Good Morning Dr. Hollander - issue 2, Stretching and Injury

Ok Mr. Health. I have a good question for you. In my health class on Monday we spent more than an hour doing these stretching exercises. My question to you is, can you over stretch a muscle? Because it was a pretty cool work out and i felt great afterwords. I think someone mentioned in the class that if you overuse a joint it can become brittle, but i was under the impression that using a joint makes it stronger. We also learned you should warm up before you stretch, or just stretch after a work out, and she used an analogy of a cold chicken breast, how it breaks when you pull it apart cold, and when its warm, its easier to work with. Class ended before I remembered to ask her about it. So yeah, here i am.

Hey Mike,

Yes you can overstretch a muscle. An overstretched muscle can tear just like a tendon or ligament in a strain/sprain injury. Or worse, it can fracture its boney attachment in the case of an avulsion.

It is however, very unlikely that you were at risk of any of that in your class. Most stretching exercises are very safe, very healthy, and they should be encouraged. There are lots of reasons why you would feel good after such a workout. Not the least of which is the fact that you are literately flooding portions of your brain with information, "proprioception," which it needs to thrive. In a sense, by moving and stretching, your brain can get "high" on proprioception. Its not unlike the benefits of chiropractic, which restores motion of previously stuck joints, which deprive the brain of vital information.

warming up and stretching are very important to any workout. I like that analogy of the chicken breast, i may just use it myself ;)

Remember, a warm up primes muscles for work and prevents injury. Stretching will inactivate muscles which is mostly appropriate after activity. So warm up before your workouts and stretch afterwards. Unless your workout is stretching, like in the case of yoga. which is totally okay also ;0)

hope that helps. let me know if you remember your BP question.

And, it’s "Dr. Health!"

miss ya bud, mad chiro luv, -Darren, DC