Why Do My Joints Hurt?
Lacey Why Do My Joints Hurt?
When people feel achy and stiff, the common response people say, “This is what happens when you get old.” That may have been accurate back when our parents roamed the earth but now we are seeing these same problems happening to youth and young adults. Over 214 million Americans suffer from Chronic Musculoskeletal Conditions. Including young adults and teens.
Why does this happen as people get older and why is it happening to our youth? The answer is simple, It’s our muscles causing the problem. Even if you have a cartilage, bone or ligament injury; the muscles didn’t do their basic job and protect your structure.
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The muscles in your body are designed to protect and secure the joints and ligaments. When your muscles become weak or overused, they won’t work properly. What caused the muscles to stop protecting the structure? The quick answer; overuse, stress and/or injuries caused your body to create compensations. These compensations led to muscle imbalances which leads to joint stress in the form of tightness and pain. To thoroughly answer this question let’s examine the most common musculoskeletal problem, back pain.
Why Are Muscles Important?
The spine consists of nerves that make up the spinal cord and is protected by bones called vertebrae as well as softer tissue called disc. There is a misconception that our bone structure is designed to hold or pass load/weight to each other. This is false. Bones don’t hold us up, muscles hold us up. In a proper functioning back and spine, weight distribution is transferred through the fascial network. Avoiding the compression of the bones. This fascial network is in plain words, muscles. Our bones don’t even touch each other if functioning properly. They actually float in the tension structure of our fascial network.
As long as the tension structure stays intact, the bones wont touch. If the muscle becomes weak due to overuse, stress or injury the network can no longer hold the vertebrae apart and will begin to compress disc causing them to bulge out. Even when putting weight on the vertebrae, the bones will stay separated and protected.
A healthy muscle system that makes up the tension structure of our fascial network is the key to stay pain free and mobile.
What Happens to Muscles When They Overcompensate?
Muscles that overcompensate will typically cause pain mainly from overuse. Muscles will overcompensate because the other side or other muscles are too weak to do the job.
To fully understand the anatomy of our bodies, we first need to understand The Law of Reciprocal Inhibition. This law states that in order to move a joint, muscles on one side of the joint must shorten causing movement while muscles on the other side of the joint lengthen to protect the joint. The main point of this is stretching the other muscle in order to protect the joint.
When we look at the elbow, the muscles shortening to move the elbow are the bicep muscles, and the muscles lengthening to protect the elbow are the tricep muscles. If the tricep muscles begin to tighten while bending the elbow, it causes resistance. More like a tug and pull effect. The tight muscle inhibiting the joint from moving to an area of vulnerability. This means the bicep muscles have lost the ability to shorten because of overuse, stress or injury and are weak.
Muscle tightness is a protective mechanism from joint instability which means other muscles have lost the ability to shorten and are weak.
How Do You Fix a Tight Muscle?
To eliminate muscle tightness and pain, you must properly strengthen the weak muscles. Muscle Activation San Jose can identify the weak muscles and set up a plan to strengthen the shortened muscles to relieve pain from the source. Tight and weak muscles can be fixed with Muscle Activation Technique. Correct the problem without surgery or medication. Call for a free consultation.