Healthy Stretching

By Cameron Moffatt, Registered Massage Therapist

One of the common mistakes I see in stretching is including two or more muscle groups in a given stretch. When this happens, your central nervous system will pick the least tight muscle and ignore the muscle that you really want to stretch. You've seen people trying to stretch their hamstring muscles. Standing, they will bend at the waist, straighten their legs and point their toes up and reach down to the floor. The muscles they are stretching are the lower back, buttocks, hamstrings and calf muscles. This action will overstretch the lower back muscles leading to back pain. If the hamstrings were the target muscle and it is tight, this stretch will not properly release the hamstrings. Here are four simple but important rules to remember.

1. Always try to isolate the muscle group that needs to be stretched.

2. Become aware of the muscle before you attempt to stretch it.

3. Allow the muscle to relax first, then attempt the stretch.

4. There is no formula on how long to hold the stretch. Hold the gentle tension in the muscle until you feel it starting to release. Each day may be different. There is no sense in forcing the elongation; you will only tear the chemical bonds in the muscle fibre. This leads to further damage and is the primary cause of muscle pain that I see in people working out or not warming up.

Stretching the back of your thigh

Some chronic back pain can come from the muscles at the back of your thigh, called the hamstring muscles. There are a lot of versions on how to stretch this muscle group; most of them only lead to chronic muscle micro-tearing and stiffness. Remember the four rules.

Let's stretch the left hamstring muscles. Start in a seated position on the floor. Place your hands behind you so that your back is straight and relaxed. Bend the right knee slightly so that the right leg falls sideways.

To start, make sure you relax, and feel no tension in the back of your left thigh or knee. Move your arms and upper body forward, keeping your back straight. Tension behind your left knee indicates you have gone too far and are only stretching the hamstring tendons. You do not want this! Reduce the tension by moving back until you feel tension in the midpoint of the back of your thigh. Relax and allow the muscle to release. Don't rush it. There are variations on this stretch.

Pain! Hot or Cold?

Another frequently asked question is whether to use cold or heat packs for pain. It all depends on the origin and nature of the pain.

When moist heat is applied to the skin, the heat can penetrate down into the superficial layers of your muscles. This heat causes vasodilatation; a lot of extra blood rushes in.

When cold is applied, it constricts blood flow and has an analgesic effect; it numbs the area.

Which one do you use?

You've just fallen on your knee and you want to stop the pain and help with the upcoming swelling. This is an acute injury. Cold is best. It will slow down the swelling that tends to get carried away. Be careful with placing ice directly on the skin; it can injure surface nerves and burn the skin. 24-36 hours post injury of icing will be enough.

If you have a history of an ache that comes and goes, it is considered a chronic [long-term] condition. Most people use heat. What I would suggest is to apply the heat, then a cold pack and finish with a warm application.

Why? When you apply heat to chronic pain the area is flooded with blood. So far this is good. But if you leave all that blood in the area, two things happen. The muscles are now full of blood and the waste products in the tissue are still there. Even though the muscle is relaxed, it is not ready to start functioning again.

Imagine your muscle as a sponge, full of small holes, where the blood moves through. In the case of chronic pain, the sponge or muscle is tight, constricted. No blood is getting in there and more importantly, the waste produces are locked in there too! These waste products irritate the nerve endings in the muscles and cause low grade chronic pain.

Back to the heat. Once you've brought in new blood, placing a cold pack will cause constriction in the area and squeeze the blood and the waste products out. Now the muscles are relaxing and flushing out some of the reasons why they are sore. You can apply multiple hot/cold applications. Finish off with a warm pack.

Last note: the gel packs hold the hot/cold the best, but the ones that get solid in the freezer are best for keeping beer cold; they get too hard. Buy the therapeutic packs for cold and the bean/grain bags for heat.