A lot of people my wonder, what’s the point?
What’s the point of holding a stretch for 30 seconds, what’s the benefits, what do I get from it?
The main purpose is to allow the GTO time to inhibit the muscle. What’s GTO?
Golgi tendon organs or GTO is where the muscle and tendon converge. GTO measures the amount of tension that develops within the muscle. If the tension developed is too much, or the tension is to rapid, the GTO will cside the muscle to relaxed as a safety response.
During flexibility training this happens after the muscle spindles which measure the amount and rate of the stretch causes the protective muscular contraction.
This contraction creates the tension that the GTO measures in this circumstance.
As the GTO monitors the muscular contfaction, it will singal the muscle to relax after 30 seconds of applied tension to that muscle. After, the joint can be taken farther into its ROM ( range of motion )