I love the inter-webs! I mean, I truly feel blessed to live in a time where I can learn anything, anytime, anywhere. I spend huge amounts of time reading on my iPhone. Little hits of research, thoughts of gurus, opinions of not-so-gurus, tweets & timelines. Feed my brain. 

Side benefit: watching the trolls and flame throwers chase their tails and embarrass themselves. Speculation is what made wives tales and myths.  The internet has a way of revealing BS as much as it has a way of hiding it.  Snake-oil salesmen abound, living almost harmoniously next to the bitter skeptics who live to debunk them.

I meet people everyday who have this idea or that idea about their health, wellness and a myriad of other topics.  One of the best things about the two careers I have had is the incredible diversity of humanity I have been able to touch the lives of. But, I digress...

One question you can almost be certain of me asking when you come to clinic is about your activities that you do daily.  Job, sports, pets, sleeping, eating, etc. etc. Interestingly, many folks approach this differently than my main intention,which is to find out about your main movements, possible over use injuries, possible weaknesses and all that kinetic stuff.  However often I get response telling me about how the work for this company and they do this service or about this team they play on and the big game.

Inevitably the conversation turns to ether yoga, stretching muscles or both.  When comes to yoga, I like to listen.  I have just recently started my yoga journey and feel I have only limited info to add to the conversation with experienced yogis. With those who are inexperienced or expressing interest in starting/learning yoga, I tell them about finding an instructor who is in it for the right reasons. This is why I love going to the Iyengar Yoga Centre, a non-profit society here in Victoria. (Find one near you here.)

But I digress once more... I plan more topics about my journey with yoga of many types in the near future.

So stretching - to stretch or not to stretch.  
Before activity or after? Heat? 
Static? What hell is static? I feel pretty dynamic...

So much confusion, changes & conflict and everywhere I turn there is another Doctor or otherwise so-called expert telling me (and my clients) something different.

This week some pretty respectable educators forwarded this link from Dr. Stephan Gangemi, DC for reading:

10 Reasons Not to Stretch: Don’t Stretch: January 25, 2012 By Sock Doc 
Here’s some fun reasons not to stretch; some more serious than others. If you’re overly sensitive about stretching, (noted in #2), you can catch-up on the Sock Doc “Stop Stretching!” – or continue to stretch.

1. Stretching is exercise for the muscles like sea water is hydration for the body. When you’re desperate for relief, it feels so right but it’s just so wrong.
2. All athletes, especially runners, are so passionate about stretching. They defend it like their political association, religion, or family. I think many of them may have pictures of their kids in their wallets doing all types of cool stretches that they show their co-workers every day at the water cooler. “Look at my little one sitting on both his elbows!”
3. Runners will follow any trend they think will make them run faster. Whether it’s a new supplement, pair of socks, pair or shoes, custom orthotics, or stretching. They’re the first in line for Kool-Aid.
4. Stretching is a conditioned behaviour, not one we are innately born with. I see my kids run, jump, climb, throw things, and carry objects of all sizes. They move well, and efficiently. I’ve never seen them stretch. Their developing nervous systems know better.
5. The day I see my dog holding a static stretch is the day I’ll start stretching too.
6. Flexibility is a reflection of overall health and fitness. Stretching does absolutely nothing for health or fitness. It’s not exercise. It’s not a warm-up or a cool-down. And it definitely doesn’t substitute for restful sleep or a wholesome diet which will lead to natural flexibility.
7. Yoga is not stretching. Stretching is not yoga. Enough of that claim.
8. Make sure you stretch if you want to weaken muscles, promote injuries, decrease performance, delay tissue healing, and have absolutely way too much free time.
9. Stretching reduces injuries and improves endurance performance just like certain shoes will make you run or jump faster. Neither claim is true.
10. I enjoy watching runners stretch. They must stretch because they think they will run faster. I bet they believe in Sasquatch too.

Wow, that is some pretty provocative stuff. 
Might just challenge a few things you had in your brain for a long time. 
But there are some problems with what he has to say.  And boy oh boy, did the inter-webs ever let him (and anyone else who posted it) know exactly what they thought.

The good: It stirred up some great debate and educated many people because it went viral.

The bad: There are no obvious facts or citations to back up his information.  He could have made this up after a few glasses of a lovely Cabernet for all we know.

The ugly: A lot of people who are not aware of how to read research will take this at face value and stop stretching.

