"I exercise, why am I still so tight?"

It is not so much WHAT one does, as it is HOW one does what one is doing.

Oftentimes when people come to see me, they tell me that their shoulders and neck, or their lower back, are excessively tight and uncomfortable, and they don't understand why, because they exercise. Often, they are doing strength or Fitness training, or Pilates, or yoga, or some other form of exercise.

Our daily functional movement patterns affect the movement patterns we use when we exercise, and vice versa.

There are a number of things that can contribute to excessive tightness or restriction in areas even though we are exercising or stretching them.

There are a few things that I look at first.

~~Quality of movement /resting in stillness:

When you move or rest in stillness, are you moving or holding yourself with rigidity? A sense of flowing ease? Do you feel bound? Free? Jerky? Smooth?

Are you gripping in one area in order to move - or not move-  another area?  Are you not supporting enough in an area? 

~~ Are you literally reaching beyond your current capacity to provide support for that reach?  Or, similarly, are you lifting/ pushing/ pulling more weight than you currently are able to without gripping, straining areas/ joints?

It is common to do so, in the belief that this is how one gets stronger/ increases one's ability/ range.

To the contrary, if one pushes too far beyond one's current capacity, the movement/ holding patterns that develop actually can interfere with achieving the goal of increased range/ ability/ strength.

~~ How much of your body is participating in your movement/resting in stillness?

Are some areas over participating? Not participating enough?

~~ Is your weight falling properly through your joints? Are your bones/joints coordinating to support your movement/resting in stillness?

Because learning how to move/ rest in stillness with more ease benefits us in all areas of our lives, a therapeutic movement session can be so helpful.

Some clients choose to add 15 minutes  (instead of a full 45 or 60 minute therapuetic movement session) to their appointment time in order to explore a little bit of this work.