Muscle Tightness or Weakness?

We've heard it many times before, you complain about sore muscles and tightness and are immediately told to go stretch, go get a massage, heat, ice, whatever is going to make that super strong muscles relax.

What if that muscle is actually weak? What if the muscle causing you grief isn't even the problem?

Our bodies like to make us read between the lines sometimes and re-evaluate our bio-mechanical mechanisms.

So is that muscle that's bothering you weak? Potentially. It's obviously not always the case. As one of my acupuncture professors used to tell us " NEVER ALWAYS".

Let's get into how this could look. The front of your hip is always tight, you have tried all the above mentioned to no avail. Someone finally asked you to show them how you stand and how you sit. They observe this and see that you're causing unnecessary strain on the front of your hip, constantly lengthening it to the point where it has to tighten as to not be stretched any further.

In a sense it's a protective mechanism to stop the muscle from tearing. If the muscle were to be lengthened any further, there would be damage. In order to stop this from happening it tightens, This doesn't mean the muscle is strong, but weak and a postural change needs to happen.

What if that muscle isn't actually weak, but is compensating for another muscle that is. Covering for a friend, if you will.

Quite a few people complain about tightness in their chest muscles and back of their neck. These guys aren't usually the problems. The issue areas are muscles in the front of the neck and the back which aren't strong enough to help the other two, or "compete" with them and are overcome by the stronger areas.

The fix then isn't to loosen the chest and back of the neck, but to strengthen the weak areas.

Bodies are fun, I promise. Once we figure out what they want and need, the real healing begins.

As previously mentioned, these two reasons are NEVER ALWAYS the case. Each case is special on it's own and needs to be diagnosed by a registered health care provider.

Information take from:

http://www.arrowptseattle.com/news/2016/12/7/a-tight-muscle-isnt-always-a-short-muscle-why-you-may-not-need-to-stretch-your-hip-flexors

https://uprighthealth.com/does-a-tight-muscle-need-to-be-stretched/