Physiotherapy for Tension

There are several possible reasons for tension to build up in your tissues:

Dehydration:

the fibres in your fascial system need their environment to be fluid to allow them to move and adapt to the forces put on your body. If you are dehydrated, the fibres are less able to do this and they become stuck and locked down. You will feel this as knots in your muscles and stiffness around your joints.

Poor posture:

if you spend most of your time in positions that put your body under strain, it will react by tensing up to protect itself. For example, looking down for long periods of time will result in tension in the back of your neck.

Overusing muscles:

as with poor posture, putting your muscles under pressure when they are fatiguing will cause the fibres in the area to tighten up to protect the muscles.

Stress:

one of the hormones produced by your body in response to stress, stimulates your kidneys to resorb water from your system, which can lead to dehydration.

Not stretching properly after exercise:

muscles that have worked hard during exercise will naturally shorten as they cool down. If you do not create the conditions that allow them to open up again, that tension will remain.

Pain or weakness in a different part of your body:

this means that other areas of your body will need to work differently to compensate for the affected part not doing its job properly. The resulting imbalance causes tightness as muscles overwork.

As the pressure builds up in your muscles and they stiffen up, they gradually get thicker and shorter. This means that the blood flow isn’t as good as it should be to help with healing, so you get more scarring, which makes the area even stiffer. Stretching opens up the layers of your muscles, and helps the blood flow and takes the pressure off the nerves. So pain and inflammation can be prevented or improved.

Remember that where you feel your symptoms is often different to where the cause of them is. Your tightness may be due to problems in another part of your body and is your body’s way of compensating and trying to protect itself. So there is no point in simply stretching the tight bit without also finding and treating the cause. If the tension is not released it can become a holding pattern in your body which has to then be compensated for, adding to the cycle of tension.

Physiotherapy for tension is helpful to reduce and prevent symptoms.

If you would like to discuss options for Physiotherapy treatment, please feel free to contact us via this website or give us a call on 01279 718331.

Holisticare is a UK based treatment centre, situated in a beautiful, rural Hertfordshire and Essex border location, with easy access via London and Cambridge rail and road links.