Does this sound like you; “I’ve been doing this particular stretch as the muscle always feels tight but no matter how much stretching i do nothing seems to change’ if anything my pain gets worse”
If i had £1 for each time i have heard this I’d have, well, only around £30 but you get the idea, it’s quite common.
What if i told you that when a muscle feels tight it may not actually need stretching, it may actually need strengthening! Let me explain;
When a muscle goes to its end range of flexibility on a consistent basis the muscle actually tries to over recruit what it can to stay in a safe range to protect whatever joint complex its attaching too.
Let’s take the pelvis in this example and the hamstrings. When we are in an anterior pelvic tilt the hamstrings at the back of the upper legs become long and on stretch permanently which over time become weakened and thus losing their own natural ability to maintain the pelvis in a neutral position. What we can feel from this is ‘Tightness’ in the hamstrings but in reality what we are actually feeling is ‘taughtness’.
Thing of an elastic band being pulled, this isn’t tightness, this is actually taught as the definition of tightness is where both ends come closer whereas taughtness both ends come further apart.
So now if something is being pulled long does it make sense to stretch it even further?
To me it doesn’t, especially if in this example there is back or even knee pain, in this situation you’re not going to be able to stretch away your pain. So, what is the fix i hear you ask…
The answer…..Strength!
We need to focus on shortening and strengthening the muscle to help work towards re-establishing balance in the system and the exercise below is a fantastic way of doing that for the hamstrings in the example given above
So give this a go and as always please let us know if you have any questions.