Is Stretching Good?
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I recently read Richard Lieber's book Skeletal Muscle Structure, Function, and Plasticity. Fascinating stuff. Tendon recoil is more important than muscles for speed. 80% of muscle improvement from training in the first two weeks is from "neural recruitment," not hypertrophy. Meaning the brain finds and activates more muscle fibers rather than making muscle tissue stronger. The more efficient muscles become, the fewer muscle fibers engaged. That's the argument for weights in nutshell. Make your muscles inefficient and they will be more active.
Before that I listened to 4 hours of muscle fiber scientist Andy Galpin. So much enthusiasm! It is all part of my project to expand the number of people who I can talk too through learning their specialized language. And there is a lot of food for thought in the science of muscles, even if we know almost nothing about its application to the real world (called in vivo).
Stretching is new evil step-mother. I loved both these articles. Paul Ingraham is a talented writer and thinker. Enjoy.
https://www.painscience.com/articles/stretching.php
https://www.painscience.com/articles/unstretchables.php
