Tight muscles need TLC
When I did my 200-hour Yoga training in Thailand, I realised that all tight muscles have a reason to be this way: to protect you from over-stretching them. Usually those muscles can also be weak and create an imbalance between agonist (example: quadriceps) and antagonist (example: hamstrings) muscles and an instability which can be expressed by pain in joints.
Getting less flexible with age is normal, but getting restricted in normal range of motion is not. More flexible you are, less chance you are going to hurt yourself and over-stretch or even tear a muscle. So, there are two tricks you should do to give your muscles a little TLC:
- Reserve 10 minutes after your exercise program to roll your tights muscles on a foam roller and breathe! Stay on the painful spot for a few breathes to lose it up. Click here to get some examples.
- Yoga (click here to see my services) and a flexibility program is a great way to gain flexibility and reduce pain in joints. It is also proven that more flexible your spine is, healthier you are going to be, and you may even live longer. The flexibility poses should be held for 60-90 seconds. Moreover, some yoga positions will give a massage to different internal organs and gain even more benefits that you can think, such as better digestion, blood circulation, etc.