07/27/2026
Most people cannot believe I haven’t done any form of passive stretching for the last 26 years, and that includes foam rolling, Theragun devices, etc. I also don’t want to stretch, and I will tell you why.
•Tightness is our body’s natural protective mechanism, and a signaling mechanism that other muscles are not contracting optimally to do their job.
• You cannot selectively stretch certain tissues and not others. There are a multitude of different tissues under the skin: ligaments, tendons, connective tissue, arteries, veins, etc. you cannot pick one and not the others, and you could be creating other issues. Some tissues do not have elasticity and will deform permanently.
•muscle has the tensile strength of steel, so foam rolling is not loosening muscle. Fascia is like Kevlar so good luck with that.
•I want my joints to be tighter, not looser, when working out and performing sports. Loosening the bolts on my car before I drive fast doesn’t make a lot of sense.
• opening a joint to more range of motion could be creating more problems: opening up an unstable range of motion, ripping cross bridging of muscle contractile tissues and creating more weakness.
Those are just a few of many reasons, but know that our nervous system is purposeful in what it does. Respect the signals it gives you and find ways to work with your body to restore stability. My go to strategies are contracting muscles strategically and intentionally, as well as Muscle Activation Techniques to restore communication to muscle tissues and bring stability back to the body.
When there is stability, your body will give you all the range of motion it has available.
