In can be so frustrating, right? You stretch and you stretch, but you still feel stiff and tight. Why is that?
The first thing you need to understand is that tightness isn’t a symptom of lack of stretching. Tightness is a compensation for something else going on in the body. It is the body trying to protect itself from something. The body is sensing a lack of stability somewhere in the body, so it tightens up to try to create some stability.
I’m not trying to say that stretching is bad or unnecessary. Stretching done properly is wonderful. It’s movement. Movement is life. If we’re not moving, we’re dying.
What I am saying is that if you have tight muscles that aren’t responding to stretching, there is another underlying problem that needs to be addressed. If that underlying problem isn’t addresses, the tightness will persist until it is addressed.
One of the most common underlying problems I see is lack of motor control. Motor control is the muscles ability to be able to contract efficiently and effectively. It is possible to have lots of strength and poor motor control, and if this is the case, you are going to pay for it one way or another. Often the first symptom will be tightness, which then may progress to pain and eventually an injury.
It’s difficult to restore motor control yourself. First you have to find out what is creating the lack of motor control, which could be any system in the body, muscles, bones, nerves, organs, scars, meridians, chakras or even our thoughts and emotions. It takes thorough head to toe investigation to uncover the culprit or culprits.
You may have good motor control, but you may have instability in any of the systems mentioned above that will get your body to go into protective mode and tighten up. You have to be like Sherlock Holmes and uncover the clues to find the guilty party.
If you already have pain or injury, you need to be very careful about stretching. That tight muscle that’s being stretch might be the one thing that is keeping you from getting worse. When you stretch the muscle, you are getting rid of the stability that the body created to protect itself. Now you can be in danger of making the problem worse.
The bottom line, if you are experiencing chronic tightness, your body is trying to tell you something. The best thing you can do is get in to see a wellness practitioner that understands the body and can help you find and resolve the root cause of your issue.
