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Muscle shortening?

Tinnuk Posts: 291 Joined: 2005/12/19	2008/04/26, 11:22 AM I'm talking about residual muscle shortness, like what's often in the hip flexors. Is this what tone actually is? Are shortened muscles generally stronger, and if so, does stretching a muscle make it weaker? I'm really unfamiliar with this aspect of mucles mechanics.
wrestler125 Posts: 4,619 Joined: 2004/01/27	2008/04/27, 10:02 AM No. It means that literally the muscle has atrophied linearly. While a muscle can be lengthened through hypertrophy, it can also do the opposite. This can even be accomplished when a training stimulus is present, as in if you are doing reduced ROM exercises, a muscle can hypertrophy in thickness, and atrophy in length. More than often, it is actually tightness, which is just inflexibility. Neither of these should be mistaken for tone, which is just a passive contraction. A lot of your questions lately seem to deal with principles of physical therapy, it might be worth it to take a few of these classes. -------------- SQUAT MORE ~Jesse Marunde Blood Guts Sweat Chalk
Tinnuk Posts: 291 Joined: 2005/12/19	2008/04/28, 12:50 PM Thanks, and I certainly will when the oppourtunity presents itself, though as of now, I'll have to be content with books. Any suggestions?
wrestler125 Posts: 4,619 Joined: 2004/01/27	2008/04/28, 02:53 PM Diagnosis and Treatment of Movement Impairment Disorders, by Shirley Sahrmann By far, the current industry standard. Difficult to get through without a good knowledge of biomechanics, and even then I'd recommend reading it with a copy of Grey's Anatomy handy, but it's a great resource. You'll often hear it mentioned in articles online (I'm pretty sure I've heard it referenced in the past week by Micheal Boyle and Tony Gentilcore), so even strength coaches are making use of what it has to offer. It has a complete chapter on what you just asked... Inflexibility vs. Length vs. Stiffness vs. Tone. She does a great job explaining the differences and how they apply to posture, strength, and injury rehab/prehab. -------------- SQUAT MORE ~Jesse Marunde Blood Guts Sweat Chalk