This Could Be Why You Feel Stiff Even Though You Stretch

Today, we’re talking joints because keeping them healthy and pain-free has everything to do with how we train our muscles.

Muscles need to be well-conditioned (strong and flexible) and bones need to be well-placed (aligned and decompressed) if performance and comfort are your goals. Equally important though, are the joints as they are responsible for range of motion (ROM), which provides the mobility that enables us to move freely and comfortably.

Here at Lastics, we are known for our obsession with balancing strength and flexibility as a key factor to preventing injuries, correcting imbalances and relieving pain. But’s it’s not the only balancing act that pays off big time. The same can be said for the inherent relationship between mobility to stability. They too must work together 50/50.

Movement is one of the greatest, and I’d argue, most therapeutic things we can do for ourselves. That said, with gains in mobility, joints need to be commensurately stabilized. Otherwise, your muscles will tighten up to help protect you from excess movement in the joints because your body innately knows it needs to ensure the joints are secure.

But, if the intrinsic muscles along your appendicular and axial skeleton are weak, the larger, more superficial muscle groups will be recruited instead. As a result, they end up overworking to compensate for underlying weaknesses, and you end up feeling tight because they are doing all the work and not sharing the burden with their deeper, partner muscles.

The good news is that as you gain stability, you gain mobility and vice versa, the same way strength and flexibility work hand in hand.

So, as long as you increase your range of motion with stabilizing support, the same way you increase strength with better flexibility (and vice versa), the more your muscles are able to develop and grow. Our classes are designed with this in mind. We stretch and strengthen using special exercises that never go into the joints but rather, strengthen, condition and support everything around them.

You may also enjoy reading, Why We Created A New Strength Class and What It's About. 

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