Stretching Cannot Improve Flexibility, but Somatics Can & Will!

While even gentle stretching cannot improve your long-term flexibility, combat pain effectively, or increase your ease of movement, Essential Somatics® can – and this is why:

The only way to ease and lengthen tight muscles in the long term (including muscles that don't feel tight, but are), is to use conscious, voluntary control to release the tension.

When you stretch - even 'gently' - you CANNOT retain conscious, voluntary control, & so cannot create real change. This is because of what’s called (in medical science, not just in Somatic Education) the STRETCH REFLEX: put simply, this is your body's automatic (automatic, non-negotiable) response to being pushed even slightly past its comfort level, into what it perceives as potentially damaging.

Your spinal cord senses a threat each & every time you stretch (even when it 'feels good') & pulls your muscles tighter to prevent damage. You cannot alter this response – it is an unconscious, automatic response designed to protect your body from injury. It operates at the level of the spinal cord – your brain is not even involved, it happens so fast! It is hard-wired into all animals, humans included.

This helps explain why for many of us, even 'gentle' stretching fails to make us more flexible - & fails to ease aches & pains. It also explains why stretching can – as was my own experience – ultimately, make us tighter, even though that seems to make no sense, given everyday beliefs about stretching, not to mention all the claims made about its benefits... But it’s true: if we constantly evoke the stretch reflex by trying to push/force our muscles long – past their comfort zone – we will gradually get tighter & tighter, not more relaxed & released!

PANDICULATING – the fundamental technique we use in Somatic Education – is the key to lengthen muscles safely, in line with how our nervous system, & our muscles, actually work. Pandiculating is what all mammals do, & what humans evolved to do (but now mostly don't): if you see your cat or dog 'stretch', just notice - it's NOT stretching, it's pandiculating! (Learn how to pandiculate: sign up for my FREE video series, “The Truth About Pain - and how to get rid of it”.)