Stretch, Don't Shrink, into Spring

There's nothing like a reunion of lifelong friends to wake one up to the impact of time on the body left unchecked and allowed to "spring ahead". My wake up call came earlier this month.

We all came of age in Denver, backpacking together in the summer, Nordic skiing in the winter. Now, when we can, we try to reconnect every two or three years with a trip in the Rockies. Unable to get away for the last two gatherings, I was determined to join everyone this month for some spring skiing and Rocky Mountain cabin time with dear friends. I was prepared to see a lot more gray hair but I wasn't prepared to see the impact of time unchecked on one of our good friends.

Dillon, a computer wizard when we were younger, was one of the first employees of the now-dominate desk-top publishing company, Quark. In the 1980's Quark employees seemed to work around the clock, but it was still easy to pull Dillon away from the computer to the wilderness. Today, it's a different story. A mid-life career-changer, Dillon is now a priest in a large Episcopal church with lots of weekend responsibilities. The concept of a 40-hour work week is still foreign, but now there are no runaway afternoons or weekends to the mountains.

Each time Dillon rose from the ancient couch in our getaway cabin it looked painful. Rising to full height for the lanky Dillon was labored. "What in the world is going on with you? I've never seen you like this."

"I don't know, Lynn, I think I must have worn myself out when we were younger and now I'm just getting old."

"What! The human body is the only machine that wears out when you DON'T use it, and forty-something is not old. Have you injured yourself on one of your late night ski trips and just don't want to admit it? Because you shouldn't ski with us if you're nursing an injury".

"No, I'm not injured and I haven't been skiing in years. I may not be tied to a desk anymore, but I don't have time to get out to the mountains like we used to. I don't know how we used to do everything! Besides, I feel like there really might be something wrong with me, Lynn: my muscles feel tight and my joints ache almost all the time."

"Have you seen a doctor?"

"Yes, he ran tests for MS and other neuromuscular diseases that all came back fine, and my joints are all fine. He's confident there's nothing structurally wrong with me."

As a massage therapist, I hear complaints like this from plenty of people.

"How many hours do you think you've sat at a desk working on a computer in your life? The pain you're feeling may well be connected to the kind of work you've done your whole life."

Most of the pain, tightness, and low-level inflammation in our muscles and joints are more closely correlated to how we function in the world, than our age. Tightening and shortening of muscles can change joint function, how we walk and move in the world.

Muscles have a memory that can work against us. A mechanism within muscles, called the muscle spindle, "remembers" the length of muscles in order to protect them from over-stretching. Over years, if we stay in postural positions for considerable lengths of time in which muscles are shortened-say at a desk or in a car-those spindles get "set" at an artificially shortened length, making it difficult for them to extend to their full length.

But speaking of age, Dillon, has a second threat to the muscular system: once we hit 40 years old our muscles start to shrink. A process called sarcopenia gets started in our early 40s and doesn't stop, unless we do something to slow it down. If left unchecked we can lose an average of one percent of muscle mass each year. (That's a 10% decrease by the time we hit 50!) The process accelerates to double and triple that rate after age 60.

As we lose that luscious muscle density, muscles tend to turn increasingly fibrous rendering them tighter and less flexible. Not only is this uncomfortable, it can make us more susceptible to injury, and contribute to the loss of bone strength.

Still, this isn't a problem of old age! This is a reality in our 40's. What Dillon was describing is a natural process in adulthood: the difficulty getting up and down, the pain in the joints, especially hips and knees, the low back pain.

I had a hunch that stretching could go a long way to address all of these concerns, especially given the doctor's confidence in Dillon's structurally sound body. I ventured the suggestion.

"I've read a lot about stretching, because my doc actually recommended it, and frankly, it's confusing. How often do I have to stretch? And what about the amount of time you're supposed to hold a stretch? Some experts suggest you should only hold a stretch for two seconds so that the stretch response in the muscles doesn't shorten the muscle to protect it from over-stretching. And on the other end of the spectrum, there's yoga, where you can hold a stretch for several minutes. So, what's the right amount of hold time on a stretch? If I'm going to carve out time in my life for this it better be effective."

Well, let's face it, millions of yoga practitioners over the past 5000 years can't be wrong. Yoga works! But yoga isn't the only way to lengthen muscles. And stretches need not be held for several minutes to be effective in lengthening muscles. I think you'd be surprised how little one has to stretch in order to dramatically improve our middle-aged muscles.

"In your case, muscles have gotten short over the years because of how you've used your body. This will take a bit of attention, and retraining muscles can take several months. But don't be discouraged, stretching is it's own reward and the rewards are almost immediate".

Some well-designed studies have been conducted to determine the best length of time to hold stretches. Researchers had groups of people hold stretches for 15 seconds, 30 seconds, and one minute, and a control group that did no stretching. Then, they measured the participants' range of motion (the longer the muscles, the greater the range of motion). They found that those who held a stretch for just 15 seconds had no greater range of motion that people who did not stretch, indicating 15 seconds is not long enough to lengthen muscles. Then they found that the people who held stretches for a full minute were no more flexible than people who stretched for 30 seconds. They concluded that holding a stretch for 30 seconds could be considered the "gold standard" for stretching.

As to how often to repeat stretches, researchers lend some insight. Here again, multiple groups were assessed and they found that less is more. People who stretched three times a day for a minute each time had no different outcomes than those who stretched once a day for thirty seconds! So, the gold standard continues in this remarkably doable fashion.

In each of these studies, the participants did their stretches 5 days a week.

"Even you have the time to stretch enough to address the pain, stiffness, and joint discomfort you're experiencing, Dillon. Think of it: at only 30 seconds per stretch once a day, you could get some relief by doing 10 minutes of stretching five days a week. Ten minutes is reasonable, don't you think, even at five days a week?"

To punctuate my point I stood up with ease from the old couch into which we'd sunk, saying, "come on, I'll show you four stretches we'll do every day that will make you feel better by the time we head back to Denver at the end of the week." And the hands of time began to turn backward.