While many many others in chiropractic and physical therapy continue to prescribe stretches as a primary treatment for neck and back pain, I have recently stopped using stretches to treat neck and back pain.
You may be wondering why I don’t like using stretches anymore, so this post will take you through 4 reasons why I switched away from it.
Please read to the end to discover what I switched to. No peeking allowed! In the process, you may find a deeper understanding of chronic neck and back pain and a different way to approach it..
Background: Muscle Stretching and Me
Let’s enter our handy time travel machine and explore my start in .
It was the year 1993, Kenny G was on the radio, I was driving a Toyota Camry and it was my first year working in my new chiropractic office that combined chiropractic and physical therapy..
That was the year that rehab was wildly popular as an approach to neck and back pain and the chiropractic profession went wild seeking training in functional rehabilitation using functional exercise, and you guessed it, stretching.
I knew I had to integrate rehab into how I treated people with chronic back pain.
Fast forward to 2015, and my frustrations with rehab came to a boiling point.
Here’s why.
5 Reasons Why I Don’t Use Stretching Anymore
Reason #1. Tight Muscles are Rarely the Cause of Problems, they are the Effect
Sorry to be starting with such a drastic about-face on stretching, but when you consider stretching, you also have to consider the broader impact it has on how the body heals and functions.
For me, I realized that the vast majority of tight muscles are an indication of an imbalance and the muscle tension is the result of the imbalance. Releasing the muscle tension isn’t going to correct the imbalance.
When I take a history on a new patient and ask them what they have tried on their own before coming to me in addition to the typical answers like medication or acupuncture, almost everyone has tried stretching.
If it worked they wouldn’t be in my office. I found that correcting the underlying mechanical imbalances resulted in an almost immediate relaxation of the tight muscles.
Reason #2. Tight Muscles are Often the Body’s Brace
When I first started questioning stretching as a therapeutic approach I started asking myself why the muscles were so tight to begin with.
A teacher of my Dr. Burnier helped refresh my understanding that the body is always perfect. It might not always feel great but the body is always doing the best job it can to help maintain balance and health.
What about tight muscles?
Although I understand the desire to stretch tight muscles, the reality is that muscle tightness with pain is often the body’s way of bracing the inflamed and irritated joints and nerves. Remember those back braces the workers at Home Depot used to wear? The body does its own bracing to keep things from moving too much when there is inflammation.
It makes much more sense to me to strive to restore balance and when that happens the muscle tightness seems to melt like wax in a flame.
Reason #3. Muscles are Not Primary, They are Reactive
This one comes down to understanding the hierarchy of the body.
Sometimes the best way to find the correction to a problem is to ask why the problem exists and what caused it.
The more I thought about muscles the more I realized that muscles do nothing on their own. They are like soldiers taking orders from officers. If a muscle is tight it is because the nerves that control the muscle have given it instructions to tighten up.
If you stretch a muscle that is tight but do nothing to change the instructions it is getting from the nervous system it will keep getting tight again and it will be a long process.
Now that I’m putting all my focus on identifying the underlying imbalances and correcting them I find very little need for stretching.
I still use some exercises to reinforce or restore balance but it’s much more about activating muscles than it is about stretching or strengthening.
Reason #4: Neck and Back Pain are Mechanical and Neurological Problems
That’s a difficult concept for some to grasp but you need to solve problems with the right tools.
Someone once said “If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail”.
If your focus is only on where it hurts and the muscles are tight the next logical step is to stretch those tight muscles.
But, looking a little deeper it’s evident that most neck and back pain is a mechanical problem causing irritation to the nerves exiting the spine. These irritated nerves cause tightening of the muscles.
That’s a mechanical problem!
Why not address the mechanical problem by restoring proper mechanics to the spine and then reinforcing that motion with exercises designed to maintain that motion.
Reason #5: Restoring the Body to Balance Works Better
Okay, here’s why we’re all here. If stretching really got the results both me and my clients want I would be doing it. Physical Therapists do it all day long and every day I see people who have been to PT and while they got some relief it really didn’t do the job.
The new strategy I’m using is called the Corrective Rebalancing Program. Why? It just works better for my clients and myself, especially when it comes to pain relief, restoring function, performing your best in all areas of life..
I often see better balance in the first visit or two. The spine has 24 bones stacked on top of the tailbone and pelvis. I liken the pelvis to the foundation of your 24 story building. If the foundation isn’t level you have little chance of correcting problems anywhere.
I’ve combined 3 strategies that are appropriate to this article.
What I Do Instead of Stretching for Neck and Back Problems
As I mentioned, I now have a different approach to restore balance to the body. As I’ve described when the body is returned to balance it is capable of doing what it does naturally, heal and maintain health and balance.
This works better for because:
- I believe if there is a chronic problem it is most often because the body is out of balance and unable to correct it.
- This approach has worked wonders in my life and for my clients.
- The results are much more profound and longer lasting.
#1 Corrective Chiropractic
The goal of Corrective Chiropractic is to restore balance and proper function to the joints of the pelvis and spine.
Joints have one purpose, to provide motion. If a joint loses its ability to move freely it causes a cascade of reactions that include muscle tightness and pain.
I work to restore proper motion as much as possible and achieve as much balance as we can.
The key is to identify what I call the “Big Rocks”, those areas that are primary and have resulted in other areas tightening up.
Corrective Chiropractic is a significant advancement over traditional chiropractic that often seeks only to restore more motion with less regard to the underlying cause and balance.
#2 Posterior Chain Activation
When joints lose proper motion and function the muscles responsible for moving those joints start to become inhibited, meaning they stop working. This is not as much a tightness or weakness as it is about muscles that have sort of gone to sleep.
The posterior chain is a series of muscles that run up the back of the legs, up the spine to the base of the skull. It is these muscles that are neglected in our modern lifestyle and they benefit greatly from being activated.
#3 Spinal Joint Flossing
All joints, especially spinal joints need gentle movement to stay healthy. Pain often results in restricted motion which tightens the joints and is a primary cause of pain.
Chiropractic adjustments help restore motion and alignment.
Spinal Joint Flossing is a simple series of exercises designed to put the joints of the spine through gentle healthy movements to help restore and maintain joint health and movement.
However, I’m not just asking you to trust me on this. My client Katherine says:
Local Guide·11 reviews·23 photos
I’ve been seeing Dr. Bill for about three months now. I’d been in a car accident, and he worked me in quickly to address my stiff, sore neck. After each visit, I experience marked improvement in my range of motion and reduction in pain to the point where I’m pretty much pain free these days! I especially appreciate the “homework” Dr. Bill gives me. The breathing and neck exercises support and further the progress I’m making. Life Chiropractic is a top-notch practice. I highly recommend it!
Or, read what Nancy has to say…
Local Guide·42 reviews·30 photos
a year ago
Bill is awesome! He’s very good at listening and finding the root cause to any issues. Highly recommended!!!
That’s a wrap!
In conclusion, you don’t need to live with chronic neck pain, back pain, headaches, sciatica, shoulder pain. And, stretching is unlikely to solve your problem. If you’ve been stretching for a while and still have problems it isn’t addressing the cause! Seems like a no-brainer, right?
If you would also like to make the switch to Corrective Chiropractic at Life Chiropractic in Grass Valley, I am pleased to be able to offer you an easy way to schedule your initial visit.
Schedule here: Schedule Here
You can also schedule a Complimentary Consultation if you want to meet me and ask me some questions.
Allow me to help guide you, your body, and your nervous system back to a state of greater balance..
Do you have any more questions? I am available to guide you: Schedule Here.