The Unstretchable - Eleven Major Muscles You Can’t Stretch No Matter How Hard You Try

The Unstretchables

Eleven major muscles you can’t stretch, no matter howhard you try

This woman iswasting about 85%

of her time. Doyou know why?

The Unstretchables http://saveyourself.ca/articles/unstretchables.php

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http://saveyourself.ca/articles/unstretchables.php

by Paul Ingraham, Vancouver, Canada BIO

Stretching is over-rated!1 Stretching doesn’t reduce injury rates, and it can’t stop soreness after exercise (nothing does). It also isn’t a good“warm up” (there are much better ways to warm up). And not only is stretching much less effective at increasing flexibility than peoplethink (it’s actually difficult and fairly dangerous), flexibility itself is also over-rated (being “inflexible” isn’t actually a problem for mostpeople). And, although stretching does feel good, and can often take the edge off of muscle pain and stiffness … it never works anymiracles or cures for muscle knots and myofascial pain syndrome.

There is considerable scientific controversy and mystery around some of these points, but there are just too many reasonable doubts toignore: the science of stretching tends to underwhelm anyone who looks into it.

But perhaps the most under-reported problem with stretching is so straightforward — so practical and mechanical and logical in nature —that there can really be no controversy, no debate. To observe it is to know it. Not everything has to be established by a scientific study!Some things are just a matter of logic. Once it’s pointed out, you can’t go back — it will be forever obvious that a lot of important musclessimply can’t be stretched.

I call them “the unstretchables.”

But first, a bit about the strechables …

Many muscles are stretchable, of course

Perhaps the most “stretchable” muscle group in the body is the hamstrings group on the back of the thigh: the biceps femoris, and theentertainingly named “semis,” semitendinosus and semimembranosus.

We are built for hamstring stretching. Thanks to the arrangement of our parts, there is almost no limit to the amount of tensile force wecan apply to the hamstrings — far, far more than they can actually take. If you wanted to, you could fairly easily tear your hamstringmuscles. You could literally rip them apart. Wow.

There are a few other muscles like this in the body.

But precisely the opposite is true of several other muscles groups in the body. Just as anatomy just happens to allow full elongation of thehamstrings with convenient and powerful leverage applicable simply by leaning foward, there are numerous muscles that just happen not


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to allow full elongation and/or conveniently applicable and powerful leverage. There are several muscles that cannot even stretch, letalone tear, not matter how hard you try.

Biomechanical destiny — how normal anatomy can completely block a stretch

The most straightforward example of an un-stretchable muscle is the thick shin muscle. Yes, your shin has a muscle — the tibialis anterior(the meat in the meaty part of the shin).

The tibialis anterior muscle lifts the foot. It is elongated by pointing the toe like a ballerina, technically called “plantarflexion” of thetibiocalcaneal (ankle) joint. However, the ankle joint only goes so far in that direction — it’s range of motion is strictly limited by the shapeand arrangement of the ankle bones. There’s minimal variation in this limit from person to person — even a Cirque du Soleil contortionistcan only plantarflex so much.

Short of breaking your ankle, there is no way to plantarflex enough to stretch your tibialis anterior.

At maximum plantarflexion, the tibialis anterior muscle is not really “stretched” — it is simply elongated. It is longer than it is when it iscontracted, but it is not powerfully elongated. It cannot be stretched!

And what a damned shame, too, because the tibialis anterior muscle could probably use a good stretching. It is often stiff and painful,because it harbours one of the body’s classic trigger points — perfect spot for massage #3! — clinically significant in nearly every case ofshin splints (regardless of which type of shin splints) and plantar fasciitis, two of the most common and annoying musculoskeletalproblems in the world.

Tough luck. You can’t stretch your tibialis anterior. It’s biomechanical destiny.

9 more muscles you can stop trying to stretch

There are about 300 skeletal muscles in the human body. Sort of. It depends on how you count them.2

Many of them are unstretchable, but many of those don’t really matter much. Consider the humble coracobrachialis muscle — from a


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massage therapist’s perspective, it’s about as clinically ho hum as they come. A minor helper in shoulder flexion, overshadowed andoverpowered by the famous biceps and the obscure but powerful brachialis muscles, the coracobrachialis is basically never clinicallysignificant. Rarely injured in isolation, never even home to a terribly troublemaking trigger point, the coracobrachialis is not justunstretchable … no one cares to even try.

The Unstretchables — with a capital ‘U’ — are the ten muscles in the body that we can’t stretch but wish we could.

The Unstretchables

Why they can’t be stretched Why it’s too bad

masseter andtemporalis The jaw can only open so far.

