During the infancy, childhood and adolescence years of functional development, muscles, ligaments, bone, neural connectors and other tissue form into particular configurations with each other, which become relatively fixed and hard to change. Applied Stretch Technique refers to a method for consciously changing those ingrained physiological patterns.
Applied Stretch Technique:
Stretching refers to using the muscles to apply force on ligaments, bones and other involuntary body components.
Applied refers to the need to hold the stretch in position in order to exert change. This is equivalent to the hold required in yoga and in traditional stretch exercises, however the success of Applied Stretch Technique requires a lot more holding to be successful.
Technique refers to providing some guidelines in how to exercise that applied stretch.
Applied Stretch Technique involves carrying out Muscle Tension Exercises on particular parts of the body to improve physiological acuity and functionality. Muscle Tension Exercises simply involve holding certain muscles in tension for a period of time. Doing so not only stretches the muscles but also ligaments and has an effect on cartilage and the placement of bones and neural pathways.
Some Muscle Tension Exercises can be represented pictorially, such as those involving the face, while others can only be described, such as the chest.
The areas of the body that contribute most to general physiological acuity are jointly the complex of muscles in the chest and the complex of muscles in the forehead/eyes/nose. These two groups of muscles relate to each other in a manner which helps determine many aspects of functionality.
The Fundamental Applied Stretch refers to the following all done simultaneously:
Extending the spine into an s-shape is generally easy to do and this part of the stretch merely provides a backdrop, setting up the body for maximum benefit. It is not entirely essential.
Stretching either the chest or the forehead/eye/nose muscles, however is not so easy. People who have lost functionality can find either of these painful or extremely difficult. Improving physiological acuity in these areas is usually associated with having to deal with painful psychological issues as well. The Fundamental Applied Stretch cannot be used in isolation and must be accompanied by some form of psychological relearning.