Youth Fitness: Stretch Shortening Cycle and How it Relates to Exercise

Youth Fitness: Stretch-Shortening Cycle
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The stretch-shortening cycle is a 3-phase mechanical technique that facilitates an increased improvement in movement and performance of athletes through muscle control. In the first phase of the cycle, known as eccentric contraction, muscles involved in one’s body movement become stretched. As a result, elastic energy is stored in the muscular components of the tendons. Also, a signal travels to the spindle fibers and spinal cord, promoting more power production. For instance, when one wants to squat, the initial squatting-like position lengthens the quadriceps muscles (Haff & Triplett, 2015). The second phase is amortization, the transition period from eccentric to the concentric phase. Here the movement slows down as one prepares to take up the exercise movement they are to undertake. More energy is loaded into tendons, and the force necessary for the next phase is generated. The third phase is the concentric phase, whereb...