Jaw tension is epidemic and trigger points in thesemuscles cause a wide array of strange face and headpains, including toothaches, headaches and earaches.

the suboccipitals

Neck flexion stopped by the chin hitting the chest,limiting suboccipital stretch in many people.Although genuinely stretchable in some people, it’simpossible for others, and an awkward and limitedstretch for most.

Trigger points in this muscle group are the primarycause of tension headaches.

supraspinatus This muscle lifts the arm out to the side. Going theother way is impossible: the torso is in the way!

Supraspinatus, like all the infamous rotator cuffmuscles, is prone to trigger point formation and injury,and is also the site of the common shoulder problems,supraspinatus tendinitis and/or supraspinatusimpingement syndrome.

pectoralis minor

Can only be stretched by lifting the scapula, whichis limited by many other tissues and lack ofleverage — there’s just no way to apply the stretch.Standard pectoralis stretches primarily effect thepectoralis major.

Routinely a cause of significant feelings of tightness andpain in the chest and arm, and may also be a factor inthoracic outlet syndrome, impinges the brachial arteryand impairing circulation to the arm.


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thoracicparaspinals

The thoracic spine is naturally flexed (thoracickyphosis), and can’t flex much further due to thepresence of ribs and sternum in front — i.e. you canonly “hunch” your back and collapse your chest sofar.

The big spine muscles in the upper back may be thesingle most common location in the entire body forminor but exasperating muscular tension and aching.

supinator

This muscle rotates the forearm to turn the palmupward (supinating). Turning the other way(pronating) to stretch, the radius simply collideswith the ulna.

Although an obscure muscle, the supinator isnevertheless a key player in lots of wrist pain (oftenincluding carpal tunnel syndrome), tennis elbow, andgolfer’s elbow.

latissimus dorsiToo long and lanky to stretch — no matter how faryou move the arm, tension on the latissimus dorsiremains fairly low.

With it’s broad attachments in the low back, it would benice to be able to try stretching this muscle strongly as apart of low back pain self-treament.

the gluteals

Stretching of the surprisingly long gluteus maximusmuscle is blocked by the limits on hip flexion: thebelly hits the thigh long before the muscle is trulystretched (especially if you’re overweight). Thesmaller gluteus medius and minimus, which lift theleg out to the side, can only be stretched awkwardlyat best — the other leg gets in the way!

All of the gluteals commonly contain trigger points thatare clinically significant in most cases of low back pain,hip pain, sciatica, and leg pain. It would be wonderfulto have the option of stretching them!

the quadriceps(seriously)

The most surprising of the unstretchables, becauseeveryone has done a quadriceps stretch, and youprobably think you “know” that they can bestretched. However, you were only stretching therectus femoris muscle — about 10–15% of the massof the group. It feels like a strong stretch, and it isof that tissue. But the other 85–90% remains onlymildly elongated. The quadriceps consists of fourmuscles, the skinny rectus femoris and the three

Even more surprising is that stretching most of thequadriceps strongly is not only impossible, butclinically unimportant. It would probably feel great tostretch them, but the state of the quadriceps is not amajor factor in any common problem.


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huge “vasti” — vastus lateralis/intermedius/medialis. The vasti are only elongated by kneeflexion, which is limited to about 120˚ when thecalf hits the hamstrings. They cannot be stretchedstrongly.

tibialis anterior Limited ankle flexion. Self-treatment for shin splints and plantar fasciitis.

the foot archmuscle

The connective tissues in the arch of the foot areshorter than the muscles. When you stretch thearch, the first thing you feel is the plantar fasciareaching the limits of it’s elasticity. The archmuscles are also elongating, but not strongly.

The arch gets tired and achey easily, and being able tostretch it would probably be a great pleasure, and agreat help to plantar fasciitis sufferers.

the IT band

Not a muscle, but: the iliotibial band (actually sortof a giant tendon for the tiny tensor fascia lataemuscle) is one of the most stretched of allanatomical structures … and the most uselessly.Supposedly IT band stretching is a treatment for ITband syndrome (runner’s knee). However, there isa perfect storm of unstretchability here: not only isthe IT band unbelievably tough, but it cannot evenslide or elongate because it is firmly attached to thethigh and femur. It’s immunity to stretch has beenquite well studied.3

If only you could actually stretch the IT band, perhapsit would be an effective treatment for a frustratingrepetitive strain injury. This topic is analyzed in greatdetail in my IT band syndrome tutorial.

Some unstretchables are more unstretchable than others

Some of these muscles can, sort of, be stretched. But all of them are limited to a moderate intensity stretch at best (i.e. the gluteals), inmost people, most of the time, using reasonably accessible methods.


