Introduction to flexibility vs pliability.
When it comes to stretching the first term that comes to mind for most people is flexibility. The topic of flexibility is broad, deep and multi-layered (pun intended), subject. One lesser used and considered modality of flexibility is pliability. Today I’d like to talk about the differences between flexibility and pliability
understanding the concepts.
The term pliability can easily fall into the category of flexibility, But they are not synonymous. To keep it simple for today’s blog lets term flexibility as one’s ability to achieve any given range of motion at any given joint. Let’s term pliability as the multiple layers of tissues ability to slide within themselves, and upon one another.
How muscle slide.
When we look at a muscle, we would be remiss not to look at what gives the muscle its shape. The tissue that gives muscle its shape and form is called Fascia. It is important to understand that fascia is the connective tissue of the body and determines the flexibility of your body. Fascia surrounds every nerve, muscle, vein, vessel, lymph duct, bone, tendon, and really anything you can name in the body has a facial component.
Without getting too far off track and going into a tangent on fascia, please understand that it is largely a collagen based hollow tube filled with fluid. Fascia and therefore flexibility, varies based on its density which is based upon its contents. For example, your skin has a lot of collagen and elastin in its fascia making it very pliable. The other extreme would be bone which has a lot of calcium in its fascia. This difference in mineral content is truly what determines the structure. So for now, just take note that fascia connects everything and can vary in its density.
When we look at the flexibility or pliability of skeletal muscle, we can break it down into three main components. All skeletal muscle has three primary layers. These three layers are the epimysium, perimysium, and endomysium. These layers are all separated by a fascia. And when this fascia is not kept pliable, we are susceptible to strains and tears as well as a general loss of flexibility of the skeletal muscle tissue. Now that you understand, there are layers within layers of all of your muscles. You may be wondering well, how do I stretch for pliability?
Implementing stretching for pliability.
The best tool I’ve found in my over quarter century of working with the human body is myofascial stretching. The term myofascial stretching can also be a bit broad and subjective. In general, when you hear me discuss myofacial stretching I am referring to the style taught by Dr. Guy VOYER. When performing myofacial stretching in this very specific way, we look at a couple main ideas.
HOw to do it.
First, we decide which muscle we want to try to emphasize. I say emphasize because you cannot truly isolate a muscle. Once we have determined which muscle we want to have more pliability, we be sure that we are stretching that muscle within its facial chain. The fascial chain is one muscle’s fascial attachment to the fascia of the surrounding muscles. When I discuss surrounding muscles, I don’t just mean the muscles/fascia above and below. I also mean the ones in front and behind and beside the muscle. On a deeper note, I’m also talking about the myofacial connections to the bones, tendons and even organs, but that’s another blog.
Once we have decided the muscle and the facial chain of which we are going to stretch, we then have to determine which part of that muscle are we going to stretch. When I say which part of the muscle I mean, are we going to stretch the more superficial, the deeper, the proximal, the distal, or the middle part of the muscle.
As I had mentioned above, you can’t really isolate a muscle, but you can certainly put an emphasis on it. Not only can you put an emphasis on which muscles being stretched, you can emphasize which part of that muscle is going to receive a majority of the tension or in this case stretch.
Once we have our self in the proper position for whatever muscle it is that we are choosing to stretch, we then go into the stretch the first time as we exhale. The first set is performed at roughly 50% effort the second time roughly 80% effort, and the last stretch we do at maximum effort. Always remember to stretch both sides to create a balanced motor program pattern in your brain.
incorporating pliability stretching into your program.
The best time to do any stretching, and in particularly pliability stretching, is once the muscle is warm. Generally speaking, the myofascial stretching comes after a warm-up and a strength training session. Myofascial stretching for pliability should be applied to any muscle that was worked in your strength training session.
For example, if you did a biceps day you would want to do a myofascial stretch for the long head of the bicep, the short head of the bicep, and all of the forearm flexors. I also like to incorporate some ELDOA for the nerve roots of the muscles that I worked. Again, if I were working my biceps, I would do ELDOA for C4-C5 through T1-T2 as that is where the brachial plexus exits the spine to innervate the biceps muscles
Flexibility Conclusion.
In conclusion today, I hope that you are starting to gain an understanding of not only the different types of flexibility required for a functional body, but also a general idea of how to start to incorporate myofacial stretching into your routine. As always, if you have any questions or unsure about how to start training in this way, please visit our website or reach out to us in person.
