Every tight muscle require stretching : Not at all

Consider this: a tight and even painful muscle is that way it is for a reason.stretching or releasing it may be the worst thing you can do.

Let’s take an example, The body gets additional support from the tight and painful muscle. It is perhaps keeping a joint stable, compensating for another muscle in the area that is not working efficiently. Sometimes if you released muscles of An ankle, hip or perhaps the neck. If you release that muscle, initially your patient gets relief but you face more pain next session.

Battle between Weak and strong

In our daily clinical practice we are happy when we see tight muscles , immediately we think let’s release it with MFR , IASTM and many more techniques, but don’t jump into directly. They may be “weak”. It means the muscle is unable to meet the manual muscle test. It indicates that there is an issue neurologically with regards to activating (firing) the muscle.

A “weak” muscle doesn’t mean it’s not functioning well but It may be not firing as primary source of movement. example, an athlete with very large leg muscles may have quads or gluteus muscles that are weak, neurologically speaking, even though they can do a 300kg squat.

Following from the above, when we refer to a “strong” muscle, it doesn’t refer to muscle strength, power and stamina, though it’s part of it. It refers to the ability of the muscle to fire properly.

      Inhibited vs facilitated

we identify patterns and relationships between muscles (and other tissues) in the body that may be causing issues or limit performance. But it gets a bit more complicated than just talking about “weak” and “strong” muscles.

There can be 4 combinations of weak/strong between a pair of muscles:

1) Both are weak.
2) The first is weak and second is strong.
3) The second is weak and the first is strong.
4) Both are strong.

The first combination (both are weak) is the most significant. That means one of the muscles has been over working to the point of exhaustion. But, talking about weak and strong muscles is just part of the story.

In a specific relationship, one will be “facilitated” and the other “inhibited”.

Facilitated = neurologically overactive.
Inhibited = neurologically underactive.

It’s all about relationships and releasing facilitators

The two terms introduced above (facilitated and inhibited) are about relationships between muscles.

A releasing facilitated muscles (or other tissues in the body) and activating what’s inhibited (neurologically underactive). This helps establishes a new pattern to relieved pain and/or improve body function.

Interestingly, a muscle may be inhibited in one relationship, but facilitated in another.

A tight muscle doesn’t mean strong or facilitated. Inhibited muscles may also

[restrict] be tight (and painful), but should not be released. On the same account, a weak muscle can be facilitated and would be released.

What can you do?

You may feel like certain muscles are weak, tight and perhaps painful, but how do you go from there, follow guidelines what I’ve written above?

Hopefully you can view what’s going on in your body a bit differently. So, if you have been releasing something for ages and it doesn’t really help, or it has caused other issues, it may be because you’re releasing an inhibited muscle.

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