Central nervous system? As a guess would you say such an effect might not be that bad beyond the immediate lowering of strength? Not a long term effect?
One hypothesis of how stretching increases flexibility is that it's a long term learned effect on the central and peripheral nervous system.
If you try PNF stretching -- where you push back against the stretch -- you'll be surprised how much further a stretch can go. And that's purely a nervous system phenomenon, some of it not reaching the CNS at all.
