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--- In , Reinhard Engels <beautiful_idiot@y...> wrote: > Anyone here stretch? ...yes, sometimes :) I don't notice any ill effects except an occasionally guilty conscience. ....without stretching your muscles, especially the postural ones versus the phasic ones.... An example of a phasic muscle is the Biceps brachii...Phasic muscles are the ones that you use occasionally for your "everyday movements", but postural ones are the ones which always are holding us up against gravity, and don't get a coffee break until we are dirt in the ground...like most of our neck muscles, the spinal erectors and the deep muscles of the hip and calf... > > Am I missing anything? .... I would say, yes... not because you aren't feeling any ill effects (as of yet and cross your fingers it stays that way), but simply because static streches do very good things for your muscles and can only help your performance and longevity, and keep you less prone to muscle strains...And loose muscles are more comfortable... Wouldn't you prefer to feel nice and juicy, and have your full range of motion at your command, versus being semi tight and restricted all around your shoulder girdle? You can still be very strong, infact stronger, if you stretched because you would be reducing tonicity, and then you will reduce the likelihood of trigger points developing in the muscles...Myofacial triggerpoints can be studied in the work of Dr. Janet Travell, JFK's personal physician... So if you have a trigger point, this will typically reduce the contractile strength of the muscle it is within.. that's because it keeps on staying contracted (sizewise these are just like the head of a nail or a pin) overwhelms the nervous system and limits the circulation of blood and the elimination of metabolic wastes within the tissue...Stuff like lactic acid just keeps building up... And remember that's what makes "Stiffs" stiff when they go into rigor mortis... You don't seem like you are in that stage so I wouldn't really freak out, but I do suggest to start doing some very basic warmups and cool down STATIC stretches... not ballistic because that will just illicit the tendon organs and muscle spindles to have a "strech reflex" and just tighten up more...gentle static stretches won't illicit a reflex reaction in the muscle... Did farmers and hunters stretch? .....Is this a rhetorical question? I don't really know how to answer it? LOL... I don't think Elmer Fudd did! > Maybe the range of their natural movements (which, remember, we're imitating with shovelglove) is sufficient that dedicated stretching time isn't necessary? Maybe it's only the artificial, constricted movements of weightlifters and other "specialist" exercisers that make stretching necessary. .... I think it's all about intensity and load... If you were doing Shovelglove for more minutes a day it might effect you differently. The more intense a workout is, whether that means heavy lifting, or just lengthy sessions, the more likely your muscles will shorten... This is how the muscle protects itself from injury... the more contracted it is, the less likely it is that someone might say get their arm ripped out of their socket.. it is programmed into the muscle fibers to react to an intense or fast strech, by shortening... Example: You walk down the street and by accident while you are looking at some girl walking by, you hook your arm around a light pole.. What happens? Everything suddenly goes into flexion because of this self preservation reflex in the muscle.. If not, you might really pull your arm out of it's socket... get it? :) > What I do do to cool down is a bit of shadowboxing. I don't know the first thing about boxing so I'm sure what I do is pretty laughable to the trained eye, and I doubt it accomplishes much in the way of stretching, but it's fun, and a great excuse to admire your shovelglove induced musculature if you do it in front of mirror (if a little autosexual). .......LOLOLOLOL :) Please Reinhard, you have to make a movie of this for me!!!!! I promise not to laugh!!! LOL :) A little narcissism is okay, but don't start leaning in to kiss yourself okay? :) It also kills time while I wait for my charming victorian plumbing to get the shower water hot enough. ....Come on! Don't you like a good bracing chill? LOL (meh neither do I!) Hey at least it's not medieval plumbing! 21 hooks to the head, 21 hooks to the body, 21 uppercuts, 21 "sneaky stomach jabs," ...Come on! No cheating... anyway if you really want to do some damage you should be aiming for the kidneys anyway... 14 straight rights, 14 straight lefts. Reinhard .... Okay, I've gotta call my bookie now....I predict your wife will take a dive in the third round..from laughing! :) Love, Deb PS... My good friend Richard, a computer guy here in town (boy I sure know a lot of Richards these days) just dropped off a new optical mouse for me to replace my old one with the warn out "ball" If it is as good as I expect, maybe I will try to draw some of the static stretches I would recommend for all the pact of Blood who care to check them out. I could put it in a file folder... Meanwhile, here's a basic good one. Stand at about 90 degrees against a wall, and simply place your fully extended arm behind you and flush against the wall at shoulder height, as if you are making an upside down and backwards "L" shape or half a right side up "T" shape...then hold it for at least 20 to 30 seconds... Chances are, you will also feel it in your pecs, and even in the scalene neck muscles, but it is for stretching the biceps brachii... Thanks for posting this Reinhard! I love to read your posts! They crack me up :) Love, Deb |
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