Just like with diet, exercise, and most other things. There really is no “one size fits all” approach to stretching in order to keep our bodies in balance.
Stretching is such a key component to staying healthy and vital, yet is one of the most over looked aspects of wellness out there. Learn the science behind stretching, and how to properly balance the Healthy Body!
The Healthy Body is a system of systems. Some muscles don’t need stretching before others do. Stretching the incorrect ones at the incorrect times will tighten muscles that need to be lengthened while over tightening others, thus throwing the Healthy Body out of balance and proper alignment. This can cause, and add to ill health issues that you may not even be aware have anything to do with stretching!
I have seen client upon client that feel that a certain area of their Healthy Body is too tight, and thus they stretch that particular area over and over, creating muscles that are too long for what they’re intended to be, and chronically over tightening muscles that need to be stretched out. For example, it is very common for a person to feel that they have very tight hamstrings, when in reality, that feeling is originating from their hips being too tight!
Another lesser known fact is that the best time to be stretching is in the evening before bed time. Our nervous systems keep record of the length of our muscles, and how long or short they “should be” based on how we’ve trained and tuned them via our lifestyles over time. This is why on TV we often see sprinters that make it down a half mile before their hamstring snaps and they need to quit the race. Their hamstring is snapping because they are stretching it out right before the race, having not previously done a proper stretching program, and thus the nervous system kicks in and re-tightens it as they go along in the race.
When we stretch properly in the evening, the nervous system has time to adapt to the new length of our muscles.
Did you know? Here are some key and usually unknown aspects of muscles and stretching that we should all be aware of to keep our bodies properly balanced.
• Muscles are bio-energetic generators. They are on certain meridians in our bodies that emit certain frequencies. They have organs that share the same frequencies to keep the Healthy Body adequately balanced. The Problem is that, when unbalanced, imbalances in muscles create imbalances in energy flow within the Healthy Body and thus creates imbalances in the organs that share the same frequency.
• Each organ will show issues in muscles that share the same pain receptors (are on the same channel – meridian).
• Food intolerances can affect the length of the muscles. If there is any excess energy in the organs, due to inflammation, etc, the organs will dump that energy into the muscles, and the muscles then shut down.
• People (especially athletes) with tight hamstrings, or anyone eating anything bothersome to the small intestine/colon, or even those with chronic colon issues such as chronic constipation, etc, will often/always end up with sciatic issues, because the colon shares nerve receptors with the hamstrings = sciatica – treat the colon and the diet first!
• If a muscle is too tight, is there an organ on that channel that is excited? If a muscle is too loose, is there a muscle shut down there?
• When the Healthy Body is too acidic, it causes the tissues to stick together leading to extremely tight connective tissue. Diet & lifestyle changes can fix this!
It is a very good idea to find a practitioner that can assess the balance of your Healthy Body’s musculature, and give you an adequate over all Healthy Body balancing stretching regime suited to your individual needs. I myself do this with clients worldwide. Please contact me for more information!
