[ELI5] Why does stretching feel so good?
In: Biology
I’m seeing a lot of answers about ATP or generally how muscles work- I think that might be related but probably missing the mark. When you stretch your muscles you are activating afferent nerves that return to the spinal cord. These nerves carry signals that presumably “scratch an itch” that the central nervous system had.
One other thing- usually when you stretch you don’t just do it fast and stop, it’s like a gradual thing and then you hold the posture and contract a little maybe even shaking slightly (I’m thinking about sleepy panda yawning stretch). When you hold a given contraction of the muscle you activate some other mechanisms of keeping the contraction going, related to how ions can go into the cells telling the muscles to move. Those mechanisms are influenced by some of the same molecules involved in making you feel good. I personally have no idea if those things are related in a scientific, way, but maybe they are related somehow.
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