You want to be more flexible, but despite all your stretching, you still feel stiff. Why is that? Because range of motion is about more than just the length of the muscles. You see, traditionally, it’s been thought that there are 4 factors that can limit your flexibility. And muscle length is only 1 of those 4.
The 4 Factors That Limit Range of Motion (Plus a Bonus Factor)
According to Michael Alter, the author of one of the most definitive books on flexibility, The Science of Flexibility, there are 4 limitations to range of motion, and they all contribute different amounts:
- The muscle (together with the fascia that surrounds it). It contributes 41% of the limitation to range of motion.
- The tendon. It contributes 10%
- The skin. It contributes 2%
- The joint capsule. It contributes 47%.
So isn’t it interesting that the factor that we focus on the most only contributes 41%, and yet a factor that is mostly neglected contributes 47%?
Oh, by the way, why did I also say there’s a “bonus factor” that limits range of motion? Because it’s the nervous system. After all, what controls muscles? Nerves. The muscles send signals to the central nervous system (CNS), which then sends outputs back out to the muscles. If the muscles send incorrect information the CNS, the CNS will respond correctly to an incorrect stimulus – it will shorten the muscle. As they say in IT, “garbage in, garbage out.”
Original source: here.
How to Figure Out What’s Limiting YOUR Range of Motion
So now you know the 5 limits to range of motion. But what if your muscle length is fine, yet your range of motion is still bad? Will doing more stretching address the issue? No, of course not. If you try to “fix what isn’t broken”, you won’t see any improvements.
This brings us to my usual message of assessment – if you’re not assessing, you are guessing. So you have to systematically figure out what’s causing YOUR limitation to range of motion.
The two that we can really get out of the way are the skin and tendon. The skin only contributes 2% of the resistance, which isn’t much to speak of. There aren’t many skin lengthening techniques that I’m aware of.
The tendon is another that doesn’t contribute too much, and even if it did, there isn’t much you can do about it. Yes, you can stretch the tendon, but you get the most bang for your buck out of having a qualified massage therapist or osteopath use his/her hands to feel if your tendon is fibrotic, and break up that scar tissue with their hands. The tendon may be fibrotic if you participate in a lot of repetitive movements (like car mechanics, cashiers, construction workers, etc.). It may also be fibrotic due to certain conditions, like diabetes, gout, arthritis, and others. But from a “what can YOU do” perspective, the answer is not much. You have to get someone to do it on you (a massage therapist, an osteopath, etc.).
So that leaves us with the remaining 3 possible limits to flexibility: the nervous system, the muscle, and the joint capsule.
To assess whether the nervous system is “telling” the muscles to be short, we do manual muscle testing. A person puts the target muscle in a shortened position, and the tester matches their force. Then, the tester adds just 2-5 pounds more force than what the person is putting out, and the person being tested should be able to involuntarily match that force. If the person being tested goes down smoothly, without any resistance, it indicates that the nervous system is weak. If the person goes down, but it’s a grinder, it indicates that the nervous system is fine.
Next is to determine how much of the limitation to range of motion comes from the muscle, and how much from the joint. So the tester takes the limb to its end range, and assesses the “end feel.” If at the edge of the range of motion, it feels elastic, like it could go an inch or two further, then the limitation to range of motion is muscular. If it’s a “hard” end feel, that is, it doesn’t feel like the limb can go even a millimeter further without something breaking, then it’s a joint limitation.
Why all the emphasis on assessment? Because it gives your training a direction. All 3 limitations – nervous system, muscle, and joint necessitate different approaches. And if you use the wrong approach, you’ll get nowhere.
I know that it’s hard to understand these tests through text, so if you’d like to have this test done on yourself, fill out this form, to see if you qualify to work with us.
What to Do About It
So now you know the 3 limitations to stretch that you can do something about. What do we do about it?
If It’s the Nervous System…
If this is the cause of the limit to the range of motion, then a combination of trigenics, and PNF stretching is done. I talk about trigenics in this article, and this one. I talk about PNF stretching here and here.
I usually hope that it is the nervous system that’s limiting the range of motion, because this is the fastest to respond. Whereas the other methods that I’ll talk about below take weeks, to months to have semi-permanent effects, to address the nervous system takes between a few minutes, and a few days, for the same semi-permanent effects.
If It’s the Muscle…
If our test revealed that it is indeed the muscle that is short, then yes, traditional stretching methods will work. PNF stretching will also work. However, stretching has to be targeted to the specific muscle you are trying to lengthen, has to be held for the right duration, repeated at the appropriate frequency, etc.
If It’s the Joint…
Sometimes, it’s a tight capsule, which is made of collagen. Sometimes, it’s just the architecture of your joints. What do I mean by that? Take a look at the 3 different types of hip anatomy:
Original source: here.
A person with the second type of hip anatomy may never be able to do the splits (for example). A person with the third type of hip anatomy would have a much easier time doing the splits. So if it’s the joint itself, there’s not much you can do about that.
But if the limitation is due to the capsule, then, there are a couple of things you can do, like:
- Yin yoga – a specific type of yoga, aimed at the capsules
- Joint mobilizations
Mobilizations are not the same as stretches. Whereas stretches target the muscles, mobilizations target the joints. Each joint has its own mobilizations, and again, it’s hard to describe them all in text, but if you’d like specific mobilizations recommended based on YOUR limitation, fill out this questionnaire to see if you qualify to work with us.
