Pain as a result of tight muscles is a common complaint of many people, in both the active and sedentary people. These complaints typically become long term issues as the usual prescription from many health care practitioners is to rest, and stretch tight muscles. Most people who don’t get properly evaluated tend to take the route of constantly stretching tight muscles in order to correct the problem. They usually find that this is only a short term solution to their problem.
The first question you need to ask yourself when a muscle feels tight is, “why?”. There are times when muscles get tight because they were just working, for example running; or lifting weights. After events such as these, stretching tight muscles may be helpful to help relieve tightness in those specific areas. If however, you find yourself feeling like there are not enough hours in the day to stretch more; it’s very likely that you’re chasing symptoms, and the tightness is result of problems elsewhere. Until you find the cause for those muscles becoming tight and painful, the constant stretching will at the very best, be a temporary fix; and at the worst, creating more painful problems for you as you’re essentially attempting to remove the body’s ability to create the safest environment it can within your current condition.
Upon our evaluation, we view your muscle tightness and pain as a signal that those areas are being overworked (and compensating) for another muscle, group of muscles or joint that are not functioning as they are supposed to. These issues can get started in several ways including poor postures, repetitive stresses, previous injuries, scar tissue, etc. The brain will tell the body to avoid injured areas(pain), and as a result, other areas will start to compensate and need to work beyond their means in order to help. Over time, those compensating areas cannot bear the additional strain, thus becoming tight and painful. These tight, painful areas are the most efficient working areas (being over worked) in order to allow the body to do what’s necessary to move.
If your suffering from pain, and have not seen long term improvements from stretching, we’re here to help. Let us help you stop guessing, and get to the cause of your pain.