In back pain relief, I get asked this often. “Why do you need to stretch?”

It is actually quite simple, if you think of your muscles as a piece of chewing gum. If the chewing gum is cold and you suddenly pull it what happens?

It snaps.

Now your muscles won’t snap, but they are more likely to tear if you exercise or do anything, straight from a cold muscle state.

As for stretching in back pain relief…

Because muscle tightness is one of the big 3 causes of back pain, you need to stretch. This way the muscles relax and your back pain will ease. Should you stretch every day?

In my opinion if you use the right stretches, and especially the right assessment techniques, stretching is not necessary long term.

Muscles can be re-educated to stay in a more relaxed manner if you use certain techniques. Muscles tighten not because they have nothing better to do, they tighten because they are protecting poor joint movement and other joint related issues. Correct these and muscles will remain in a more relaxed manner and hence stretching is not necessary.

The beauty of stretching is that you can use a stretch to determine if your muscles are tight or not. Then you can gauge how often you need to stretch. Just check into your muscle system to see if they need stretching – if tight then stretch – if not then you don’t.

So to answer the question … why do you need to stretch?

To keep your muscles relaxed, to train them to stay relaxed and to ease your back pain, as part of an overall back pain relief strategy.

Back pain should not rule your life. You will be able to get outside and enjoy life once again. You can look forward to playing with your children and grandchildren … and keep up with them. Back pain relief is essential if you have back pain and want to be free of that nagging horrid pain.