A good number of athletes might experience a pulled or strained muscle at some point in their life.
At that point, they may hear the advice to stretch it out. Or in general, if they feel they are “tight”, they will often hear the same thing.
The hamstrings and upper back are a couple of the most typical muscles to get this sort of advice.
But what if that’s just making things worse?
Imagine a rubber band that’s already stretched out. When you pull and stretch it further, the band becomes thinner and more taught and could even tear.
Muscles work in much the same manner.
If you take an already overstretched muscle and stretch it further, it’s like that rubber band that has been stretched too thin…
Yet we’re often told to stretch anything that feels tight, which might actually exacerbate the issue.
Overstretched muscles in fact need to be shortened to be brought into balance and to be in the best position to heal as in the example of that pulled or strained muscle. And, in some cases, with muscles that tend to be chronically overstretched, you actually want to avoid or at least minimize stretching them in general.
In our NeuroMuscular Balancing course, we teach you a way to shorten overstretched muscles using a proven Osteopathic release technique, so they can finally relax and come back into balance.
Check out the NeuroMuscular Balancing course to see how we identify which muscles are typically overstretched and need to be shortened to come into balance, and which are short and do benefit from gentle stretching. In the course we share stretching, strengthening, and releasing exercises you can integrate into your daily life to help with pain relief as well to improve everyday wellness and performance.
Kalindi Dinoffer is trained in multiple aspects of mindfulness in life and in sports, sharing on her blog MindfulKalindi.com. She is also certified to teach yoga, fitness, reiki, and MFR. Kalindi also serves as VP marketing at OnCourtOffCourt.com, a leading supplier of tennis, pickleball, fitness and yoga training aids and equipment and has been published in Tennis industry Magazine and Pickleball Magazine, and has conducted workshops at conferences around the world. In her spare time, Kalindi plays tennis, pickleball and table tennis and enjoys outdoor activities such as hiking and biking and cross country skiing in the winter.
