Have you ever gone to a physiotherapist / osteopath / massage therapist and given a list of stretches and exercises to do? Did you ever keep them up? The chances are that if you were very disciplined you did them every other day until your pain eased and promptly forgot all about it! Or for the less disciplined of us (I fall more often in this bracket) try it once or twice, forget about it and just get more massages!

While getting more massages is highly recommended and still very important, the right stretches done on a regular basis can do more for your aches and pains than massage ever could!

The low down on Muscles!

Muscles always work in teams. For every agonist there is an antagonist. Look at your upper arm. When you bring your hand to your shoulder your bicep muscle is contracting (getting shorter). In order for this movement to happen your triceps (which is found on the opposite side of your upper arm) has to relax. So whenever a muscle contracts its team mate(s) have to relax.

Have you ever wondered why it feels so good to have a stretch in the mornings? When you are sleeping, you maintain certain postures for a long period of time.  Thus a group of muscles would have been under constant strain holding a certain level of contraction. Think about it. Do you lie on your side, curled up slightly? Well that means your legs would be bent up towards your chest. In order for your legs to be able to do this, your hamstrings have to shorten and your quadriceps (front of your legs) has to lengthen. That means that your poor old hamstrings were contracting all night! So when you wake up and stretch out; your hamstrings are basically saying “yes I can relax!!!”

If you are sitting at a desk all day, certain muscles have to work harder than others. So some muscles are in a constant state of contraction (shortening). When we get stressed or when we are not too body aware this muscles ‘forget’ to relax and we can start to develop postural problems, RSI and much more! This is why it’s so important to stretch. You have to remind those hard working muscles how to chill out!

If you are stretching before or after exercise, holding a stretch for 10 seconds should be sufficient. However if you are stretching to improve flexibility or to ease tension and pain you should be holding it for 20 – 30 seconds! The reason for this is that a short hold will just get the blood pumping and it stimulates your muscles to a certain level. When you hold for that little bit longer you nervous system has time to attain a deeper level of relaxation within the muscle. You start to get a stretch in the entire muscle from the ‘belly’ of the muscle to the tendons! This in turn increases your flexibility and the general health of your muscles.

So please remember to stretch if you’re feeling stiff at your desk. 5 minutes out of the day spent rotating your shoulders  and stretching your neck at work hopefully won’t disturb you day too much.