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Inevitably, some smarty-pants kinesiologist or therapist will be writing to me to complain about this list, claiming that they know how tostretch those muscles, and just because I don’t know my stuff I shouldn’t be yada yada yada. (This kind of reaction seems to be par forthe course with the subject of stretching, which inspires bizarre emotions and strange loyalties in people.)

So let me address that inevitable complaint about this list off right now and say, “Yes, but.” Yes, I’m sure there are miracle methods thatcan get a certain amount of stretch out of some of these muscles: but not much, and not easily.

If you have an urge to bitterly complain about my list, start by suppressing it, and then consider the possibility that you are taking this waytoo seriously. To quibble over the individual muscles and stretches is to miss the point. Which is …

Clinical implications of muscles you can’t stretch

The unstretchables are a problem for stretching. But what about the almost unstretchables?

For every more or less completely unstretchable muscle in the body, there are a half dozen more than are at best rather awkward tostretch. Thus, stretching as a self-treatment suffers from a major practical limitation, and can really only be used with the handful ofmajor muscles/groups that just happen to be conveniently stretchable.

We don’t stretch what we need to stretch … we stretch what we can stretch. Which isn’t all that much. The neck and low back. Thehamstrings and calves. The tiny rectus femoris part of the quadriceps. The abdominals and iliopsoas. The pectoralis major. Some of theseare indeed pleasant to stretch and may have therapeutic value. But there are just so many important muscles left out …

If muscles cannot be stretched due to straightforward mechanical limitations, then they are simply immune to all of the rest of scientificcontroversy about stretching. If a lot of important muscles can’t be stretched, then there’s a lot less point in debating the effects ofstretching.

It’s just another thing that makes the stretching “debate” seem over-rated to me.

Social implications of muscles you can’t stretch


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Er … social implications?

Yep.

As noted earlier, the subject of stretching tends to get people a little bent out of shape, so to speak. I’ve never really understood why, butthat’s how it is. Now that you understand the concept of “unstretchable” muscles, I have cursed you with a heavy burden of secret andunpopular knowledge, and you are on an ideological collision course with devoted fans of pointless stretches.

For instance, let’s say you’re a runner (and a great many of my readers are). From now on, you’ll never, ever be able to “stretch” yourquadriceps with other runners without wanting to say something about it. But just try it. You’ll find out what I mean. It gets awkward andweird, fast. People do not like their stretches to be criticized.

I’m so sorry I’ve done this to you. Good luck out there.

Further Reading

Other interesting reading:

Quite a Stretch — Stretching research clearly shows that a stretching habit isn’t good for much of anything that people think it is Stretching for Trigger Points — Is muscle knot release a good reason to stretch?

Notes


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For more detail, see another article on SaveYourself.ca, Quite a Stretch: Stretching research clearly shows that a stretching habit isn’tgood for much of anything that people think it is. Stretching just doesn’t have the effects that most runners hope it does, andprobably cannot physically change muscles. In particular, plentiful recent stretching research has shown that it doesn’t (1) warm youup, (2) prevent soreness or injury, or (3) enhance peformance. No other measurable and significant benefit to stretching has everbeen proven. Regardless of efficacy, stretching is inefficient, “proper” technique is controversial at best, and many key muscles areactually biomechanically impossible to stretch — like most of the quadriceps group (which runners never believe without diagrams).If there’s any hope for stretching, it might be a therapeutic effect on muscle “knots” (myofascial trigger points), but even that theoryis full of problems.

1.

See How Many Muscles? A (slightly tongue-in-cheek) tally of the body’s many muscles.2.Falvey et al. Iliotibial band syndrome: an examination of the evidence behind a number of treatment options. Scandinavian Journalof Medicine & Science in Sports. 2010. PubMed #19706004. Comments: Researchers examined the anatomy of the IT band on 20cadavers and testing different IT band stretching methods. They confirmed that the IT band really is “uniformly” and “firmly”attached to the thigh bone, “from greater trochanter up to and including the lateral femoral condyle” — in other words, the fulllength of the thigh.

They also carefully measured the mechanical effect of a basic IT band stretch, plus a more sophisticated stretch, and found that evenan ideal IT band stretch resulted in almost no elongation of the IT band: only about 2 millimeters — an overall change in length ofless than half a percent, which means that the IT band is definitely one of the unstretchables.

They concluded: “Our results challenge the reasoning behind a number of accepted means of treating ITBS.”

3.


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The Unstretchable - Eleven Major Muscles You Can’t Stretch No Matter How Hard You Try

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