How Does My Body Get Tight?
Let’s take a brief trip inside your body. Do you know what is the most abundant tissue in your body? It is connective tissue. Connective tissue is made of membranes called fascia, ligaments, tendons and meninges and is also where most pain receptors in the body are found. Strong and flexible at the same time, connective tissue wraps around muscles, blood vessels, nerves, organs and the brain. The function of connective tissue is to protect, separate and connect. Each part of your body is gently but firmly held in place by connective tissue to glide against nearby organs and function smoothly while you decide to go for a run or perform a downward dog! Connective tissue is the real space organizer of your body. If you were to exercise wearing jeans too tight, how would that feel? That would not be so enjoyable, right? It is the same inside your body. When the connective tissue gets too tight or restricted, pain appears. Your body needs to be free of these tensions to work at its best.
When you encounter stressors, your body develops inflammation as part of its coping effort. As a result, connective tissue gets stiffer, shorter and stuck together. That’s called adhesion. Let’s take an example. You take about 25,000 breaths and 3,000 steps a day. For each of them, your body needs flexibility and the smooth gliding of all its parts to accommodate these movements. Adhesions prevent this from happening 28,000 times a day. Needless to say, this quickly leads to… more tension. Yet the body is a stunning and robust network which sometimes holds out for years before manifesting pain.
What created the tension in my body?
The stressors affecting your body come in many forms: daily life itself, inflammation, sports, injury, surgery, infection, allergies, emotions, stress, anxiety, over working, lack of exercise, poor diet, lack of quality seep or quality time and many more.
The tests run by the MD are ok but I am in pain. What can I do?
Your blood test, X-ray or MRI may be perfect. However, whether it is back pain, headaches, digestive issues or whatever else, you still feel that something is not right. Luckily your body is likely still in relatively good shape and not yet impacted to the point where it shows up on lab tests.
However, structure and function are deeply interrelated in the body. In its deep wisdom, the body has developed an elaborate strategy to survive. Vital organs such as the heart, liver or kidneys are the first to be protected. As long as possible, the body will keep these organs comfortable and use less essential muscles and joints as outlets for any issue. Simply said, between your heart and your shoulder, which one do you need the most to stay alive? Your body will make do with a little shoulder pain. This pain actually offers you a wakeup call and a chance to choose to release the tension. What is only a lot of tension around your shoulder and heart area now could become something much worse a few years down the line. It’s safer and easier to rebalance your current situation and get rid of the pain now with a little manual therapy than wait until symptoms get more severe.
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