Maybe someone can help me with a life long issue: I was born early and got sepsis 3 days after birth. It ruined the growth plate in the right leg. Long story short: the knee and femur were deformed and did not grow in length on its own. So I’ve had years of limb lengthening surgery to correct it.
Issue is, due to still not being long enough, and all the muscle scarring, I can’t bend my leg past 75 degrees. This is such a hassle. I want to know, if rolling these muscles may help. Like, what exactly is the issue with these muscles? They are weak, and seemingly can’t bend. But also when I do sorta force the leg to bend I feel a massive stretch in my quads.
You got little guys in your muscles that sense if the muscle is lengthening (stretch) or shortening (contraction) and they work together to make sure the muscle doesn’t go in a position that would hurt it. When stretching, those guys feel the change in length and in return send signals to the nervous system that will tell your muscle to relax. But if you stretch too much, the other guys sense it and make sure your muscle contracts to protect it.
And there’s also a release of hormones following that, and this all contributes to tricking your body into feeling better!
Your central nervous system is telling your muscles to “tighten up” because it thinks they need to be tight to avoid injury or harm. Stretching and rolling out can help with the perception of loosening them up, but really it’s your CNS telling them to relax. That’s why you feel better after moving around and stretching when you’re sore because your CNS is toning down.
Edit: I apologize. Your autonomic nervous system is toning your muscles down.
Source: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/274517864_Acute_Changes_in_Autonomic_Nerve_Activity_during_Passive_Static_Stretching
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