Flexibility Training Flashcards
Flexibility & Mobility
Flexibility is the normal extensibility of all soft tissues, leading to full ROM of a joint.
Mobility is the combination of flexibility and joint ROM.
Flexibility Programming: When to program & when to do it?
Should be programmed FIRST, after the assessments.
Can be done as warmup or cooldown.
Relative Flexibility
Poor flexibility leads to relative flexibility (altered movement patterns).
This is the process in which the HMS seeks the PATH OF LEAST RESISTANCE during functional movements.
It can prevent the nervous system from recruiting the correct muscle patterns & contractions.
Ex. Squat with excessive outer rotation of feet.
Myofascial
Connective tissue made up of fascia & muscles
Upper and Lower Kinetic Chain
Upper: shoulder, elbow, wrist
Lower: hip, knee, ankle
Postural Distortion Patterns
If one or more segments of the HMS are misaligned & not functioning properly, predictable patterns of dysfunction occur.
Postural Distortion Patterns (poor static or dynamic posture) are represented by a lack of:
Structural integrity. Which results in muscle imbalance, altered force-couple relationship, altered osteokinematics & arthrokinematics (roll, slide, spin)
Altered reciprocal inhibition synonym
Altered length-tension
Synergistic dominance synonym
Altered force-couples.
Synergistic dominance occurs when synergists take over for weak or inhibited prime movers.
Ex. Overactive hip flexor complex (iliopsoas, rectus femoris, TFL) leads to altered reciprocal inhibition in underactive hip extensor complex (glute max & med)
Which causes increased force output of the synergists for hip extension (HMs)
Arthrokinematic dysfunction synonym
Altered joint movement
Relationship between Ostekinematics and Arthrokinematics with regard to efficient movement
In order to have efficient movement through a joint’s ROM (osteokinematic), there must be good motion at the joint’s surface (arthokinematic) & soft tissue flexibility.
Neuromuscular efficiency
The nervous system’s ability to recruit the correct muscles to produce force, reduce force & dynamically stabilize the body in all 3 planes of motion.
Stretch reflex
“Gag reflex”. Neurological signal from muscle spindles that causes a muscle to contract to prevent excessive lengthening.
Autogenic inhibition
Neural impulses that sense tension are greater than the impulses that cause muscles to contract, resulting in an inhibitory effect to the muscle spindles.
Can aid in static stretching b/c when you CONTRACT a muscle (activating glogi tendon organs (GTO)) before passively stretching it, you can use autogenic inhibition (reduction in sensing of muscle spindles inpu) to stretch it further (b/c stretch reflex is deferred). This sounds like Reciprocal Inhibition, but it’s not. RI refers to agonist vs antagonist muscles.
3 factors in improved ROM
Mechanical: muscle & tendons allowing for compliance
Neural: inhibition of the CNS to help the muscles to relax
Psyco-physiological: stretch tolerance
Lengthening reaction
When a muscle is lengthened, a cascade of neurological reactions take place that allow the muscle to be stretched.
1.) Muscle is lengthened and muscle spindle is activated
2.) The stretch reflex is activated and muscle contracts
3.) After a prolonged period, muscle spindle activity reduces, resulting in a relaxation response.
Static stretching
Passive lengthening of the muscle to the point of tension & held for a sustained amount of time, min. 30 secs.
The rationale for Flexibility Training: Pattern Overload & Cumulative Injury Cycle
Pattern overload: constantly repeating the same motion, which over time leads to dysfunction or injury.
Cumulative injury cycle: An injury and repair response by the body from poor posture & repetitive overuse.
The steps:
Tissue trauma
Inflammation
Pain response leading to increased muscle tension and yielding micro spasms from highly active mechanoreceptors & nociceptors
Adhesions, which create a weak inelastic matrix that decreases mobility (contraction knots)
Altered NM control
Muscle imbalance
Davis’s Law
Adhesions that are unmitigated will form structural changes in the soft tissue, in accordance with Davis’s Law, which like Wolff’s Law, states that soft tissue models along lines of stress.
Collagen Matrix
Soft tissue remodels or rebuilds itself with a collagen matrix, which is a meshwork of connective tissue that forms in a random fashion & not in the same direction of muscle fibers. This causes a roadblock preventing mobility and causes RELATIVE FLEXIBILITY.
The focus of Flexibility Training & what it can accomplish
To enhance tissue extensibility and joint ROM in those tissues found to be overactive during the assessment.
Can correct muscle imbalances, increase tissue extensibility, improve joint ROM & NM efficiency.
Self-myofascial techniques
Used to break up adhesions of the fascia and muscle tissue. Foam roller, etc.
Focuses on the fascial an NM system & activates sensory pathways of the CNS to influence tissue relaxation & pain.
Myofascial Rolling: Mechanical & Neurophysiological Effects
Mechanical: direct roller compression may relax myofascia by increasing blood flow & reducing adhesions.
Neurophysiological: direct roller compression stimulates mecano & nocicoceptors, which send inhibitory signals to the CNS, triggering a cascade of tissue relaxation & pain blocking responses.
Pain blocking effect may come from the stimulation of OTHER SENSORY RECEPTORS which send their own signals to the brain & override the signals sent by the sore muscles
Myofascial stimulation & response summary (relationship of GTO to muscle spindles)
Gentle pressure stimulates the Golgi Tendon Organ (GTO) & creates Autogenic Inhibition, decreasing muscle spindle excitation and releasing the tension of underlying muscles.
