Let me guess – your body is tight, you have restricted range of motion, and, no matter how much you stretch, you just can’t seem to make any strides in becoming more flexible? Have you ever gone through extensive stretching only to find yourself just as tight – or tighter – than before you stretched? This is the case for a majority of people that follow traditional methods to increase flexibility to no avail. I am here to assure you that the reason you are not as flexible as you want to be is because of the method(s) you are using. You are NOT the problem! At Apex, we have over two decades and thousands of clients who have DRASTICALLY increased their range of motion in a short amount of time.
Understanding What You’ve Been Doing Wrong
Before we get into how to become more flexible, it’s important to understand why your traditional attempts to become more flexible have failed. Traditional stretching methods for flexibility don’t work is because muscle tissue doesn’t stretch. Don’t just take my word for it! Look at Webster Dictionary’s definition of the word stretch: ”to extend in length”. Muscles in nature don’t change length. For example, if my bicep muscle was 10” long and I “stretched” it, my bicep may extend to 11”. After being “stretched,” the muscle would then return to its original length. If muscles stretched like silly putty, we would all be piles of goo on the floor.
If muscles don’t stretch, why can I pull on certain muscles to increase range of motion? The answer to that question is three letters:G-T-O. The GTO, or golgi tendon organ, is a sensor we have inside our muscles that let’s our brain know how much tension is on the muscle. When you pull on muscles, your brain senses tension on the muscle fiber. When enough tension is applied your brain will send a signal to GTO to have the muscle deactivate to prevent damage to the muscle tissue. This deactivation slows the muscles connection with the brain hindering the muscles’ ability to contract. This may be why there are numerous case studies showing the adverse effects of stretching before physical activity. This phenomenon can also reduce performance and increase risk of injury. (Reference arcticle
https://www.physio-pedia.com/Impact_of_ Static_Stretching_ on_Performance
Understanding Why Muscles Get Tight
Muscle tightness = muscle weakness. Muscles attach to the bones of our skeleton and are responsible for moving the limbs of our body and stabilizing joints. When our muscle loses its ability to contract properly your brain knows that the joint it is designed to stabilize in compromised and will send a signal to your brain to shorten/tighten limiting the range of motion of the joint. If you pull/stretch the muscle that has a hindered connection with the brain and range of motion is increased by the GTO causing the muscle to give out your limb can now move in a range of motion that your body can’t control making you extremely vulnerable to injury. The only way to drastically improve your range of motion is to restore the hindered connection between the brain and muscle to to regain the muscle ability to contract properly which eliminates the brains need to force the muscle in a shortened/tight state to create stability for the joint.
How to Drastically Increase Your Range of Motion
During the course of our lives our bodies will endure stress, trauma, and overuse that hinders our brains connection with muscle fibers affecting the muscle’s ability to contract. This, in turn, limits our range of motion. In order to drastically increase your range of motion you must become more flex-“able”. Flexibility is the ability for muscles to flex. The stronger your muscles can contract the more range of motion your body will have. In order to drastically change your range of motion, muscle activation is needed.
There are no two humans on the planet whose bodies have endured the same stresses, genetics, movements, and trauma being that all of us have our own unique one-of-a-kid imbalances. The first step in understanding what muscles have a disconnection with your brain is to undergo an accurate neuromuscular assessment. The proprietary Bionetic Neuro-Muscular Assessment, offered exclusively at Apex Fit, identifies the muscles that have a hindered connection with your brain and also pinpoints the specific sections of the muscle fibers that may be imbalanced. Once the neuromuscular issues have been identified, proprietary Bionetic Muscle Activation methods are used to reconnect your brain to the dormant muscle, thereby drastically and instantly increasing your body’s range of motion.
The only way to fully restore dormant muscle tissue is through precision mechanical loading. That is, with proper strength training, your bones should be placed at specific angles and mechanical load should be applied from a precise direction to force the brain to contract a given muscle. The stronger you become the more precise mechanical strength training positions need to be to restore the brain-muscle connection. The more muscle spindles on that given muscle, the more activation a muscle will undergo. Proper strength training can be the key to unlocking your body’s range of motion in ways you never dreamed. Proper strength training can restore all brain-muscle connections and properly realign joints to eliminate tightness, end pain, improve performance, and drastically slow the aging process of your body. On the other hand, not understanding your body’s one of a kind neuro-muscular imbalances can lead to improper strength training. This can increase the muscle imbalances in your body and pull joints out of alignment which increases tightness, pain, inflammation, decreases performance, and dramatically accelerates the biological aging process of your body.
The Apex Fit Flexibility Solution
At Apex we offer a FREE Introduction Workout that includes an entry level Bionetic Neuromuscular Assessment. This assessment identifies the major muscles that are currently creating the biggest limitations with your range of motion. During the 30-minute free session you will experience a drastic range of motion increase and feel the immediate effects of our proprietary Bionetic precision loading. Whether you choose to move forward with an Apex Fit personal training package, DIY Apex Fit prescribed workout program, or not, you will gain valuable insight on your body’s parameters and better understanding of the unique needs of your body.
