What role does stretching play in Physiotherapy Treatment & Recovery? Can it help with pain-relief? It certainly can!
In This Article:
Does Stretching Help Injury Recovery?
Having a good stretch is something we should all do – but very few of us actually do.
Effectively stretching keeps muscles flexible, healthy and can even contribute to their strength (and can be combined with body-weight exercises, so you don’t always have to lift weights!).
It doesn’t just help your muscles – it helps your joints too. The flexibility of the muscles and joints work together. If you can’t move the joints fully and you’ll be severely limited in movement and recovery. Similarly, if your muscles are stiff – this will prevent you from moving the joint through it’s full range of movement.
Whether it’s before or after a run, a gym session, or a round of golf – stretching should be incorporated into to your daily routine! Stretching is so important!
The Six Pillars Of My Pain Kit
Joints are designed to move. Poor joint movement leads to damage and disease such as osteoarthritis. So muscle flexibility is really important. Without regular stretching, over time your muscles can become short and tight.
Your entire muscular-skeletal system is connected – so for example, if you do have tight hip-flexors – it can make everyday things like walking harder, and can cause imbalances that feed into other pains. Sitting on the couch and hoping your stiffness will subside is the wrong thing to do – you should be moving and stretching!
Improve Poor Posture
This is important. Having good posture is not just physically more attractive, but it also helps to properly align the key moving parts of your body.
As you work (particularly in a desk job) all day, it’s natural that some muscles will tighten and others will weaken. This can cause your posture to get worse and from there it’s a downward spiral.
While you may not be able to swap your desk job for one that requires you to walk or stay active all day, the first thing you can do to improve your health right now is to Sit Correctly.
Everybody Should Stretch
You don’t have to be a world class athlete to see the huge benefits of stretching.
Nowadays in our ever-increasing sedentary lifestyles where we sit for long periods, tight inflexible muscles are common.
Sadly, back pain, neck pain, hip and knee pain, osteoarthritis, and poor posture are equally common. The more sedentary your lifestyle is, the more you should be stretching!
If you exercise regularly and don’t stretch properly, it is likely that injuries such as muscle strains and fatigue will occur more frequently.
Stretch Tight Muscles and Strengthen Weak Ones
David Connor – B.Sc, M.sc Chiropractic, RN/RGN Nursing Orthopaedics, EMT
Signs You Need To Stretch More
If you are experiencing aches and pains, this could be a sign you need to start stretching. Things to watch out for are:
- Prolonged aches after exercise (very important – this could be a sign of osteoarthritis!)
- Experiencing a slow progression of aches and pains
- Feeling stiff when you get up in the morning – which takes a while to loosen up
These would all be signs that a regular stretch routine could help.
For those of you who are more active, stretching also helps with muscle recovery and delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) which commonly occurs.
That’s it. That’s the strategy!
Make sure your stretching is properly structured and balanced with the strength exercises – as part of your overall exercise routine, taking care to use the best range of movement of your joints.
Even if you don’t get much exercise, make some time to do a few positions before and after a walk.
Our Pain Kits incorporate the key elements of Massage, Movement, Stretching, Strengthening – wrapped up within a Heat Pack at the start, and a Cold Pack at the end.
