What cause a muscle to feel tight? Should I stretch?
I get asked almost daily about muscle tightness or stretching. Stretching has a certain place in our culture that’s up there with juice cleanses as a supposed elixir of life. Something tight, or hurting? Stretch it out! Need a morning routine, warm up routine, or cool down routine? Let’s throw in some stretching. Have a new injury? Must be from some tight muscles. Right?
Well… maybe. As always, the truth is complicated. The sensation of muscle tightness, or needing to stretch a muscle, is actually a complex neurological phenomenon.
EVOLVE Flagstaff Physical Therapy Manifesto
EVOLVE Flagstaff was created to help our community avoid injury and disease, and to do what they love, for life. Our team is driven to help you reach your potential, which is not possible if you are hurting, cannot move the way you want, or are not nourishing your body well with the proper foods and lifestyle habits.
EVOLVE Flagstaff physical therapy operates differently than a standard physical therapy clinic. This manifesto outlines our standards of care and thought process. We will strive to provide this level of care to every patient, every time.
Self-treatment techniques for lower back pain
One of the most common questions that I get goes something like this, “Hey, I tweaked my lower back the other day. It’s really hurting me. What stretches should I do?”
This can be a tricky question to answer, because so many things in injury rehabilitation depend: depend on your unique history (Have you had lower back pain previously?), the severity of your injury (Does hurt a little? A lot? Are there any red flags, such as muscle weakness, that need to be promptly investigated further?), your activities/hobbies (Are you a cyclist? Runner? Yogi? Not very active?), your specific anatomy and biomechanical factors (How is your muscle strength, flexibility and joint range of motion?), and so much more.
However, there are usually a few safe ways to attempt to relieve lower back pain on your own, and I often send out the general recommendations below as a response when I get asked about back pain.