Why does it feel so good to stretch? 

We are sure you have read many articles, some written by us, about the good the bad and the ugly about stretching.  Regardless of how you slice the cake, we think we can all agree that stretching “feels” good. The question of course is “Why?”

Like it or not, it all boils down to neurology. Our good old friends, the Ia afferents are at least partially responsible, along with the tactile receptors, like Pacinian corpuscles, Merkel’s discs, Golgi tendon organs, probably all the joint mechanoreceptors and well as a few free nerve endings. We have some reviews we have written of these found here, and here and here.

What do all of these have in common? Besides being peripheral receptors. They all pass through the thalamus at some point (all sensation EXCEPT smell, pass through the thalamus) and the information all ends up somewhere in the cortex (parietal lobe to tell you where you are stretching, frontal lobe to help you to move things, insular lobe to tell you if it feels good, maybe the temporal lobe so you remember it, and hear all those great pops and noises and possibly the occipital lobe, so you can see what you are stretching.

The basic (VERY basic) pathways are:Peripheral receptor-peripheral nerve-spinal cord-brainstem-thalamus-cortex; we will call this the “conscious” pathway:  and peripheral receptor-peripheral nerve-spinal cord-brainstem-cerebellum- cortex; we will call this the “unconscious” pathway.

Of course, the two BASIC pathways cross paths and communicate with one another, so not only can you “feel” the stretch with the conscious pathway but also know “how much” you are stretching through the unconscious pathway. The emotional component is related through the insular lobe (with relays from the conscious and unconscious pathways along with collaterals from the temporal lobe to compare it with past stretching experiences) to the cingulate gyrus and limbic cortex,  where stretching is “truly appreciated”. 

As we can see, there is an interplay between the different pathways and having “all systems go” for us to truly appreciate stretching from all perspectives; dysfunction in one system (due to a problem, compensation, injury, etc) can ruin the “stretching experience”. 

Hopefully we have stretched your appreciation (and knowledge base) to understand more about the kinesthetic aspect of stretching. We are not telling you to stretch, or not to stretch, merely offering a reason as to why we seem to like it.

The Gait Guys

Understanding Neuroreceptors: Movement Concepts

For all you inquiring minds out there, here is a question on one of our YOUTUBE videos we though was worth making into a post.

Question: “Dr Waerlop says that GTO’s (golgi tendon organs) inhibit muscle tension and muscle spindle apparatuses (MSAs) increase muscle tension. But then he says to treat the attachments (GTOs) to increase the tension and the bellies (MSA’s) to decrease. Seems counterintuitive. What is the modality of tx, acupuncture? Massage?…..What is your modailty for treating these? And does that modality inhibit those neurosensors or stimulate them?”

Answer: GTO’s are high threshold receptors that actually modulate muscle activity through inhibition  (Ib afferents) and Spindles are lower threshold receptors receptors that modulate overall activity, particualrly length. Think of the GTO’s as responding to tension and the spindles as responding to muscle length. Spindles are more in the belly of the muscle and GTO’s at the musculo tendonous junctions. By treating the origin and insertion of the muscles, you can modulate both, whereas treating the belly of the muscles, seems to affect the spindles more.

By treating the origin and insertion of the muscles, you can modulate both, whereas treating the belly of the muscles, seems to affect the spindles more.

The modality can be manual or acupuncture stimulation of the origin/ insertion of the muscle that tests weak.We find that acupuncture seems to work bestbut manual methods work just fine as well. We believe we are normalizing function, rather than specifically inhibiting or exciting. Like Chinese medicine, we are balancing the Yin and the Yang, creating homeostasis.

The Gait Guys: Making it real. Making it understandable. Making it happen : )

The information you have been waiting for. How do you facilitate a muscle? How do you defacilitate a muscle? Do you already know how? Do you know the mechanism?

Fear not… In this weeks Neuromechanics, Dr Waerlop simplifies the function of Golgi Tendon Organs. Clinical correlations are made throughout the presentation with his usual sense of humor. Neuro and foot geeks around the world are rejoicing…

Wow, we really are geeks!