Stretching: Back Pain Lower Back and Pain Shoulder Neck

By Richard A. Convery


Stretching; fact or fantasy? Does stretching achieve anything that is real, or is it merely a nice thing to do before getting into any demanding activity? To add a little more weight to this debate, we should throw in the issues of why, when and how a person should do this debatable thing known as stretching. In the process, we will project a bit of useful light in the space we have, on a few issues that once understood, have had life-changing effects on back and neck pain sufferers all around the world.

To begin with, there is the question of why a person should stretch? When performed effectively, stretching accomplishes a number of physiological and anatomical functions. Stretching equates to exactly half of the essential elasticity factor necessary for soft tissue, particularly muscles, to function as they need to. When we lack elasticity, in other words, the capacity for muscles to lengthen and shorten, the joint [or joints] that a muscle crosses, cannot achieve the movement that particular joint is capable of, and when a joint fails to function, pain usually results.

Exercise, particularly resistance exercise, produces the other 50%. This is due almost entirely to the fact that resistance exercises, by the very nature of the way in which the mechanics of muscles operate, produce a capability for the joint to create movement by shortening its length across that joint [or joints]. Simultaneously, as that muscle contracts [or shortens within itself telescopically to create the movement], the corresponding [or antagonist] muscle lengthens to facilitate the movement. Failure for this to occur will result in joint dysfunction, as well as previously stated, pain. So, if resistance exercises exclusively create the capacity for muscle fibres to shorten, then what creates the capacity for the essential lengthening of muscle fibres to allow the joint to move? Of course, you are way ahead of me, and of course, it is stretching, provided, of course, it is done effectively.

Are there any other reasons as to why stretching is necessary? Actually, there are. Stretching reduces the incidence and predisposition for muscles to tear during rapid shortening or lengthening. Stretching also plays a major role in ridding muscle fibres of waste products, especially waste products that have been deposited within muscle fibres during exercise. Stretching, when done effectively, is also crucial in the detoxifying process of muscles.

Now, let's have a glance at the when factor. In order to minimise the risk of injury in sport, particularly in any form of contact sport, or in sports that involves anything more than a token amount of jarring or weight-bearing activities, stretching is essential to effectively prepare the muscle fibres for those activities. And in keeping with the content of the previous paragraphs, effective stretching should also be comprehensively performed after completion of the sport activities but before cooling down has occurred. This is also true for any non-sporting strenuous or weight-bearing activity such as lifting or carrying. This may seem obvious to some, however if you cast your mind back to the past, can you, with confidence, say that this was routinely done each and every time it should have been? And if it had, might you now not be suffering the pain that has led you to seek assistance in recovery? The glaring omission so far in the when argument is that effective stretching should also be done both at the beginning and the end of a stressful or demanding day, as well as at the beginning of the next.

A vital and fundamental function that needs to be stated categorically is the critical need for the spine to be de-compressed on a daily basis, and not surprisingly, effective stretching is the simplest and most convenient method to do exactly that. Daily spinal de-compression ensures that each day is relieved of the burden of accumulated spinal compression from all of yesterday's and every other previous day's compression being added to all of today's demands for your already compressed and painful spine. Apart from the other physiological benefits, stretching is also one of the most, if not THE most crucial, essential, and self-enabling methods of achieving spinal de-compression, particularly when vertebral or disc degeneration is present. This process represents one of the most foundational pre-requisites for the recovery of any back and/or neck pain sufferer. De-compressing the spine, on a daily basis, is absolutely vital for any or all sufferers if they are to restore spinal function, and therefore to reduce pain.

The remaining consideration is the one that all else pivots upon; it's the how factor. Many people state that they regularly perform stretching routines, yet upon investigation it generally becomes apparent that the stretches being done are NOT the ones critically needed to recover, AND the ones being done aren't even being done in a way that can possibly bring about any sort of benefit. Let's look at it this way; I can lay out all of the pieces of a brand new machine on a garage floor, but if I don't know how the pieces fit together, all I have is a collection of parts, and I certainly don't have anything that works the way it should.

For a body to work the way it should, we need all of the parts to be in working order and arranged in a cohesive and organised manner. We need only to look at the animal kingdom, particularly at dogs, cats, horses, or just about any other animal as it wakes up, to see that the very first thing most of these animals do upon waking is to stretch. And considering that most of these animals have horizontal spines whereas ours are vertical for much of the time [and that we often carry extra loads], we realise the need for 'us humans' to stretch regularly and effectively suddenly leaps up our scale of priorities a very long way. Add to this the lesson from the bird kingdom and we realise that birds actually stretch regularly and repeatedly throughout the day and night [not just when they wake up]. We might then ask ourselves 'so who is meant to be the intelligent ones?' Stretching, it would overwhelmingly appear, is far more than just a trendy fad, and if done effectively, becomes an essentially vital factor in the recovery for back or neck pain sufferers [or possibly they might opt for surgery, or lifetimes of medication dependency, or an acceptance of hopelessness, but that's unlikely the reason you have chosen to read this and other articles].

About the Author:
Richard A. Convery is an expert on neck and back pain relief. Over many years he has been helping many thousands of people to alleviate their pain; shoulder neck, upper back pain and back pain lower back you can visit his back pain site at lower back pain exercise to learn more.

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