Flexibility Stretches Tips From Our Fitness Consultants.

Understanding The Concept Of Yoga

A lot of people are concerned with yoga, and when they come for their first fitness class, they are very curious about their flexibility. It is mostly said and heard that in order to do yoga, a person must first be flexible and then start yoga. But Is this The True Concept? In this article, we will have a deep understanding of the concept of yoga and how much is it related to flexibility. So let’s delve deeper into the talks:

What Is Flexibility?

Generally speaking, flexibility is the capacity to move through the entire range of motion. To be more exact, though, our flexibility is limited to a single joint. For example, we may have an average range of motion at our ankle joints but only a moderate degree of flexibility at our shoulder joints. However, if someone has more range of motion than average or much less than a full range of motion at most joints, we might characterize them as either very flexible or not very flexible, both generally and in their yoga practice.

What Influences Our Capacity For Flexibility?

There are a bunch of factors that affect our flexibility, and some of these are:

Genetics

The activities that we do or don’t. The hobbies we are involved in have of massive impact on our lives. This is why it is suggested to properly align your hobbies and daily activities.

The Sports we prepare for and play.

Human body tissues generally get dry with age. This is also a factor of low flexibility.

Knowing About Stretching?

Stretching is commonly defined as the lengthening of muscles of the body and accompanying fascia to maintain or increase the range of motion. Stretching can be of differnet types depending on the type of situation. For example, there are static types of stretching in which we hold the muscles in a certain position for a time period, and this is also sometimes called yoga.

Dynamic forms of stretching, also known as ballistic stretching, entail bouncing into and out of a stretch instead of holding it. By actively engaging a muscle against resistance and relaxing it to create a space, proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation (PNF) stretching techniques leverage various neuromuscular principles. This process uses a focus related to the relaxation phase that follows a contraction. 

Why Not Just Stretch?

Stretching has a lot of benefits, just like strength training, and is very helpful in preventing injuries in certain sports, athletics, and other leisure activities. It helps us maintain or even increase our range of motion by stretching multiple points of our body. Moreover, when we age, our body cells tend to dry, which raises many problems such as joint pain, movement difficulty, and other work. Stretching helps us overcome all these difficulties and prevents our bodies from running out at a young age. 

According to recent studies, stretching may benefit our immune and cardiovascular systems, among other bodily systems. For instance, a review study found that cardiac autonomic function was enhanced by stretching (Wong and Figueroa, 2021). Furthermore, a different review study found that stretching was positively correlated with decreased inflammation, even at the molecular level (Krol et al., 2022). Thus, there are numerous reasons why we should continue with our stretching regimen.

Changes When We Stretch?

Stretching causes a lot of changes in the body. These changes are of different types based on the stretching exercises you do. In this blog, we are going to discuss the changes that happen in the human body.

Mechanical Changes

The first thing is that we don’t know if mechanical changes occur in the body or not to increase the range of motion. There is doubt on these changes but the research is unclear on that. Moreover, if there are mechanical changes, they require more significant duration, intensity, and repetition than most experimental stretching protocols have used in recent studies up till now. A review study from Freitas in 2018 showed that stretching exercises for less than eight weeks, most five to six repetitions of each stretch for about 30 seconds, repeated 4-5 times increases the stretch tolerance but there was no change in the muscle extensibility of the body.

Alterations In Proprioception And Senses

There is no guarantee that the changes occur in the nervous system or not. Folpp et al in 2006 there was not even a minor change in the hamstring muscle extensibility after 20 min stretching, for five days a week for five weeks straight, but this stretching increased the tolerance of the stretch, which interns increased the joint range of motion. Similarly, In 2010, Ben and Harvey noticed that the stretch of the body for 20 min, five days for six weeks did not change anything in the body instead of stretch tolerance in the hip of the body. 

Engagement Of The Central Nervous System

The precise process by which our muscles, fascia, and other connective tissues transmit signals to our central nervous system, which determines whether we move or remain motionless, is still unknown. Muscle spindles, which are embedded in our

muscles and have various kinds of sensory endings that bring in sensory input, are typically the source of information that the central nervous system receives (Banks et al., 2021). Our awareness of holding a stretch and our capacity to detect changes in muscle length are both mediated by this system (Banks et al., 2021).

Of course, there’s a chance for both mechanical and sensory changes. We still don’t fully understand the effects of stretching. The mechanical and sensory changes we’ve discussed are probably not the only ones; there may be more that we haven’t yet discovered. Anecdotally, those of us who have practiced yoga for a long time also know that yoga alters our flexibility and range of motion. Thus, as long as we continue to appreciate the space inside our bodies, it’s acceptable that science isn’t exactly sure what’s happening to us.

Yoga Vs Stretching: The Differences Between The Two?

The research studies show that a person who stretches daily has good flexibility and range of motion in the joints. This decreases their chances of injury. Stretching can decrease the risk of your mobility and hence you will not have the problem of range of motion when you age. 

Both Yoga and stretching have their own benefits, such as increased athleticism and performance in daily life. Depending on your physique and the type of exercises you do, yoga can overall provide a slightly better outcome.  However, if you want to maintain a healthy and stretching body, stretching is something you need to consider practicing. 

Similarities Between The Two

If you have ever attended a yoga class, you might have noticed that some of the poses or styles are the same as those in athletic stretching, This is due to the reason that yoga is an extension of stretching. 

Stretching is the act of putting your limbs in positions that cause your muscles to feel less tense and reaching, widening, or pulling something.

We will discuss a few similarities between the two:

• Seated hamstring stretch- Janu Sirsasana
• High Lunge stretch- Virabhadrasana or Warrior one
• Low lunge hip stretch- Anjaneyasana
• Laying Glute stretch- Sucirandhrasana
• Squat Position- Malasana
• Tall lengthening stretch- Tadasana or Mountain pose
• Seated forward hamstring stretch with both legs – Paschimottanasana

Yoga Vs Stretching: Which One Is Better?

Yoga and stretching both provide strength and flexibility for the body and the mind. Some people think that sticking to yoga is the prime route to relaxation while others think it is stretching, while this is not the case, both provide different relaxations. Stretching can contribute to other attributes such as:

“It helps you to focus in high-stress level situations. Boosts your ability in moments. Having a stretchy body makes you feel connected to your body which makes you feel happy and more confident. You can do stretching which can help your body after a workout. It reduces your chances of muscle soreness.”

If you are into athletics and lifting etc, then stretching might help you very much in heavy lifting, running faster, and hence becoming an all-around better athlete. 

Whereas if you are looking for meditation and have less stretch tolerance, then you can go for yoga.