Increasing Muscle Extensibility: A Matter of Increasing Length or Modifying Sensation?

Various theories have been proposed to explain increases in muscle extensibility observed after intermittent stretching. Most of these theories advocate a mechanical increase in length of the stretched muscle. More recently, a sensory theory has been proposed suggesting instead that increases in mus...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inPhysical therapy Vol. 90; no. 3; pp. 438 - 449
Main Authors Weppler, Cynthia Holzman, Magnusson, S Peter
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States American Physical Therapy Association 01.03.2010
Oxford University Press
Subjects
Animals
Biomechanics
Clinical medicine
Connective Tissue - physiology
Elasticity - physiology
Health aspects
Human subjects
Humans
Mechanical properties
Muscle Contraction - physiology
Muscle Relaxation - physiology
Muscle strength
Muscle Stretching Exercises
Muscle, Skeletal - physiology
Physical fitness
Physical therapy
Reflex, Stretch - physiology
Sarcomeres - physiology
Sensation - physiology
Sensory perception
Stretch (Physiology)
Stretching (Physiology)
Terminology as Topic
Tissues
United States
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Summary:Various theories have been proposed to explain increases in muscle extensibility observed after intermittent stretching. Most of these theories advocate a mechanical increase in length of the stretched muscle. More recently, a sensory theory has been proposed suggesting instead that increases in muscle extensibility are due to a modification of sensation only. Studies that evaluated the biomechanical effect of stretching showed that muscle length does increase during stretch application due to the viscoelastic properties of muscle. However, this length increase is transient, its magnitude and duration being dependent upon the duration and type of stretching applied. Most of these studies suggest that increases in muscle extensibility observed after a single stretching session and after short-term (3- to 8-week) stretching programs are due to modified sensation. The biomechanical effects of long-term (>8 weeks) and chronic stretching programs have not yet been evaluated. The purposes of this article are to review each of these proposed theories and to discuss the implications for research and clinical practice.
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ISSN:0031-9023
1538-6724
DOI:10.2522/ptj.20090012