What is it you are stretching?

_ So, did you try the stretching moves that I described yesterday? 

Here are questions for you:

    when you tilted your head to one side, did the sense of a stretch change?

   when you straightened your wrist, did the stretch decrease?

   did you notice a difference between your left and right sides?

So what do you think is going on?

Well what you were exploring yesterday was stretching your nerves!

Have you ever complained of sciatica?  If you have gone to a physiotherapist and they have raised one of your legs and you have said "ouch" then you have had a nerve stretched.  (This move is used to assess whether there is any restriction in the sciatic nerve.)

A little bit of information about your nerves.  I like to think of nerves as being like lengths of string - one end of a nerve is "attached" to your central nervous system.  The other end of the nerve is "attached" somewhere in the body.  There has to be a bit "excess length" (give) in the nerve to allow movement to occur.  Without this "give", movements would be painful as the nerve would be being pulled/stretched to its limits.  This could lead to nerve damage (and frequently pain).  The fact that nerves are "attached" at both ends helps to explain why changing the position of your head/wrist affected the feel of the stretch - the move either increased/decreased the amount of stretch on the nerve.  Wow!

Hopefully what you have learnt is that not all stretches are the same!  When doing stretches, it is possible to feel a nerve stretch - it depends on how you position your body/limbs.  There are specific positions when tend to stretch nerves more than muscles!

These types of moves can help to keep nerves free of restrictions.  These stretches need to be combined with other stretches to keep all the body tissue open and flexible.  Tense, tight tissue: muscles, fascia can limit the ability of nerves to move and glide through the body as you move about. 

Yet another reason to have regular massage/bodywork!