Stretching

Hi all
I have just signed up and have been reading some of the articles on the site. Very interesting and I look forward to continuing my membership. I am a Physiotherapist in the UK with a unique approach based on controlling blood flow rate. This is the foundation for all musculoskeletal problems and is always involved in injuries. It is however not assessed enough. It is a very different way of looking at the human body and dysfunction and is very exciting to see the amazing results obtained from using this approach. I will be more than welcome to share some of my knowledge with any athletes and look forward to learning more from thos on the site. :D

One article I have just read concerns stretching. It has been a bone of contention for some time now but maybe I can shed some light. Generally stretching is something that will not result in a gain of range of movement (ROM) in the short term. The initial goal of stretching is to maintain ROM. If one looks at what ROM is all about, it is the ability of our soft tissues to 'give' to allow our body parts to move through their full range. But our flexibility is NOT governed by our muscle, as is so often incorrectly stated. It is in fact governed by the mainly inelastic connective tissues. Every muscle in your body is wrapped in an inelastic sheath called fascia. In fact this substance covers just about everything in your body. It is a protector, a container, and a regulator of muscle strength and power. The muscle itself is elatic, and if this was to govern our flexibility, we would all be walking around like rubber dolls, with NO CONTROL POSSIBLE. Muscles are controlled by their sheath. So deduced from this we can see that stretching will be limited by the inelastic sheath NOT the muscle, so stretching is done to maintain the integrity of the sheath, which will allow the muscle as much space in which to work as possible, giving it strength. STIFFNESS is NOT muscle, but connective tissue tightness, adapting to load or overload or insufficient blood flow rate. Most injuries occur because the sheath has become too tight and thus lacks the normal 'give', which is why so many 'muscle tears' are not muscle but sheath tears (hence less bleeding). Here is the sequence to most untraumatic injuries, eg strains, pulls, etc.
The over demand of exercise can eventually cause the specific nervous system controlling blood flow rate to tire. This nerve fatigue results in the nervous system losing controlof its own blood flow rate. The next step is a loss of good blood flow rate to whatever part of the body that part of the nervous system supplies. This results in adaptive shortening of fascia and other connective tissues, a weakening of muscles (due to poor blood flow rate and sheath strangulation), thus a biomechanical condition is set up. If exercise is continued the athlete exposes himself to a strain, or tear, or worse.
The ideal format for exercise is STRETCH FIRST then warm up. This allows your fascial sheaths to become as released as possible, giving your muscles the space in which to work, and allowing good blood flow through the tissues...as long as your nervous system is functioning well!
I hope this helps clear some misunderstandings about stretching and I await any discussion on this point.
Cheers
Pete