PNF As A Training System – More Than Just Stretching! Part II
PNF and the Neuromuscular Reflexes
PNF makes extensive use of the different reflexes which serve to protect the body, stabilise and mobilise it for action under a wide variety of circumstances. As we have already learned, plyometric methods recruit the myotatic stretch reflex to activate the muscles after a strong eccentric shock phase. There are many other reflex systems in the body which mediate action automatically to avoid the potentially dangerous and inefficient responses that would be caused by reliance on slower voluntary processes. A knowledge of these reflex mechanisms is vital to musculoskeletal conditioning, a fact which is stressed in PNF.
A tendency to focus on bodybuilding or general weight training techniques over-emphasizes the role of muscle contraction, which is really the end-product of the interaction of various voluntary and reflex neuromotor processes. PNF serves the valuable purpose of recognising neuromuscular mechanisms as the dominant feature of all physical movement, rehabilitation and training. Intensity, duration, speed, type and patterns of muscle activity are primarily a consequence of neuromuscular processes and the relevant reflexes of the body.
Relationship of PNF to Physical Conditioning
PNF may be seen to provide a highly systematic approach to improving directly all the S-factors of fitness and several of the other specialised fitness qualities analysed in Chapter 1 (see 1.14.3), except cardiovascular endurance and psychological fitness.
The discipline of PNF teaches therapists to apply repetitions of graded resistance, to incorporate phases of relaxation, to elicit reflexes to facilitate contraction and greater range of movement, to impose specific patterns of passive and active movement, to use supplementary procedures for enhancing performance and to generally stimulate all neuromuscular processes related to voluntary and involuntary movement. No training method could be required to offer much more than this repertoire to qualify as an all-round conditioning system.
- Supertraining 6th Edition by Dr Mel Siff
Supertraining by Dr Mel Siff
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