HOW STRETCHING ACTUALLY CHANGES YOUR MUSCLES

Here we have an athlete preparing for a game. They’ve put on their gear and done their
warmup, and now it’s time for one more routine— stretching. Typically, athletes stretch before
physical activity to avoid injuries like muscle strains and tears. But does stretching actually prevent
these issues? And if so, how long do the benefits of stretching last?

00:30

To answer these questions, we need to know what's actually happening in the body when we
stretch. There are two kinds of stretching our athlete might be doing. Dynamic stretches, which are
controlled movements that engage a range of muscles throughout the motion. And static stretches,
where the stretcher holds a position to keep specific muscles at a fixed length and tension. Our
athlete is currently doing a static hamstring stretch— a 30 second interval where he pulls his
hamstring beyond its usual range of motion. However, while we often think of stretching a
muscle like stretching a rubber band, muscles are actually comprised of various tissue types, which
interact to make a complex material. Rubber is elastic, meaning it resists being stretched and then
returns to its original shape. But muscle is viscoelastic. This means that, in addition to those elastic
qualities, muscle changes under the stress of being stretched.

01:29

Let’s see this in action. At the large scale, this hamstring stretch is pulling on layers of protective
tissue surrounding the muscle fibers, as well as the tendons that connect this muscle to nearby
bones. These tissues contain elastic proteins like collagen and elastin, which allow them to slightly
elongate over the duration of the stretch. At the smaller scale, these skeletal muscle fibers are
comprised of millions of sarcomeres— the smallest contracting unit of muscle tissue. Sarcomere’s
long, fibrous proteins can relax to elongate muscle fibers or they can contract to shorten them
— pulling on tendons and protective tissue to create the force propelling our athlete’s body. And
when those tissues have been stretched out, they retain their strength at longer lengths, allowing
our athlete to take full advantage of his improved range of motion.

02:26

Unlike a rubber band, this muscle’s resistance to stretching decreases with each 30 second
stretch, allowing our athlete to continually elongate his hamstring. And this improved flexibility likely
decreases the chance of incurring certain muscle injuries. But due to muscle’s elastic properties, this
effect will be gone in just 10 minutes without further activity. The exercise from his match should
elevate his muscle’s temperature and continue elongating the muscle, maintaining his increased
flexibility throughout the game. But once he gives his hamstrings a break, they’ll retract back to their
previous state.

03:06

So if all this is just temporary, how can you permanently improve your flexibility? For skeletal
muscles, improved flexibility comes from additional sarcomeres, which allow you to maintain
strength at even greater lengths. Sarcomeres are added and subtracted to muscles depending on
how frequently they’re used, so improving overall flexibility requires a comprehensive stretching
regimen. Plus, you need to stretch often— very often. Current research suggests at least 10 minutes
a day for roughly two months. And since it's unsafe to hold any stretch for too long, it's
recommended that you break up your stretching within any given session. Frequent stretching also
makes lasting changes to your brain. The more you stretch a muscle, the higher your pain threshold
becomes, allowing you to stretch further and further.

03:58

Long-term improvements to your flexibility can provide a better range of motion for your
joints, potentially reducing your risk of muscle injury in the short and long-term. But it’s also possible
to stretch too much, as flexible people can move their joints in potentially dangerous
ways. Stretching also isn't helpful for every kind of movement, especially those where muscle injuries
aren't very common. For example, long distance running only involves a small range of motion for
the joints involved, so stretching is unlikely to prevent that sport’s most common injuries.

04:32

When it comes down to it, different lifestyles require different kinds of mobility. And no single
stretching regimen is flexible enough to fit every situation.

WHICH TYPE OF MILK IS BEST FOR YOU?

00:06

If you go to the store in search of milk, there are a dizzying number of products to choose
from. There’s dairy milk, but also plant-based products. To turn a plant into something resembling
milk, it must be either soaked, drained, rinsed, and milled into a thick paste,  or dried, and milled into
flour. The plant paste or flour is then fortified with vitamins and minerals, flavoured, and diluted with
water.

00:33

The result is a barrage of options that share many of the qualities of animal milk. So which milk is
actually best for you? Let’s dive into some of the most popular milks: dairy, almond, soy, or oat?

00:49

A 250 ml glass of cow’s milk contains 8 grams of protein, 12 grams of carbohydrates, and 2 to 8
grams of fat depending on if it’s skim, reduced fat, or whole. That’s approximately 15% the daily
protein an average adult needs, roughly 10% the carbohydrates and 2 to 15% the fat.

01:14

Most plant-based milks have less carbohydrates than dairy milk. They also have less fat, but more of
what’s often called “good fats.” Meanwhile, the healthy nutrients vitamin D and calcium found in
dairy milk don’t occur naturally in most plant-based milks.

