Note: You don’t want to stretch ligaments.
Static stretching pulls muscles and tendons beyond a normal range of motion (ROM) and the pulling then goes to the ligaments. Tendons attach muscle to bone. Ligaments secure bones together. Both provide stability and do not have elastic recoil like muscle fibres do. The flexibility that you think you’ve gained is actually the irreversible, unnatural lengthening of ligaments giving the impression of increased range of motion. Loosened ligaments are unable to provide the stability that bones and joints need and leads to wear and tear and degeneration that can cause osteoarthritis.
Why Are Some People More Flexible Than Others?
What determines flexibility-- muscle length or bone length?
Spoiler Alert– Flexibility is based on an individual's unique anatomy.
Muscle length is determined by two factors:
The length and shape of bones
How deep or shallow joint sockets are
Muscle length and joint range of motion are determined by bone length.
It sounds silly to say but your muscles can only be as long as your bones!
All the stretching in the world won’t change your unique anatomy.
Some people's joints are closer together and therefore they have less range of motion but more stability. Other people have more space between joints leading to greater flexibility but less stability. Not one is better than the other. Bone length does not change. When students push past their anatomical limits joint compression can occur leading to cartilage injury down the road. A fun fact about muscle function that we discussed in Issue 1: The only two actions that muscles perform is to contract or relax. Surprise! Muscles do not actually lengthen. You feel and notice increased muscle length and joint range of motion when your unconscious muscle contraction is released and a base level of tension is restored to a normal resting length.
How do you restore muscles to a base level of tension-- which will improve muscle length and joint range of motion? … by adding Somatic Muscle Science approaches and pandiculation techniques to your yoga poses.
Questions? Comments? Looking forward to connecting with you.
Have you experienced that post-yoga loosey-goosey-feel only to wake up the next day wondering where the heck all our efforts to gain flexibility went? Explain.
Have you ever thought about how your flexibility is determined in part by the length of your bones?
Love,
Alyson
