Why Stretching is Crucial Before and After Massage Treatment
We naturally stretch muscles that have stayed for a while in a short position, and typically this makes us feel better instantly.
But, as noted above, this solution has already been tried and failed by most people who suffer from chronic tightness, which means the problem is less about bad mechanics and more about increased sensitivity.
The issue is that many individuals, and indeed many counsellors, would assume that the failure of a few basic stretches implies the need for a much more aggressive programme.
Damn hip flexors Still feel rigid.
Damn hip flexors Still feel rigid.
Of course, this would make sense if the origin of the problem were tissues that were short or attached. But if, in fact, the root issue is increased sensitivity, then vigorous stretching will only make the issue worse. Stretching, on the other hand, can often produce an analgesic and relaxing effect.
Perhaps a healthy way to treat tightness is to stretch? As in other things, if it feels nice to do it, I say so. If it doesn't ... If it doesn't, Uh, don't.
Act on Soft Tissue for Tightness
There are different soft tissue therapies intended to lengthen short tissues, sever adhesions, or melt fascia, etc. (deep tissue massage, foam rolling, Graston, ART, IASTM). This, as I and many others have pointed out, is most definitely unlikely.
But do these therapies minimise sensitivity and make you feel less resilient? Of course, by inducing downward nocicieption inhibition, which is a well-known result of painful stimulation that is intended to bring health benefits.
But, of course, nociception is often produced by these procedures, which helps to increase sensitivity. It's a fine balance that depends on the individual and several other factors. Again, it's just temporary if it feels nice to do it, but it's a choice, not a requirement, and you should bear in mind the reason for doing it.
Motor Control for Tightness of Muscle
Many types of movement therapy are basically approaches to motor control, attempting to modify movement, postural and breathing patterns so that they are more successful, reduce parasitic stress, improve the ability to relax, etc.
Habits are difficult to crack, however, particularly in cases where tightness seems to be linked to certain postures or gestures, this technique is worth a shot. Of course, where the situation is more complicated, it can not be assumed that motor control can solve the problem on its own.
Training with exercise and resistance
People prefer to equate training in strength with being tighter. Muscles become very tight during exercise, of course, and they can feel rigid the next day due to delayed muscle soreness at the beginning. The (false) belief still exists that strength training makes muscles shorter and less flexible.
These fears are unfounded. In fact, the full range of training in motion strength will improve flexibility, maybe more than stretching. It produces local muscle adaptations that can boost endurance and make them less likely to experience metabolic distress. And exercise often has an analgesic effect and can lower inflammation levels that cause vulnerability to the nervous system.
We have a personal storey here. I had a lot more versatility back in those days when I did yoga, but my hamstrings still felt tight. Then I stopped yoga and started doing https://www.londonmobilemassage.ca/contact/ a lot of swings with kettlebells. My forward bend decreased a little, but even though I was working the hamstrings HARD, the sensation of hamstring tightness was GONE. There was a sense of functional strength and skill in its place, which I imagine minimised any feeling of danger associated with lengthening my hamstrings.
Of course, if you overwork the strength training muscles and don't let them heal, they're going to get responsive, rigid and sore. But if you work the right amount on them — enough to build an adaptation and not too much to cause damage or prevent full recovery — then make them healthier, stronger, and yes — less rigid.
Completion
When you feel rigid, note that it is a sensation that involves an aggressive structural solution, and not actually a physical state of shortness. You feel it more, like other emotions, when you are responsive. And like other types of sensitivity, if you enhance your overall fitness , strength, consciousness, motor control and wellbeing, it will go down.
Update-The 30th of August , 2017
Some of the speculation in this post is confirmed in this paper from Stanton, Moseley, et al. Here are a few citations from the abstract:
We suggest a new hypothesis: sensations of back stiffness, rather than representing the biomechanical properties of the back, are a defensive perceptual construct. We question the prevalent opinion over three studies by demonstrating that feeling stiff does not correspond to objective spinal stiffness tests, and objective back stiffness does not vary between those who report feeling stiff and those who do not. Instead, those who report feeling stiff display self-protective reactions: they considerably overestimate the force applied to their spine, but they are better at detecting changes in this force than those who do not report feeling stiff. It is possible to exploit this perceptual error: providing auditory feedback in synchrony to forces applied to the spine modulates prediction accuracy in both classes, without altering actual stiffness, indicating that feeling stiff is a protection-consistent multi-sensory perceptual inference. Together, this is a persuasive case against the conventional view that feeling rigid is an isomorphic marker of the back's biomechanical features.
Update: 13th of January , 2020
A new study shows that in people with chronic neck pain versus no pain, mechanical neck stiffness (as assessed by shear wave elastography) was no different, even though people with pain felt more stiff.