The truth of the matter is the good doctor of chiropractic (yes, that is what DC after his name means) wrote a much better article with references and a few decent studies and this really is just his summary.  If you go back to the title of the article you will notice a passive statement that if this article bugs you, you should go read the real one. Follow that link, there we have some much better thoughts and a link back to this short blurb which he further describes as: "10 Reasons Not To Stretch – Some funny and true, some funny and not all that true." Probably a better title for his post. To the same point, the bigger (better) article should probably be called "Stop Static Stretching"

Consider this: Be careful what you read about your health (or anything else for that matter) on the inter-webs. There is a whole lot of crazy out there.  I suspect the above example was much more poor judgement in picking article titles than anything else, but there many people who misrepresent themselves for a lot of different reasons.  Look for articles and posts with references or citations from reputable articles and authors.

It should be completely obvious by now that when it comes to creating content, I am a complete amateur. I rely on the network of good authors and publishers to keep me in the loop.  But I do read a reasonable amount and I do treat a fairly diverse group of humans and am able to draw a few conclusions about my own body as well. This blog is about my written opinion with links to articles I value.

So here goes: My humble observations

1. Move it or lose it. Atrophy (the diminishing of muscle cells) occurs after about 10 days if you don't move.  Cells get smaller, metabolism slows, circulation and joint range of motion may become restricted. The newest research is saying 30 minutes a day/3.5 hours a week, is sufficient as a starting point.  Even if it is broken into 10 minute segments. Dance, walk, swim, fly - it really doesn't matter. Just start today.
2. Over stretching of muscles may result in 'guarding' or tightness based on how much you irritated the 'load sensors' in your tendons, muscle bellies and/or fascia, etc. After all that is the job of those sensors - to protect you from hurting yourself further.  
   This why we encourage runners to do movement inside the natural range of motion before their activity.  
   STOP! - go back and read those words again...
   Light warm up and cool down inside the usual range, treat it nice. Strain it and it will protect itself, wouldn't you?
3. Stay balanced. If we only work one side of our bodies (we are prone to overworking the anterior upper body for example) then the opposite side is prone to be inhibited, shut off, weakened (hunched shoulders and upper back for example). The fascia must strengthen in order to support the spinal frame. This cycle will continue until you interrupt it (yoga, manual therapy, heat).  Remember things like your job and sleeping posture are akin to going to the gym several hours a day and working only that side of your body.  The more laborious your job, the better chance your movements are dynamic and better for your, save over use injuries. Desks are poison and should be treated as such.
4. Using the body's natural physiology is very helpful with allowing tight muscles to seemingly gain length and/or decrease the pain tension cycle.  My favourite example is to point out how the Triceps muscle rarely experiences pain with ordinary activity, but often experiences absolutely ignorant pain with even slight over use.
   Basically, we all know that the Biceps curls the arm.  Its' big and bossy and does most of the work in the upper arm. Basically, because both muscles cannot be contracting at the same time if we expect movement and the Biceps is more frequently doing the work, then Triceps is being constantly 'inhibited' and thus stretched.  
   The same appears to be true of all the primary movers and their antagonists. Quads. vs. Hams. Pecs. vs. Rhomboids. The various neck muscles... etc. etc.
   This shows up in the effective work of Muscle Energy, contract/relax, AIS, Yoga and a ton of other movement based therapies. 
5. Drink water and eat real food.

I find my clients really enjoy learning about what they can do to help themselves in the easiest and simplest ways. I try to find realistic and 'do-able' movements for people (mostly because I am the least compliant patient ever).  I get very strong feedback on the fact that many therapists are not sharing this info with their clients. One of my clients recently referred someone to me by saying "He is just like Wikipedia!"  I was thrilled.  What good is this education if it stays in my head? How can I support them in advocating for their own healthcare, if they don't get how to learn about it?

Every once in while I am faced with someone who is just learning the bad news.  This thing that they are experiencing is not going to go away.  It's chronic; a lifetime of battling pain and tension or what ever it is. So we learn together, we learn to learn and we discuss.  This way they can advocate for their future, what ever it may bring.

I wonder why the rest of us wait until we get the bad news.

For a very good review of research around the science of stretching, please visit Paul over at SaveYourself.ca He is not always right, he is a science writer though and as such, he looks forward to being wrong and learning something new.