Stretching, passive stretching (holding a long stretch), is going to introduce instability into the system... and our system does not like feeling instability... so it goes right back to where it was before.
For all of the people who stretch, stretch, stretch, but never feel like their hamstrings are getting any “stretchier”, this is why.
This can be further explained with a stretchy piece of theraband. When the theraband is stretched and taut, it is like your muscle, which is "tight" when it's stretched.
When it is stretched tight, there is stability in the system and it feels as if there is tension there, holding things where they need to be held.
There is some tissue elongation happening, but we haven’t taught our body how to effectively use and control that new range of motion...
So the tissue elongation has introduced more instability to the system and your body’s saying “What the heck? I can’t deal with this... I can’t work with this here. You never taught me how to use my muscles here… So, what I’m gonna do is shorten back up and get tight again where I feel stable and safe."
So every time you stretch and are able to reach a little further because of that tissue elongation, your system is going to react to that instability by tightening and reintroducing stability to the system.
= NO STRETCH GAINZ....
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And watch me talking more about mobility and stretching stuff below :)