[ELI5] Why does stretching feel so good?
In: Biology
so when you use muscles, you generally contract them – called an endergonic reaction. it requires energy to do that, made by the cells directly. that energy is called adenosine triphosphate, or ATP. some of it sits in your muscles, like, dormant, waiting to be used for contraction and use. So, if you stretch your muscles, you relax them and *release* that ATP, because youre doing the opposite of contracting them. So ATP goes out into your body and literally gives you energy that was sitting there.
when you have sore muscles from working too much, its because your body couldn’t keep up with the actvitiy, and could not make ATP fast enough, therefore not getting enough oxygen. If you dont have enough oxygen in your muscles, your body switches to *aneorobic* as opposed to aerobic (“aer” meaning air or oxygen).
when it switches to anaerobic, it mixes ATP with an enzyme called pyruvate, which creates lactic acid. Lactic acid is used as energy instead. But its not the body’s favorite, and it creates soreness. Thats why stretching after a tough workout, helps with soreness, because you are releasing the lactic acid from your muscles
thats why stretching after working out helps reduce soreness, because youre literally pushing out the lactic acid. The way you push out ATP when you stretch in the morning or after a nap.
TLDR: you’re pushing out stored energy across your muscles.
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