Hi. The discussion about stretching and the search for "evidence" is
amusing. NO where is attention paid to the plastic and elastic
properties of the muscle and (dense) connective tissues. If you drive
with an 18 wheeler over the Brooklyn bridge (I'm not chauvinistic, it's
the only bridge I know) do you hope it "Gives" e.g. stretches every
time; and do you hope for a permanent state of that change? Do you
really wish to stretch a medial longitudinal ligament beyond its normal
variations of function? My point is that if a patient is presenting with
70 deg. of shoulder (GH), 10 of ex. rot. and inability to reach behind
the low back and in 10-14 days range has increases in all directions
"something" changed. Do you mean that I need a statistical analysis to
verify my measurement or trust my eyes of the functional change?
Muscles elongate by adding macromeres, and CT probably has similar
mechanism in length change. Maybe its time to substitute the
"stretching" construct with a sound biological term such as length
change. Muscles are mutable, at cellular and structural levels. So is
connective tissue, to a degree. Resumption of normal range and length
following an injury should not be confused with the ballerina's need in
dance. AS far as evidence, durations as short as 7-90 seconds were
reported to change length. Do the search if you are a student and
clinicians keep on "stretching" appropriately. Joe
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