1What’s the short side of the stretch? Bending the neck to the left (so that the left ear moves closer to the left shoulder) then the short side of the stretch is the left side. The long side is the right side. Contracting the short side of a stretch uses opposing muscles to actively stretch the muscles being stretched. Contracting the long side means that the muscles being stretched are active (and if you continue to move deeper into the stretch then they are lengthening while active). Contracting both sides means that the two sets of muscles are working together, with one side slightly stronger than the other.↩