Active Isolated Stretching

This form of stretching warms the tissues by increasing local blood flow, oxygen and nutrition to the tissues before and after activity. With Activated isolated stretching, the practitioner only holds the stretch for two seconds while using your opposing muscle to move the joint. The underlying theory behind activated isolated stretching is if a muscle is stretched too far, too fast, or for too long, it elicits a protective action known as the myotatic reflex, causing it to automatically and ballistically recoil in an attempt to prevent the muscle from tearing. Because this occurs about three seconds into a stretch, practitioners hold a stretch for only a second or two, before the myotatic reflex kicks in, then relax and repeat 10 times. Using this technique, the muscles exhibit a greater range of motion over the course of each set of stretching repetitions.