Most of us who are or have been physically active on a regular basis have probably experienced muscle tightness, pain, aches or even chronic injuries on the odd occasion. Sometimes it can even become ongoing, and it can seem normal for us to become ‘tight’ in certain areas of our body. The Hips, quads, low back, shoulders or neck can be some common areas where we can experience this sort of thing.
Cause and Treatment
The good news is that tightness can easily be fixed and rectified so we can get back to performing at our best, it is just a matter of knowing how to go the right way about it. Firstly, it is important to understand the general cause of certain muscle tightness. Overall, our muscles typically work in pairs; what this means is that as one muscle in a pair contracts, its counterpart or opposite must relax. This is known as the agonist-antagonist relationship. Two muscles in a pair cannot contract at the same time and vice versa. A good example of this is that of the hips – the hips flexors (or psoas) and the glutes work as a pair. When the hip flexors are contracting, such as during hip flexion in running, the glutes of that same leg are relaxing. In contrast when the glutes are contracting during hip extension, the hip flexors are relaxing. Now, when one muscle becomes tight it can be a chicken-or-the-egg scenario. Sometimes, the tight muscle is overworked to such an extent that it develops excessive tension and does not relax to the same resting state it once did. Other times, its counterpart can become inactive or weakened due to lack of use, and so to correct the centre of mass so that we can maintain posture and balance, its opposite will tighten up. You could think of it like a set of scales – when they are evenly weighted the scales are evenly balanced, however when you add or take weight from either side, they will become uneven. This is what we may know as muscle ‘imbalances’ or asymmetries. This sort of thing can lead to postural changes or abnormalities, injuries or decreased performance. The good news that regardless of the cause or what has happened up until this point, the correction is typically the same and relatively straight forward in most cases. Corrective action typically looks like this:
- Release the currently tight muscle
- Strengthen its weakened counterpart
Now, this order is crucial, because if you only focus on releasing the tightness, overtime it will simply keep coming back because you are not correcting its weakened counterpart. On the other hand, if you try to skip straight to step #2, the strengthening will not be effective because you cannot really strengthen against something that is already locked up and restricted, remembering that muscle tension needs to be evenly balanced between pairs. Range of motion and contractile power will be limited if you try and do this and the results will not come. So, to leave you will an example to finish, using the above pair discussed, you will first need to release the hip flexors before strengthening the glutes. Tight hip flexors and weakened glutes can be the cause of many other complications, such as low back pain, hamstring and quadricep problems, and even calf tightness. As another example, if you suffer from neck or shoulder problems or aches and pains, you potentially have weakened back muscles and overly tight chest or anterior shoulders. The final piece of the puzzle is knowing what specific exercises and techniques to use. This is where guess work may not be the answer and even some exercises that may target the area at hand can be too general. Correct exercise technique is often very crucial and needs to be quite particular when correcting weakened muscles. Finding a professional who understands corrective exercise and muscle function in terms of how everything is linked and works together is often the most effective answers to getting results sooner
Recent Comments