Tuesday - The Golgi Tendon Organs and Stretching

We reviewed how the patellar tendon reflex works. We also learned about the "override" feature provided by the Golgi Tendon Organs, which encourage the muscle to relax if there is too much continuous tension applied to the connecting tendon (this way the muscle doesn't tear). We then connected our learning of these two features to stretching.

While performing static stretching we should go slow and hold for long enough (at least 20 seconds) to activate the golgi tendon organs and overcome the muscle stretch reflex.