By Katrina Quintos & Mathieu Beaudette, Registered Acupuncturists & Chinese Medicine Practitioners

 

Flexibility is key to maintaining ease of movement and preventing sports injuries.  However, the stretching exercises that people commonly perform can actually do more harm than good.  The word “stretch” can be very misleading.  It conveys an idea that muscles can be stretched out like rubber bands to create length and flexibility.  Forced stretching can actually cause muscle fibres to contract and tear microscopically.  In our practice we have witnessed countless patients; athletes of all abilities, attempt to increase flexibility by forcing stretches.

We recognize the need for exercises that improve and maintain flexibility.   In Chinese Medicine we observe natural phenomena and adapt it to the human form.  For example, cats appear to be quite lazy yet they are strong, agile and flexible.  They don’t do stretching exercises but still move with grace that few humans can mimic.  What ancient Practitioners saw in the cat’s movement was the supple and efficient movements that they perform with their whole bodies.  Cats are supple not because they stretch out their muscles, but because they relax the muscles that are unnecessary to move in a certain way.  Allowing the antagonistic muscle to relax allows a joint or limb greater range of motion and creates more efficient movement that conserves the body’s energy.

Furthermore, cats are fully engaged and attentive to what they are doing.  They are not thinking of something else while stretching or watching TV while running on a treadmill the way many people do.  Being fully attentive to the movements you are performing engages the whole body in the exercise, producing much greater results that merely performing them by rote.

The last thing that Practitioners observed in animals was the way they breathe when they move.  We tend to take breathing for granted, though it exerts a powerful influence on us with each breath in and out. Many people forget how to breathe, creating tension in the body and becoming chronically tight as a result. Deep diaphragmatic breathing into the lower abdomen helps relax tight muscles and can increase the range of motion of joints by allowing blood to flow freely.  With each inhale the abdomen should rise and with exhale it should fall.  This type of breathing also connects the upper and lower body, bringing the power of the human body into a single unified action.  Many athletes we have worked with have found that deep diaphragmatic breathing has increased their athletic performance across the board.

The next time you stretch, take a Chinese medicine approach and apply lessons learned from animals; natural relaxed movement, mental attention, and deep breathing to develop flexibility and to reeducate the body so basic movements become connected, supple and natural.

 

For more information or a Comprehensive Chinese Medicine/Acupuncture Checkup, call 905 844-HEAL (4325).

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