As a Chiropractor, I interact with my patients on a very physical, one could say intimate, level. Although I also use specialized Chiropractic equipment to assist with adjusting, my hands are my primary tool in analyzing and treating my patients.
Those of you unfamiliar with Chiropractic might be scratching your head right now. Simply put, I touch my patients. I touch their necks, backs and spine. I palpate for muscle tone, misalignment and tension. I note areas of swelling or edema and muscle spasm or tightness.
Known by a few medical terms, the most common manifestation of an abnormal spine that I see is muscle spasm. I see tight muscles in all areas of the spine. Almost every patient I treat has areas of muscle spasm. Shortened or hypertonic lower back muscles cause restricted and painful movement. Muscle spasm is also associated with weaker gluteal (buttocks) and abdominal muscles.¹
Chiropractic adjustments can help realign the spinal segments which those tight muscles have pulled out of alignment, but the patient must contribute with a home stretching program.
STRETCHING IS NOT SAME AS EXERCISE
Stretching is not exercise.
On a physiological level, the function of a muscle is to contract. As a muscle contracts, the fibers come together and shorten the length of the muscle. When you return that muscle to its resting position, you are actually contracting the opposite or ‘agonist’ muscle.
When you want to scratch your nose, the command goes out from your brain to contract your biceps muscle, bringing your hand closer to your face by shortening your biceps muscle. When you have finished the job, your triceps muscle contracts and pulls your hand back down.
A beautiful system, right? Except for one thing. No stretching is involved. So if your biceps muscle happens to be in spasm, using it (contraction) only increases the spasm by making the muscle shorter. But here is the kicker, returning the muscle to a neutral position does nothing to reduce the spasm. In order to reduce the spasm, you must stretch. For this reason, exercising while you have muscle spasm cannot by itself stretch the muscle.
Many of my patients are dismayed to find out that I don’t want them exercising in the initial days of treatment. Many of them believe that if they are fit then they must be fine. This is untrue and demonstrated by the fact that many patients are working out just days before pain pushes them into my door. The spinal segments are usually malfunctioning for some time before there is pain. But that is a story for another day.
STRETCHING INCREASES FLEXIBILITY
Stretching increases flexibility, reduces muscle spasm and improves joint motion. Stretching can be done actively or passively but either way it moves the joint in a specific way, warms up the muscles and increases blood flow to the area. Stretching must be done independently of OR in place of other types of exercise.
And just to get it out of the way: NO, Pilates is not the same as stretching.
In order to stretch your muscles you need to take your time and relax. Ease into the stretch. No bouncing. Hold each stretch for 10-20 seconds, if possible. Repeat each stretch 2-3 times. If you are targeting a problem (not just stretching before or after sports) you should stretch every day.
Stretching is an integral part of repairing an injured joint. And by injured I mean, any joint that is habitually or chronically stiff, sore, swollen or painful.
1. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25154186