​Hey there, friends! Today, we’re diving into why stretching might not be the answer to your tight muscles after a work out or overexertion and what the real secret is to feeling better fast.

Understanding the Muscle Magic

Your muscles are like little helpers that listen to your brain. When your brain tells a muscle to stay tight when it should be relaxed, it’s signaling to you that there’s a problem and that signal is for you to pay attention and correct the problem so you don’t get a repetitive strain injury.

This function can make your muscles feel tight, stiff and sore, even when they should be relaxing.

Why Stretching Doesn’t Always Help

Many people believe stretching is the best solution for tight muscles. Because when they stretch they feel what seems like some temporary relief.

But muscles have a built-in safety system that stops them from stretching too far, so stretching doesn’t always make them feel better. But actually can have the opposite effect.

Using stretching to “feel less tension” doesn’t address the actual cause of the tension, it does the opposite.

It sends a signal to your muscle to stay tight, much like your brain saying, “Keep holding on!” This is called the stretch reflex or if you like big high makamaka words “the Golgi tendon reflex”.

This is designed to prevent muscle and tendon damage which protects the muscle or tendon from tearing and spreads the workload evenly across the muscle.

But this is like a stretched rubber band, if you stretch it further does it relieve tension? No of course not.

The Real Way to Feel Better

Do the opposite of stretching: shorten.

If your arm muscle (bicep) feels tight, instead of stretching it out, you bend your arm all the way, and then straighten it using resistance to make your tricep work (the muscle on the other side)

This tells your brain, “Hey, it’s okay to relax the bicep!” And just like that, the tight feeling goes away. This is called reciprocal inhibition. Do this as many times as needed. If you fatigue the tricep, the bicep will relax faster. The body is so cool!

How to apply this to every muscle in the body? Here ya go:

Steps to Relieve Muscle Tightness:

1. Identify the tight muscle. For example, if your bicep feels tight, this is the muscle we’ll focus on.
2. Shorten the muscle. Bend your arm all the way so your bicep is as short as possible.
3. Engage the opposite muscle. Use your tricep to try and straighten your arm against resistance (use a wall) Forcing the tricep to work.
4. Hold and relax. Maintain this position for 1-2 seconds max, do this as many times as needed, telling your brain it’s safe to relax.
5. Repeat as necessary. If the tightness persists, repeat the process a few times.

Focus on Shortening Muscles

Muscles love to pull, not stretch! To relieve tension and stay pain-free, we need to make them as short as possible temporarily, while engaging the opposing muscle.

Using the power of your brain to turn off the tension signal.

Why Muscles Get Tired

Doing the same activity over and over, like sitting too long, overexertion in a work out or sport, or a repetitive work environment (think cutting hair or typing on a computer) can make muscles tight and tired.

This repetitive strain makes your neck and shoulders (and any other muscles) feel stretched and sore because they’re not getting enough rest. And they are in the stretched position for a long period of time.

The Magic Trick: Train Your Brain

Instead of stretching, we teach our muscles to relax by using the opposing muscle. This is what we muscle does the opposite action. It’s like a game of muscle teamwork!

This sends a signal to your brain to stop making the muscles tight, helping you feel better quickly.

Quick Tips for Muscle Relief

• Change positions often. Avoid staying in one position for too long.
• Use opposite muscles. Engage the muscles opposite to the tight ones.
• Stay hydrated. Muscles need plenty of water to function properly.
• Rest and recover. Give your muscles time to relax and recover from activity.

Next time your muscles feel tight and sore, remember this cool secret.

Don’t stretch—shorten and use the opposite muscles to tell your brain it’s time to relax. And just like that, you’ll feel better in no time!

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