Are My Muscles Truly Tight?
There is no doubt stretching has a lot of positive benefits. But like everything sometimes we can overdue it. Furthermore, the feeling of tight muscles can sometimes be the result of stability problems. Muscles are controlled by nerves which can tell those muscles to relax and contract.
It is human nature when feeling tight to want to stretch. For instance, my hip is tight let me extend it. Often times you feel better initially but you will not get long term relief.
The Root
Before we go stretching everything let’s try and find where the problem is coming from. This can be done by testing passive vs active
Active range of motion is doing a stretch with no external force being applied. Passive range of motion includes an external force being applied
range of motion. Best to do this with a professional like a licensed physiotherapist. They will see how far your joints can extend or move through a specific ranging of motion without you actively moving the joint. Next, test how far you can actively move the joint in the same range of motion. This will compare your active vs passive range of motion. If you are finding there are huge differinces between active and passive range of motion this is a sign of strength or stability issues rather than flexibility.
When actively moving through your body’s range of motion you may feel tight because you cannot access specific points of movement. When this happens we have to dig a little deeper to find where the restriction is.
Assessment Example
Hamstrings are a common muscle group people tend to find tight. Let’s take the stretch where you lie on your back and do a straight leg raise. If you can actively get to 90 degrees, likely stretching would be okay. If passively it is easy to get to 90 degrees and actively it is a struggle you may be facing strength and stability restrictions.
Solution For Tight Muscles
Depending on the individual isometrics can be a great tool. For instance, let’s talk about our hip flexors. Standing tall if you struggle to actively lift your knee higher than 90 degrees parallel with your waist but passively you can lift it much closer to your chest. The flexibility is there but you lack the stability to actively access that range of motion. You can use isometric holds to slowly bid stability when trying to build your active capacity.
For example, actively lift your knee up, and hold that position for 30 seconds. Apply downwards pressure with your hands, maintaining an isometric contraction while holding that position. Then actively raiser knee higher and go through the same process again.
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