Introduction

In Relaxed stretching the focus is on relaxing the muscle being stretched. That doesn’t mean that the whole body is relaxed. Actually there should be parts of the body engaged to provide a stable foundation for the muscle being stretched. That muscle can then be easier to keep relaxed as it is be stretched.

Generally when doing relaxed stretches, the driving force for the stretch is from gravity. The only activity required in relaxed stretching, apart from allowing yourself to go deeper into the stretch, is stabilizing some part of the body, generally one end of the muscle being stretched, so that the muscle can lengthen away from its fixed point.

In Active Stretching the focus is on activating muscles. You have to work to do active stretching.

• In one active stretching technique the focus can be on using opposing muscles to stretch the target muscle.
• In another type of active stretching, the muscle being stretched is active, but lengthening.
• A third variation is where external muscle power is used to resist or assist the stretch.

The first technique could be called Muscle Assisted Stretching and the second technique Muscle Resisted Stretching. The third technique could be called Dual Assist Stretching. Names aside, the important thing to realize in all of these methods and their variations (including relaxed stretching) the common factor is that of muscle control.

Speaking of which, yet another variation of active stretching is where both the muscle being stretched and its opposing muscle are both active. In this case, a stretch is created by exerting the stretched muscle with slightly less force than its opposing muscle so that there is movement in the desired direction of stretch. This could be called Controlled Stretching.

Of these techniques, I’d say that no single one is better than the others. Instead they offer a range of tools that you can use to:

• increase flexibility,
• maintain flexibility,
• get better at feeling and controlling your body.

I find that the active stretching techniques are often useful for getting past sticking points or plateaus, but not always. I also find that relaxed stretching can leave me feeling energized and refreshed.

Also, relaxed stretching can be quite intense. There is a tendency to want to run away from the sensation. And so relaxed stretching can be a test of fortitude. Active stretching can be easier mentally because you have something to do.

Practicing both, you can get comfortable with knowing when to let go and when to exert yourself.

Alternating Relaxation and Activation for Better Discernment

Note, that you can choose to alternate muscle activation and relaxation. Or you can choose to hold some sort of active (or relaxed) stretch.)

If you alternate activation and relaxation with a smooth and slow rhythm, you may find that it feels similiar to a slow and smooth breath, and it may have a similiar calming affect. It also gives you a better opportunity to feel the muscles you are activating and relaxing. The repeated nature of the exercise makes it easier to feel the changes and thus feel the muscle that is creating (or undergoing) those changes.

This method is particularly easy to instigate when using gravity assisted relaxed stretches. You could focus on activating the muscle that your are trying to stretch. With a gravity assisted stretch that means resisting the weight of your body sinking down. Then relax the resistance and repeat. You may find that as you relax, you can actually go deeper. And if you focus on slowly and smoothly relaxing and activating the actions you may find that your breath also becomes slow and smooth.

The key in this case can be to activate that muscle in such a way that it completely stops the stretch. Then when you relax you can allow yourself to go deeper.

Another technique using this method is to rhythmically switch the supporting part of the body. As an example, doing splits, you could alternate between making the legs strong and making the arms strong. With arms strong, you can relax the legs. Then with the legs strong you could either resist the stretch or assist it.

Alternating relaxed stretching with any of the above active stretching techniques is a great way to learn to differentiate the feelings of when a muscle is active and when it is relaxed. And it gives you a chance to practice both activating muscle and relaxing it. All of this in turn can give you a better feel for your body, better proprioception. And it can help improve your flexibility, stability and strength.

Two Types of Proprioception

As you get better at relaxed stretching you’ll learn to recognize the feel (or sensations) of a relaxed stretch.

The connective tissue inside the muscle is being lengthened, and it resists, but it also gradually lets you go deeper, to a point. The feeling of a relaxed stretch could be described as Connective Tissue Tension.

It’s not muscle activation tension. Instead it is tension in the connective tissue within the muscle itself. It’s because the muscle is relaxed that this tissue gets stretched when doing relaxed stretching.

Another sensation is generated by muscle activation. Muscle activation creates a strong sensation.

• The closer the end points of the active muscle, the denser the contraction is, sometimes to the point of cramping.
• The further away the end points of the activate muscle, the density of the contraction is reduced.
• And if the muscle is stretched while active, you may get a combination of sensations, that of stretching (from the connective tissue) and that of muscle activation, from the belly of the muscle itself.

Muscle activation creates sensation not only in the belly of the muscle, but in tendons (and ligaments) that the muscle attaches to.

Active proprioception is important even when the muscle being activated is to thin or small to be felt. An example of this is the serratus anterior muscle. This muscle is so thin that it is difficult to “feel” when it is active. However, it’s activation can be inferred from the stretch it creates between the shoulder blades, a feeling of openness created as the connective tissue of the rhomboids (and perhaps the lower and middle trapezius) is stretched.

And so muscle activation creates sensation within the belly of the muscle and/or in opposing connective tissue structures. With practice, this sensation can be turned into information that helps you feel and know what your body is doing.

So that you get better at conscious proprioception focus on feeling your muscles:

• as you activate them or
• as you relax them

And focus on feeling connective tissue tension

• when doing relaxed stretching.