Three reasons why stretching isn’t always the best answer to fix your pain
Many of our patients ask us for stretches to help take the pain away or ease tensions. However, our regulars know that how we treat is to assess, test and see what’s going on, before we prescribe any exercise that can help. Our method is to test and retest to make sure there is an improvement before giving specific tools or programmes, depending on your goal outcome.
And, let’s face it, if all it took was a simple stretch, we all would be pain-free all the time, wouldn’t we?
Some people have a go at stretching and sometimes it can make them feel better and they get a good response but let’s face it, if you have long standing pain, it’s pretty much always only a temporary fix.
So, here are 3 reasons stretching may not always be the answer;
Protection: One thing your body wants to do is to protect the area that’s injured. It does this in many ways and, one of them is by tightening around it. This is an instinctive way the body acts to stop creating more movements and making things worse. This strategy allows you to get out of danger if needed, sometimes guarding the area as to help you get on with things. Which is why tension around it can be a good thing while the body tries to repair itself and protects it from things getting worse.
Over stretching: When you already have a full range of movement in a joint. This can demand other tissues, like your ligaments, to over stretch, creating some laxity and instability in your joints. What then tends to happen is that, if something is loose in an area, they’ll be more tension created somewhere else. So, for example, the neck tensions that you are releasing, maybe the reaction of an over stretched, unstable area somewhere else.
Load don’t stretch: What we mean by load in this context is the amount of pain free force you can produce or absorb for a specific movement by your tissues. We test this in different directions to see if your body perceives a treat or can’t take the force. Placing force in certain areas of the body can also help stabilise it. This is why it’s important to test and go through an assessment and identify what you need.
We aren’t against stretching and there is certainly a place for it. What we suggest, though, after a stretch, follow up with some active facilitation of the muscle to help support a good position, easing tensions or pain in the area or elsewhere.
It may also be worth considering before you stretch - especially if the pain keeps coming back after stretching - whether it could need some muscle tissue load (force) applied through that area instead.
If this is something that resonates with you and stretching isn’t helping you or someone you know, book a free 30 min assessment so we can find the true cause of the issue.