Hitch Fit Living Magazine Volume 6 - May/June 2016 | Page 38

Mindfreak Time!
There’s some new research coming out of Spain that, to say the least, is pretty dang cool. Let us ask
you a question. If you wanted to improve hamstring flexibility, what would you do? Well, duh,
stretch the hamstrings, right? What if I told you there’s another way? Researchers took students and
players with the Extremadura Football Club (soccer club for us Americans) and measured hamstring
flexibility several different ways7. They then stretched the sub-occipitals (the muscles on the back of
your neck immediately below the base of your skull) and re-measured. Surprisingly, hamstring
flexibility improved significantly! In a group that underwent a “fake” treatment, no change was
reported.
The same school did another study with crazy results8. They first measured how much pressure it
took to cause pain when pushing on the masseters (muscles underneath your “cheek bones” that
clench your jaw) and the upper trapezius (muscle that runs from shoulder blade to your neck). Mouth
opening range of motion was also measured. They then either, A) did nothing, or B) stretched the
hamstrings for 40 seconds. If you stretched the hamstrings, it actually decreased pain sensitivity in
those face and neck muscles! Also, the range of motion for mouth opening increased!
So how can stretching one muscle actually relax AND decrease pain in a distant, seemingly unrelated
muscle? In short, all muscles are connected to each other neurologically (through nerves, the spinal
cord and the brain). If we relax a tight muscle, often a signal is sent to other tight muscles telling
them to relax as well. While this is a probably a surprise to many, those of us in the world of manual
therapy see it every day. Relaxing a trigger point in the pectoral (chest) muscles often automatically
relaxes a trigger point in the in neck muscles and vice versa. Research also shows that mobilizing or
adjusting joints also relaxes distant muscles without any direct treatment9!