The task is not so much to see what no one yet has seen, but to think what nobody yet has thought about that which everybody sees
-Erwin Shrodinger
microStretching consists of both active (self) and passive (therapist assisted) stretching.
As a practicing therapist and experienced scientist, and the founder of Stretch Therapy™ and microStretching®, responses of the body to any physical insult has often intrigued me. As a scientist I am interested in trying to find the cause of phenomenon that as a practitioner I have observed in the clinical setting.
In addition to the physical, one cannot discount nor discredit the influence of the mental and emotional states, with consistent evidence linking these three elements (physical, mental & emotional), and accumulating data suggesting the immune system, in particular inflammation, playing a significant role (1).
A fundamental influence on proper recovery is the intensity and the rate of force that is generated during therapy. It is the intensity of the stretch that I believe is very important for therapists, coaches and fitness professionals to be aware of. For instance if a patient experiences pain during therapy, or an athlete is stretching to the point of pain or discomfort, this stimulates the Autonomic Nervous System, specifically the Sympathetic Nervous System arm of the autonomic nervous system. The sympathetic nervous system is associated with inflammation and the inflammatory response. Its stimulation is counterproductive in aiding in the healing of the body.
To understand how physical manipulation influences our body, we need to look at mechanical force(s), and how tissues and organs are structured across multiple size scales. Biomedical engineering teaches us that the stability of a system is determined by the material properties of the building elements (cells) and their physical arrangement(s), with mechanical force(s) influencing both the cellular biochemistry and tissue physiology of the body structurally rearranging the cell and the molecular level (1).
A design principle influencing the stability of the musculoskeletal system is “tensegrity” (tensional integrity). It refers to a prestressed structural network, composed of opposing tension and compression elements that self-stabilize its shape through the establishment of a mechanical force balance (mechanical equilibrium). Physically manipulating any part of the body changes this inherent equilibrium through the stress created, for the mechanical force channeled through these elements induces a physical distortion of the tissues.
With the human body being composed of multiple tiers of systems within systems one appreciates its complexity and how mechanical force is propagated through it. Each organ (i.e., muscle, skin, neural, etc.,) is constructed from tissues composed of living cells that are linked together by the the extracellular matrix
scaffolds. Cells adhere to these scaffolds through the binding to specific cell surface receptors, known as “integrins”(1). These connect the surface of the cell to the internal “cytoskeleton”. Composed of a molecular framework of actin microfilaments, microtubules, and intermediate filaments, these components give the cell its shape, whether it is muscle, nerve, bone, immune, etc.
The tensional force generated in the cytoskeleton is resisted by its external tethers to the extracellular matrix, suggesting that the cell is in a constant state of “isometric” tension, “tensegrity”. Because of “tensegrity”, mechanical forces applied at the macroscale level are channeled to the organs and tissues due to a discrete load bearing of the extracellular matrix. The force generated is transferred onto the cell through the integrins, which act as “mechanoreceptors” (2). The mechanical signal is transmitted across the cell surface through a specific molecular pathway within the cytoskeleton.
Physical forces transferred into the cell are converted into intracellular biochemical changes, signals, released in response to the force. They are responsible for altering gene expression, protein synthesis, and other aspects of metabolism. Because of these discrete load-bearing elements, mechanical signals are transmitted very quickly, with experiments confirming that mechanical stress application to the surface integrin receptors results in an almost immediate change in the molecular structures deep within the cells cytoplasm and nucleus. Dr. Donald Ingber suggests that tensegrity is the mechanism(s) that physically integrates the whole body. Any stress generated from mechanical force, whether it be gentle, excessive, or sustained, can cause a remodeling of the body through mechanochemistry. This force dependent change in the cells molecular dynamics or alterations of its molecular biochemistry is known as “mechanotransduction”. Mechanotransduction refers to the process by which cells sense mechanical force(s) and transduce them into changes in intercellular biochemistry and gene expression (3). Therefore, one needs to be very cognizant of the force generated during therapy for it will influence cellular activities, including cell growth, differentiation, and immune cells. It is because of this reason that microStretching® is a low-intensity gentle supported stretching technique since the force generated during microStretching® is sufficient enough to cause a positive change but not to elicit an adverse effect such as inflammation (refer to microStretching® research)
