title: netflix and pill streaming firm boss reveals the future of tv could be a matrixstyle hallucinatory drug
text: in a previous article  i discussed stretchingnamely why stretching is important for the masculine man and several stretches that you should use in your training to maximize your physical fitness and while that advice is still valid i neglected a very important concept in that first article the techniques that detail how to stretch
  i am not referring to a specific stretch or some sort of hypothetical stretching mindset but rather a set of techniques that can be utilized for any stretch to increase ones flexibility immediately but before i can discuss those i have to discuss the incorrect way of stretching that many people still use
  how not to stretch many people believe that stretching is a literal act of forcing the muscles and connective tissue to stretch avoid this at all costs  first and foremost as i have discussed previously in these pages you should never apply any stretching pressure to the connective tissue they evolved solely to hold fast and keep things in one piece they should never be stretched at all
  the muscles are the anatomical feature that stretches as they evolved to do when stretching your body should always be positioned in a way where the connective tissues are stable and the muscles are moving
  even when you are positioned properly no part of stretching should involve the athlete forcing his muscles to stretch as that risks muscular tearing which is a nagging injury that never truly goes away this is because the human body has naturally evolved what is referred to as the  antistretch reflex  to prevent muscular tearingstretching the muscles increases in difficulty the farther and deeper the stretch is and your body responds to this stress with pain this is a biological sign telling you that if you go further youll be risking muscle tears and should normally be a heeded warning
  however if you want to do advanced stretching such as that nighimpossible benchmark of fitness the splits you will have to find a way to overcome this reflex without hurting yourself and as luck would have it there is
  
  relax into stretching reflexes can be overcome with gradual and repeated practicejust ask your friendly neighborhood hooker about how she overcame her gag reflex similarly your antistretch reflex that keeps your joints actually your muscles stiff and immobile can be overcome with a few techniques
  the most basic of these techniques is the one that i have had the best results with as usual the simple but difficult answer is usually the correct one and that is the titular concept of relaxing into a stretchwith thanks to pavel tsatsouline for naming the concept
  to use this technique take an easy form of the stretch you want to do using the splits as an example you would do a seated groin stretch engage the stretch just to the point where you feel tension in the target muscle and thensit and wait
  
  yes paradoxically relaxation is the key to increasing your physical fitness in this context you are literally going to sit there and wait for your muscles to stop fighting the stretchin other words youre going to exhaust your reflex until it stops being reflexive
  this is not something that happens quicklyfrom my experience it will take  minutes per stretch so it is perfectly acceptable for you to get a book or watch tv while doing this as a side note this is literally the only time where its acceptable to have a visual distraction during exercise in my opinion
  as you might expect once your muscles have relaxed and the pain has melted away you can increase the stretch a little bit more and hold it for another  minutes repeat this process until your muscles are in pain and you judge that you cant go any furtherthis is a personal call that you will have to decide for yourself as i cant judge when your muscles are demanding you to stop
  this technique can be utilized for any stretch and in many cases will give you the progress that you so desire however there are other methods in the relax into stretch family of exercises that can be utilized as well such as meditationmentally relaxing will lead to muscular relaxation
  or you can try forced relaxation where you flex the muscle simultaneously while stretching forcing the muscle to relax
  
  either way you slice it dont just brute force your stretching utilize these techniques for better results
  read more why stretching is essential for the body with  beginner stretches to get you started