Where does my joint pain come from?
I want to just give you guys a demo today. I just got a little set up here you just a makeshift set up in my garage that will show you what a joint looks like with a simple analogy.
What makes up up joint?
We’ve got bone, tendon and muscles.
Bone
Bone, it’s rigid doesn’t bend it’s moved by muscle which is attached to the bone by a tendon.
Muscle
Muscle is something (like this bungee cord) that’s stretchy pliable it’s supposed to move and contract. Both shorten and lengthen… just like this bungee cord.
Tendons
Here I’ve got some sort of strap. It’s not stretchy okay, just like your tendons in in your joints… not stretchy. Tendons attach muscle to bone. Now tendons happen to be sensitive, they’re not very stretchy or pliable, they are more like cables the bend in many directions but they don’t lengthen.
Movement and Tension
To move, muscles contract and relax they pull on tendons which then move the bones. Simple right… exercise, daily activities etc. Now what happens when they move a lot more than normal or move a weight for example that they’re not accustomed to they get sore and tight. They knot up, what happens is they get knots or get stuck in this short position. This end is normally attached to another bone (by another tendon). When the muscle is tight and short it pulls on this little sensitive piece of tendon. It’s right here, that’s what’s getting yanked on. I can put tension on the bone (my example bone doesn’t move, okay) but the tendon is the thing that’s getting stretched on. If you have ever heard of tendonitis (of basically any joint) it ends up being is where “this sensitive tendon is being pulled on by a tight or stretched muscle”itis.
Relief
If we want to relieve some of that discomfort it’s not it’s not going to come in the way of stretching, right? Pulling more tension on that tendon that is already sensitive to being stretched is not going to make it feel any better. We need to loosen this muscle up without stretching it. We’ll loosen it up so that we take some of the tension off of that tendon. We’ll use a technique called smashing and flossing (kelly starrett) or you could consider it self massage.
Relieving Muscle Tension
If you look at the bungee cord in my example… it’s like you can see is like how who’s have this muscle or like this this bungee cord for example you can see that my little setup is starting to slide down okay there’s no longer being pulled on and what happens is that this tendon is injured okay we may not fix the problem by loosening the muscle but what we will do is relieve some of that pain because we’re not constantly pulling on it so if I have a bunch of tension on a sensitive tendon pain okay if we can loosen that up so there’s not as much it doesn’t necessarily heal feel any damages happen to have the tenant but it gives it some slack so that it’s not feeling discomfort so two things you can do is you can do smashing and flossing so like that’s you know I’ll cover that another in other videos
Cooling in a short position…
Flossing gets those sliding services that are in the muscle to loosen back up and feed slack to the joint, more specifically to the tendon. Usually people feel comfortable after a warm up or during their workout. It’s before a workout or after the body has cooled down that they’re feeling sore like they’re feeling sensitive. What ends up happening after a workout is your muscles are nice and loose, they’re being stretched and then all of a sudden they stop being moved and they started to tighten up, now they just kind of get cooled down… then they end in the state of tension. What you need to do is, some of that smashing and flossing or just a continued warm up to keep those muscles loose and long. While they’re warm get them long. When they start to tighten up do a smash and a floss or warm back up again and stretch it.
Review
Generally speaking muscles are very adaptable and are used to being moved and tightened and shortened and they’re cool with being stretched. Okay, you may think otherwise because it can be painful to stretch. But muscles are meant to move, bones not meant to bend and are not very sensitive. If you break one… you’ll feel the sensitivity but for the most part like there you’re not feeling with them a whole lot. The tendon’s are the ones that cause you the most grief though. The best way to alleviate tendon pain is to relieve muscle tension so that they have plenty of slack to chill out while you’re at a resting state!
Questions? Reach out we’d love to help!
If you have any more questions about this one let me know and I’d love to cover them for you.
