A smart way to relieve muscle tension

At the beginning of each yoga teacher training, I like to ask my students, “If some area of your body gets tight, what do you do with it?” The answer I am always given (often with a snort) is: “You stretch it.” To which I answer, “That’s the last thing you want to do to it.” That usually gets their attention. So, what do you do with the tight muscle? Let’s take a look.

Your muscles have two main functions: to produce movement by moving the bones of the skeleton and to maintain posture/body position. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be able to sit upright or stand. As we move through life, we rarely use the body in a symmetrical way or maintain a posture that’s perfectly aligned. As a result, muscle imbalances are created that, over time, can cause discomfort and pain. I once had a student who had driven a forklift for 30 years. It turns out that to drive safely, forklift drivers must drive in reverse, placing their bodies in this position (image above). Can you imagine doing this for most of the day, every day for 30 years? Do you think his body maintained its proper alignment and symmetry? Not so much.

So what, you say. Well, both locked-short and locked-long muscles lose their ability to contract properly and become weak, undernourished, and eventually painful. You cannot will them to relax, they can only let go to a certain extent, but once you are back to your hunch, they’ll return to their strained place. Trying to stretch a locked-short muscle is like trying to pry open a clenched fist – it won’t give much and then will snap right back into place. Trying to stretch a locked-long muscle is like pulling on a leather belt; how far will that get you? It is already stretched out, and you can actually cause more damage by pulling it further.

What’s the solution then? Contract! Muscles are designed to contract and relax in succession, which increases circulation to the area, brings nourishment, and develops muscle tone and strength. The most effective way of working with the tight muscle is to contract-relax-contract-relax-contract-relax, then stretch (if appropriate). This task is easily accomplished by moving in and out of the pose before holding it.

Take a look at Bhujangasana (Cobra pose). On the inhalation, you lift into the pose, contracting your lower back muscles; on the exhalation, you return to the starting position to relax your lower back. After doing this contract-relax-contract-relax a few times, you can stay in the pose to strengthen your lower back muscles. After that, you can go into the child’s pose to stretch the back. Of course, you have to make sure that you are using your back muscles wisely in Cobra, not jamming your lumbar spine and not using your arms. Cobra is one of the most misunderstood yoga postures; it is extremely effective for relieving lower back tension, yet many practitioners give themselves back tension by doing it incorrectly.

Back to our topic. Trick question: does this principle of contract-relax-stretch change if the muscle is locked-long as opposed to locked-short? Yes and no. The sequence of events will still be the same: contract-relax-stretch, but for locked-short muscles, we’ll place more emphasis on “stretch” at the end to release chronic contraction and encourage them to return to the resting muscle length. For locked-long muscles, we’ll place more emphasis on “contract” and probably won’t even do any stretching because we’d be interested in strengthening the muscle and restoring its elasticity.

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Simple example: This short sequence is useful for the lower back that’s either weak or tight, but the emphasis will be different. If the lower back muscles are weak and overstretched (like they become with the flattened lumbar curve and tailbone tucked), you would need to strengthen them. You would do this sequence: Chakravakasana to contract-relax-mildly stretch, Cobra up-down-hold to strengthen, Chakravakasana to compensate. The main work takes place in Cobra.

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If the lower back muscles are chronically tight because of the exaggerated lumbar curve, you’d do this sequence: Chakravakasana up-down, Cobra up-down, Chakravakasana up-down, stay in Child’s pose. Main work in the Child’s pose. Of course, it will take much more work to relieve chronic muscle contraction, but this is a good start.

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By the way, none of that work will have a lasting effect if we continue to engage in the behaviors that got us there in the first place. We have to look carefully at our patterns of movement (or question our students about theirs) to understand what’s causing or contributing to the problem. Then, we need to eliminate them or correct them if eliminating them is not possible. My forklift-driving client didn’t have the option to quit his job, but he could try turning to his left as well as to his right while backing up – that kind of thing.

And let me just say – I feel sorry for our poor hamstrings. They get stretched mercilessly in yoga classes, especially if we insist on keeping the legs straight in forward bends. No wonder that one of the most common yoga injuries is literally the “pain in the butt,” or pain at the attachment point of the hamstring tendons to the pelvis. We injure those by pulling on them and then try to remedy it by stretching them again(?!) And then we are surprised that they take forever to heal. So next time one of your students requests hamstring stretches, make sure to include things like this to get the blood flow into the area before you start pulling.

This principle of contract-relax-stretch might seem easy enough in theory, but it can be tricky to implement because we are conditioned to think about stretching. If I asked you to think about yoga poses that would be good for the psoas, what comes to mind first? Lunge? Warrior 1? Dancer? Pigeon? What do they do exactly? Stretch it.

Let me share my own story. A few months ago, I developed a pain in my right hip flexor area that felt like it really needed stretching, but if I did stretch it, it felt worse. Hmmm, I thought, what’s this about? What am I doing differently that’s causing it? Turns out – baby gates! We installed those when my son started to get around, and I’ve developed a habit of stepping over them instead of opening and closing them. You know, to save time. I would stand sideways, hike my right leg over it (always the right one), and then pull the left one to follow. Surprise, surprise! My hip flexors on the right side weren’t thrilled. I eliminated the behavior and set out to resolve the issue it’s created. You would think that if hip flexing had created the problem, then the hip extension should resolve it. Nope. You know what turned out to be the best move for my problem? Not the lunge, not the pigeon, but the Urdhva Prasarita Padasana variation (video below)! Raising and lowering the leg slightly while keeping the lower back neutral did a fabulous job of contracting the muscles and increasing the blood flow to the area, followed by the supine crescent shape with the leg turned slightly in to stretch it gently. Works like a charm.

And one last thing. Despite the risk of being ganged up on by restorative yoga teachers, I’ll say this. I do not believe restorative yoga is effective unless you’ve done some movement first to get your muscles contracting. Or at least, it would take much longer for your body to release without it. Just my two cents.

Let’s review. When working with a tight muscle (any muscle), first analyze the behavior causing it and change it. Then address the issue by contracting the muscle first, then relax, then stretch (if appropriate). Stretching is literally “the last thing you want to do.” 🙂

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