01:34

Looking more closely at our plant-based milks, both almond and oat are low in protein compared to
dairy. But while almond milk has the least nutrients of the four, oat milk is full of beta-glucans, a
healthy type of fibre. It also has a lot of carbohydrates compared to other plant milks— sometimes
as much as dairy milk.
01:57

Soy milk, meanwhile, has as much protein as cow’s milk and is also a great source of
potassium. Soybeans contain isoflavone, which people used to think might trigger hormonal
imbalances by mimicking the function of estrogen. But ultimately, soy milk contains very small
amounts of isoflavones, which have a much weaker effect on our bodies than estrogen.

02:22

Depending on individual circumstances, one of these milks may be the clear winner: if you’re lactose
intolerant, then the plant-based milks pull ahead, while if you’re allergic to nuts, almond milk is
out. For people who don’t have access to a wide and varied diet, dairy milk can be the most efficient
way to get these nutrients. But all else being equal, any one of these four milks is nutritious enough
to be part of a balanced diet. That’s why for many people, the milk that’s best for you is actually the
milk that’s best for the planet. So which uses the fewest resources and produces the least pollution?

03:01

It takes almost 4 square kilometers to produce just one glass of cow’s milk,  land use that drives
deforestation and habitat destruction. Most of that is land the cows live on, and some is used to
grow their feed. Many cows eat soy beans and oats. It takes much less land to grow the oats or
soybeans for milk than it does to feed a dairy cow— only about a quarter square kilometer per
glass. Almond milk has similar land use. But where that land is also matters— soybean farms are a
major driver of deforestation, while oat and almond farms aren’t.

03:42

Making milk uses water every step of the way, but it’s the farming stage where big differences
emerge. Dairy milk uses the most water— about 120 liters per glass, mostly to water cows and grow
their food. Almonds take second place, at more than 70 liters of water per glass. Most of that water
is used to grow almond trees, which take years of watering before they start producing almonds. The
trees must be watered consistently, or they die, while many other crops can be left fallow and still
produce later. All told, soy and oats require less water to grow: only about 5 to 10 liters per glass of
milk.

04:26

Milk production generates some greenhouse gas emissions— about 0.1 to 0.2 kilograms per glass for
the plant-based milks. But for dairy milk, the cows themselves also produce emissions by burping
and farting out large quantities of the gas methane. Overall, each glass of dairy milk contributes over
half a kilogram of greenhouse gas emissions.

04:51

So while depending on your dietary needs, any one of these milks may be a good fit, in terms of the
health of our planet there’s a strong case for choosing plant-based milks, particularly oat or soy milk.
 WHAT REALLY HAPPENS TO THE PLASTIC YOU THROW AWAY?

00:06

This is the story of three plastic bottles, empty and discarded. Their journeys are about to
diverge with outcomes that impact nothing less than the fate of the planet. But they weren't always
this way. To understand where these bottles end up, we must first explore their origins.

00:25

The heroes of our story were conceived in this oil refinery. The plastic in their bodies was formed by
chemically bonding oil and gas molecules together to make monomers. In turn, these monomers
were bonded into long polymer chains to make plastic in the form of millions of pellets. Those were
melted at manufacturing plants and reformed in molds to create the resilient material that makes up
the triplets' bodies. Machines filled the bottles with sweet bubbily liquid and they were then
wrapped, shipped, bought, opened, consumed and unceremoniously discarded. And now here they
lie, poised at the edge of the unknown.

01:10

Bottle one, like hundreds of millions of tons of his plastic brethren, ends up in a landfill. This huge
dump expands each day as more trash comes in and continues to take up space. As plastics sit there
being compressed amongst layers of other junk, rainwater flows through the waste and absorbs the
water-soluble compounds it contains, and some of those are highly toxic. Together, they create a
harmful stew called leachate, which can move into groundwater, soil and streams, poisoning
ecosystems and harming wildlife. It can take bottle one an agonizing 1,000 years to decompose.

01:54

Bottle two's journey is stranger but, unfortunately, no happier. He floats on a trickle that reaches a
stream, a stream that flows into a river, and a river that reaches the ocean. After months lost at
sea, he's slowly drawn into a massive vortex, where trash accumulates, a place known as the Great
Pacific Garbage Patch. Here the ocean's currents have trapped millions of pieces of plastic
debris. This is one of five plastic-filled gyres in the world's seas. Places where the pollutants turn the
water into a cloudy plastic soup. Some animals, like seabirds, get entangled in the mess. They, and
others, mistake the brightly colored plastic bits for food. Plastic makes them feel full when they're
not, so they starve to death and pass the toxins from the plastic up the food chain. For example, it's
eaten by lanternfish, the lanternfish are eaten by squid, the squid are eaten by tuna, and the tuna
are eaten by us. And most plastics don't biodegrade, which means they're destined to break down
into smaller and smaller pieces called micro plastics, which might rotate in the sea eternally.

03:12

But bottle three is spared the cruel purgatories of his brothers. A truck brings him to a plant where
he and his companions are squeezed flat and compressed into a block. Okay, this sounds pretty bad,
too, but hang in there. It gets better. The blocks are shredded into tiny pieces, which are washed and
melted, so they become the raw materials that can be used again. As if by magic, bottle three is now
ready to be reborn as something completely new.

03:44

For this bit of plastic with such humble origins, suddenly the sky is the limit.