Is Stretching Working for You?

Have you ever had a tight muscle that no matter how often you stretched, it remained tight? Many of us have these muscles within our bodies that are ‘always’ tight, it might be your upper trapezius muscles (the muscle across the top of your shoulder) that you feel are solid as a rock, or the hamstrings that have been tight for as long as you can remember. This is a common occurrence and many people have spent countless hours stretching it out with no real reduction in tension, except for maybe some short-term relief.

So why exactly is all this stretching not reducing the tension within the muscle? The answer lies with trying to identify why the muscle is tight.

The muscle may be tight because;

·      It is weak – If a muscle is weak the nervous system will look to protect that muscle. The best was it knows how to protect that muscle is to increase the tension of the muscle. This prevents that muscle from being put into a position where damage could occur to it. While stretching this muscle may give a short term feeling of relief, it is not addressing the underlying problem and chances are it will be tight again tomorrow. In order to reduce tension in these muscles, strengthening is required to increase the capacity of the muscle, which will allow the nervous system to ‘relax’ a little, and modulate the tone.

·      It is over worked due to surrounding muscles not doing their job – All muscles work in synergy with each other. If one muscles isn’t doing its job, often another muscle in the region will take over so you can perform the required movement. Take for example, the hamstring muscles, which can often become overworked and tight due to reduced cooperation of the gluteal muscles. While stretching the hamstrings may well give a short term feeling of relief, unless the gluteal’s start playing their part, the hamstrings will remain tight. By increasing the activity of the gluteal’s, in this case, it will reduce the load being place on the hamstrings and allow the tension to reduce.

·      It is compensating due to a structural or functional alteration – the upright human body has evolved with a level of symmetry and balance to allow our centre of gravity to pass through our bodies to load desired joints and muscles. Alterations in the position of the pelvis or spinal curves affects our centre of gravity and weight bearing, leading to overworking of certain muscles, often resulting in tightness or even pain. Stretching these muscles may give some degree of relief, however if the structural or functional alterations haven’t been addressed that muscle will continue to be overworked and tight.

·      It is supporting a hyper-mobile joint – the amount of movement available in our joints varies greatly from person to person. Some people’s joints can move beyond the normal range expected for that particular joint, this is called a hyper-mobile joint. Due to the inherent laxity of the joint, the body compensates by tightening surrounding muscles to give support. If this is the case stretching is not advised as it may even exacerbate the problem, strengthening the muscles would be advised. By strengthening the muscle, it will increase its capacity to support the joint which will alleviate the tight feeling within the muscle.

·      You might be stressed – stress can manifest in many different ways. When you are stressed your body is in the fight or flight mode in order to protect you against whatever the stresses may be. Unfortunately, the body cannot differentiate which type of stress you are experiencing, so when stressed at your desk working for a deadline, the body is internally priming you to run for your life. If your body is in this state for an extended period of time it can lead to prolonged subconscious contractions of muscles, ultimately leaving you with increased muscular tension. Again, stretching these muscles may only give some short-term relief, some form of stress management such as meditation can help to take you out of the fight or flight mode and allow your muscle to relax (stress also reduces your bodies pain modulation ability, meaning it can cause enhanced pain response!).

Hopefully the above examples gave some understanding on the many different reasons why a muscle can become tight, in turn shedding some light on why stretching is not always the answer for a tight muscle. Try not to be too hard on your tight muscles as they are that way because your nervous system is trying to protect you, or because it is already working really hard. So get to know your body, rather than mindlessly stretching it is worth evaluating the reasons why it is tight, getting to the root cause of your problems rather than symptomatic treatment is going to give you the best results. If you have been stretching and find it helps, then of course continue to use stretching, however if you find that you have been having to stretch that muscle for an extended period of time then there might be a more efficient management strategy available!