Tight - Weak - Injured - Is Stretching the Best Approach?
Releasing Tight Hamstring
If muscles are tight, should you stretch them?
If you are weak, is it because of a lack of strength?
The answer to these questions depends on what is causing your muscle tightness or weakness. Many people have misconceptions about how muscles work. “Tight” muscles are viewed as being strong, while “loose” muscles are viewed as weak or out of shape. However, if a muscle remains tight for an extended amount of time, it grows weaker, leading to a reduction in performance - and ultimately, an injury. It is important to be aware of your injury type so that the best treatment can be administered Learning more about soft tissue damage is the best place to start.
What causes soft tissue damage?
- Acute conditions: such as pulls, tears, and collisions. (Acute Injury)
- Micro-trauma: overuse conditions, performing repetitive actions over and over again. (Repetitive Strain Injury)
- Repeated or sustained contraction of soft tissue resulting in a hypoxic environment. (Hypoxic fibrous adhesion pathway)
Hypoxic fibrous adhesion pathway - okay, sounds complex, but it’s really an important concept to grasp when treating chronic musculo-skeletal injuries. Dr. William Brady D.C., CSCS, founder of Integrative Diagnosis, explains this concept in an easy to understand style. For a more complete picture, click here to view article.
Damaging soft tissue can cause your body to produce tough, dense scar tissue in the affected areas. When you accumulate these unhealthy tissues-adhesions, scar tissue, fuzz, knots-normal movements are restricted and the muscle’s natural ability to contract is weakened. In addition, these injuries can reduce range of motion, and cause pain, loss of strength, and early fatigue.
According to Lore of Runningauthor Timothy Noakes, M.D., when a muscle strain develops, an inflammatory response occurs. The initial tear might be too small to cause discomfort; however, once the initial tear has occurred, a cycle of repair and re-injury and re-inflammation begins. The can ultimately lead to large tender knots, which can compromise muscle fibers and surround them with inflammatory or restrictive scar tissue (Lore of Running: 821).
So yes, tightness and weakness is one of the concerns of restrictive scar tissue. Stretching and strengthening go hand in hand; although once the restrictive tissue is released, muscle strength and improved flexibility also occurs. This is where ART comes into play. According to Michael Leahy, the founder of Active Release Techniques, or ART, the best approach is to find the tissue that has been injured and physically “work” it back to its original texture, tension, and movement capability.
Why Is ART so Effective?
Active Release TechniquesTM are manual manipulation methods that are designed to break up adhesions that occur from scar tissue entrapping muscles, ligaments, nerves, and tendons, and are among the biggest causes of muscle strain. Active Release TechniquesTM are much more effective than other soft tissue manipulation techniques because they employ active motion to break up the adhesion. The thumb and fingers are physically applied to the injured area, and are manipulated so that the adhesion is moved away, or “released,” from the surrounding tissues, thus starting the healing process. It has been my experience that most injuries-even those that have persisted for years-show a significant improvement using Active Release Techniques in conjunction with other advanced treatments and strategies.
Here are some examples of how Soft Tissue treatments are used by experts in the manual therapy field:
- Enhance soft tissue and joint health
- Improve Optimal Performance
- Improve bio-mechanics
- Decrease pain
- Accelerate Recovery
Athletic trainers, coaches, and other health care professions rely heavily on this form of treatment for their clients and athletes, especially those with nagging problems that won’t go away with more traditional approaches. These soft tissue injuries are often overlooked, because we often implement stretching and strengthening programs for tight and weak muscles too quickly. The quality of soft tissue is imperative to fully resolve an injury, and improve performance. Once the soft tissue restrictions have been released…the strengthening and stretching programs are more effective.
Mike Robertson and Eric Cressey, two premier performance coaches in the world utilize Active Release Techniques and self-myofascial treatments to improve quality of soft tissue. Click to view full article.
The main points to take away - an integrative approach is the most effective way to resolve injuries, it’s not one approach over the other, it’s usually both; for this reason, corrective exercises, soft tissue work and technique modifcation are all part of the treatment process.
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