By now you should have started your New Year’s Resolutions. If his goal was to get in better shape, he probably felt some pain or discomfort. I know, “No pain, no gain!” This statement was created by the same people who said you should have “buns of steel or a hard body.” Believe me, accepting those marketing campaigns will leave you in pain. frustrated and feeling like a loser Let me say up front, most fitness programs work. You can get the results you want, but not without paying a price for skipping stretching. The more you move your body. the stronger you will become, plus your bones will also get stronger. That’s a fact. Unfortunately, the more you move, the more you lose space in your joints and increase pressure on your nerves, discs, and blood vessels. That is also a fact!
THEN, WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO?
While it seems frustrating at first, once you understand how your body works, it will get easier. Every time you move your body, even when you go to the refrigerator, your muscles will tighten and shorten. Many of your muscles, especially the larger ones, cross your joints, and as they get shorter, you’ll lose space in your joints. This alone will cause you to lose lubrication in your joints and eventually start to get bursitis. Bursitis comes with a warning that your joint is losing its space, and if left untreated, cartilage damage can occur. When muscles contract, they need fuel from your nutrition to power the contraction. They get it from their digestive system. The waste product of the fuel remains in the muscle fibers and is called lactic acid. Lactic acid is what gives you that pumped feeling and makes your muscles feel hard. Our bodies are mostly water and must be fluid. If the water hardens, it will be ice and not very flexible. The hard muscles will put pressure on the nerves and blood vessels, which can cause pain. The job of the muscles is to protect you. Every time you feel pain, your muscles will stiffen. Are you starting to notice that pain is like a dog biting its tail? Every gym offers some form of stretching, but usually it’s the stretch we learned in grade school and it’s not enough.
The three mistakes we commonly make are:
1) We hold stretches too long. Anything longer than 2-3 seconds allows the stretch reflex in the muscles to kick in and cause the muscle to defend itself. Your muscles don’t have the intelligence to know the difference between you stretching and someone trying to break your arm or leg.
two) Traditional stretches only stretch about 1/3 of the total 603 muscles. We all move in different directions all the time, so why not stretch all of our muscles individually? Stretching groups of muscles together leaves many people with pain and frustration. Your muscles like individual attention, they are not willing to share.
3) If someone gives you a rubber band to stretch, that’s your first clue, they have no idea. Elastic bands are great for strength training. Just use a rope or yoga stretching strap to get a good stretch.
Learning to stretch your muscles correctly will make all the difference to you and your goals to become better. At the end of your day, think about the positions you were in all day, then stretch your body in the opposite direction.
Tip of the day
If you sit at a desk all day, the front of your body will be short. This can cause back pain. Take a hard roller or pillow and place it under your hips. Lie down so that your shoulders and heels are on the floor. Stay there for a few seconds and release. Repeat the back lie 3-4 times. Soon you will be able to lie flat on the floor without pain or discomfort. Check with your doctor if you have had back problems before trying this exercise.