Stretching too Hard??

Is it true that stretching too hard actually toughens the ligaments and hinders gain? I read that in a post somewhere here in thunders but I don’t remember the thread name.

bigd,

All intense regular occuring stress will make collagenous tissues stronger. With PE, it will probably help you to get in the stress, stretch, and therefore growth, while remaining in a fatigued weakened state, as long as possible, in order to gain as efficiently as possible.

Once again, any stress that is sufficient to allow for gains is going to make the collagenous tissues stronger.

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Hi:

I suppose i understood what you said about the ligs getting stronger because of the stress applied to them. The idea is that the stress imposed on the ligs needs to get harder with time to overcome the new resistance? I am right?

Is it possible to get the ligs shortened because of stretching? A kind of reverse efect? Could it happen that as you stretch them, they get shorter? Or they just get longer but thicker?

Thanks for your help

Killmister,

>I suppose i understood what you said about the ligs getting stronger because of the stress applied to them. The idea is that the stress imposed on the ligs needs to get harder with time to overcome the new resistance? I am right? <

That is correct to a certain extent. As I understand it, it works a little like this: As stress is applied, the collagenous tissue stretches, and breaks down, and actually becomes weaker. The newly weakened tissue is easier to stretch, and more prone to injury. But then, over time, days, weeks, the tissue becomes stronger, adapting to the stress. If you can stress the tissues in a regular fashion while they are still weakened, the process will be more efficient. This is what I always attempted to do.

>Is it possible to get the ligs shortened because of stretching? A kind of reverse efect? Could it happen that as you stretch them, they get shorter? Or they just get longer but thicker?<

I would say the best description would be longer but thicker. I have read no studies that would indicate any collagenous tissue could become shorter through stress.

I have read one where the tissues became shorter through a complicated procedure of concentrated heat delivered during a surgical procedure, followed by complete immobility of the tissues. If however, after the procedure, the tissues were stretched, they would become longer, not shorter.

There are some really good links in the hangers section concerning some of this material. Hobby found most of them. But I do not know where they are.

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