Part 4: Lengthen is to Strengthen
Tendons, as we know, connect muscle to bone, functionally, they need to be able to become as hard as bone and as pliable as muscle. But tendons will become more like bone, if we don’t practice getting into those end range positions. Tendons will get shorter, stiffer, less pliable, in a case of ‘lose it, if you don’t use it’. And this only gets worse as we age and move even less.
Mobility & Flexibility
Mobility and flexibility, both are related to our range of motion but focused on different parts of the body. Flexibility refers to the muscles ability to lengthen and mobility refers to the joints and tendons range of motion. i.e. Stretching targets muscle groups like the hamstrings, quads, pecs, etc.
Mobility vs Flexibility
Mobility should be more of an emphasis than it is now in fitness and health. And I believe far more important than flexibility. I contend that stretching before an activity or exercise should not be necessary. A light warmup should be enough to get the muscles activated. People feel the need to stretch because they want to lengthen their muscles, trying to make it easier to get into those positions before an activity or workout but if that’s the case it is possible that muscle is not strong enough and prepared enough for the workload. Muscles will shorten to protect itself from tearing and injury, the nervous and lymphatic system knows the breaking point even if we consciously don’t. But the stronger the muscle is, the longer the muscle fibers are and will allow itself to “stretch” and lengthen in the action, even without a separate stretching routine.
Prior to a workout, blood flow is not going into that muscle, so the muscles have less circulation and are more “dry”. Stretching these “dry” fibers will cause micro tears, and actually hinder and weaken the activity and overall workout. The “dry” muscle fibers stick to each other and pulling on them will cause the muscles to tear on each other. A light warmup, focusing on blood flow is far more effective than stretching, producing blood flow into those muscle groups will start to engorge and lubricate those muscles fibers so they can move and slide along side each other like they should.
My contention is that “stretching” will take care of itself through the activity, the muscles will lengthen and strengthen to the degree they are required. And if stretching feels like a necessary requirement, better use might be to separately focus on strengthening that muscle group. Or if the activity or workout involves very mid to short range movements, stretching as a separate activity might in this case be helpful. Stretching being the main workout, like active stretching, stretching under load, and pandiculations.
Mobility is Key
Lengthening the tendons and increasing the joint’s range of motions unlocks so many different aspects of movement and strength. Paradoxically strength exercises and workouts like weight lifting, condition the tendons to shorten.
Short and constrained tendons will cause our muscles to overwork and always be under tension. We’ll feel the need to stretch and lengthen our muscles to compensate where we have shortness in our tendons. For example, limited range in the ankle joint will cause strains and injuries in the calf and plantar muscles. Imagine a stiff door hinge, requiring more force to close and open the door. At a joint level, the calf and tibialis is overworking to get the ankle to dorsiflex and extend. In dorsiflexion, contracting the tibialis should turn off and release the calf muscles. But because the tibialis can’t ever really get the “door to shut” the calf can never fully turn off or release, causing achilles tendonitis, and vice versa the calf can never fully “opens the door” and the tibialis can never turn off, causing shin splints. And all that extra force is putting too much stress at the joints, imagine what happens to that door hinge, eventually it has to give, and this more commonly happens at the knee joints.
Lengthening the Tendons
Short tendons are a cause of mobility restriction at the joints and create mobility issues and impingement. The joints not only have limited range of motion, but they move slower in that short range and also have no strength or stability beyond those limited ranges. And this has a chain reaction to the rest of the joints and body mechanics.
But the tendons are so dense and fibrous, how do you stretch and lengthen your tendons? While stretching usually involves full extension at the end range position of your muscles. Lengthening your tendons usually requires full bending at the end range position. If you’ve ever wrapped a rope or cord around a turning point or corner, you’ll know that the rope requires more slack at that bending point. This is the same concept. We need to get into that deep bend to require more slack from the tendon.
But in a full deep squat for example, at first it may seem like our knee tendons are restricted from going any deeper and literally can’t go any further because the tendons are so tough and dense. But the idea is it can get deeper, the tendons can get longer.
Here’s a progression to try. If for example you cannot get into a full deep squat with your heels touching the ground and your calves touching the back of your thighs, your first progression is to use your own body weight to get into that deep squat. Your first point of resistance will be your muscles and tendons tensing and contracting preventing it from fully releasing and getting into that deep end range position. So support yourself with a chair at first, so your brain can feel safe to turn off the resisting muscles and tendons.
Eventually, once you are able to comfortably get into that end range position, because the tendons are so dense and tough, your body weight not be enough to get a good stretch in the tendons, you may need to add weights in that static position to continue progressing and stretching those tendons.