Muscle Dysfunction & Joint Alignment

The human body is made to move, without movement (Bed ridden) it starts to decay and cramp up via atrophy and contractures (damaged muscles). Muscles allow movement by “talking” to each other via The central nervous system. Muscle adapt to stimuli, overtime a unbalanced exercise program, inactive lifestyle or bad postural habits will alter the way the Central nervous system talks to the muscles. This creates a altered firing pattern and can cause dysfunction. 

There are many movement assessments , which can identify if muscle are working in sync as they should. Every one should get assessed before a training program and once a year to make sure your moving as optimal as you can be. The overhead squat assessment is one that can identify most movement impairments. Everyone can benefit from corrective exercise which will help you move better and decrease your chance of injury. When we have a shortened muscle is weakens the opposing muscle causing movement impairments.

What is Maps Technology on muscle movement. it is available in Stretchlab USA, not sure about UK.

Here at StretchLab we use cutting edge technology to assist your flexologist in creating the best flexibility training program for you! Our state-of-the-art, MAPS machine by TRX takes an overhead squat assessment and breaks it down into different categories for us to analysis; our mobility score being the first and most important to our stretch.

🔹TRX MAPS mobility can be describe as “integrated goniometry” because we are measuring and evaluating range of motion of individual body segments working as an integrated system performing a functional movement, the over-head squat.

🔹Mobility scores are derived from direct measurements of body segments using proprietary algorithms developed specifically from biomechanics analysis by Phsmodo and TRX.

🔹That means that we are able to discover where we are tight, where we are imbalanced in our range of motion, and where we could improve- all from an over head squat.

🔸Come on in and get your MAPS mobility score today! and make your movement better.

I'm not sure if the UK one is the same but their site seems good still.

https://stretch-lab.co.uk/

Muscle Behavior

Weakness: Without strength exercises, our tissues becomes weak. A strength program is essential to maintain good muscle force production. 

Stiff Tissue: Because most of us do not partake in regular massage, foam rolling, or stretching, our muscles can become rigid and tight. Foam rolling and massage are for kneading muscles breaking down muscle knots. Stretching (elongation) keeps the muscles supple and prevents them getting hyper contracted. 

Weak And Stiff Muscles Cause bad posture and movement issues.

A picture of the lower cross syndrome which is a movement dysfunction. 

Common Muscle Dysfunctions

Muscle knots is a lump of contracted muscle fibers which are always in a state of contraction, these need to be  massaged out and then stretched to unwind the muscle. Also joint muscle compression with hands is a great way you can relax the tension away and promote healing in your body, just squeeze muscles and hold for 20 to 30 seconds.

Extract from Body back company, Ashland: 30 seconds Compression on trigger points produces a therapeutic response in the muscle, for maximum results return 3 to 4 times to the area per session. Restoring function is done by releasing the muscles tightness and hyper contraction, they will then regain, strength, elasticity and pliability. For long term muscle health and function, exercise and stretching are crucial.

Muscle contractures are when muscles do not lengthen; they are caused by disease or extreme prolonged muscle imbalances of the antagonist and agonist. Contractures most often cause disability.

Muscle Imbalances: There can be all sorts of muscle imbalances in the body that can cause movement dysfunction, bad posture, and pelvic tilts of all types. Agonist and antagonist muscle imbalances can misalign joints and cause serious injuries. We will always have a dominant side when it comes to left and right side of the body, but exercises can be done to minimize this. Muscles locked long or locked short dont produce optimal force. If someone has forward rounded shoulders due to shortened chest muscles. When the posture is corrected via chest stretches, they will be able to lift more due to more available force.

Short Hypertonic Muscles Expalined:

Extract by Dr. Joe Muscolino (learn muscles for manual therapy and movement professionals

A hypertonic muscle is one that has too much tone; “hyper” denotes an excessive amount. Tone refers to tension; in other words, it is the pulling force of a muscle. The degree of tone that a muscle has varies based on the degree of its contraction. There are two types of hypertonic musculature: a globally tight muscle and a myofascial trigger point (TrP). The first term is used to describe an entire muscle or large portion of a muscle that is too tight; the second term is used to describe a small focal area of muscle tightness that can refer pain to a distant site.

When you consciously contract a muscle, its tone is high. However, when a muscle is at rest and you are not consciously directing it to contract, other than a small amount of baseline tone to maintain the posture of the joint, it should be relaxed. This condition is called resting tone. A resting tone greater than the amount needed to maintain joint posture is what defines a muscle as being hypertonic. Other terms often used synonymously are spasm, cramp, and contracture, all of which essentially describe a muscle whose baseline tone is excessive or hypertonic.

Tight muscles are so often ignored by conventional medical professions. There are medical specialties for every organ system of the body, but there is no “muscle doctor.” Even the chiropractic profession usually relegates the importance of tight musculature to a position of lesser importance compared with joint positioning and function. Perhaps the importance of tight musculature is overlooked because it does not show on x-rays, other radiographic imaging, or in laboratory results. For this reason, manual therapists who are highly trained in muscle palpation assessment skills and soft tissue treatment techniques have the opportunity to step into this niche.

Muscle Pain

Pain is complex and can happen for many reasons; I think it is a way that the body alerts us something is wrong. Many muscle dysfunctions can cause pain but sometimes they don’t, you can just start limping and feel no pain but you may feel a spasm somewhere. Also it is important to note just because you feel pain in the back it does not mean that the back is the cause, this could be a symptom from another issue. So in this example if you go to the physio with back pain, a lot of them will massage it, give you some stretches or strength exercises for the back, 10 weeks later there is no improvement. This happens often, but a competent person would assess the whole kinetic chain , with all the assessment tools available, with  further investigation they may find that weak glutes were causing your back to compensate, or the glutes were inhibited by the hip flexors or adductors and then the correct flexibility and strength exercises can restore proper function.  If the treatment plan is successful you will feel a difference very quick.  If it is unsuccessful a competent person will send you to get scans to investigate other possibilities, or send you to a specific type of specialist. There is a lot of misdiagnosis and unresolved issues out there; this could be due to a lack of knowledge or lack of practical experience. Some professionals are stuck in their own approach and don’t try other approaches. An empathetic and competent professional is the key (their positive patient outcomes speak for themselves). The Body is a complex machine and with a little understanding of all the systems and how they work together, most issues can be resolved. But unfortunately it is hit and miss as every professional has a different approach and may be dismissive (out of ignorance) about the actual treatment that could fix you.

I was reading a case that John gibbons (Body master Oxford UK) was dealing with. The woman complained about adductor pain. She saw some physios in the NHS who just gave her exercises which never worked they eventually did a scan (which revealed a tear on the adductor), but they discharged her without resolving the issue. Every time she ran she had pain, she privately had massages for a year on the adductor, but her symptoms would not go. In his clinic john did more assessments and found that her hip flexors were inhibiting her glute from altered reciprocal inhibition. With the right treatment he managed to reduce her symptoms within 10 days and she was running pain free eventually.

The shortened muscles are released and the weak muscle are activated. 

In summary

Muscle dysfunction leads (trigger points aka knots) to adaptive shorenting which leads to joint dysfunction which leads to altered recipricol inhibtion and lenght tension relationships. This leades to weakness and compensation which leads to movement impairment along the kinetic chain. Over active muscles can become fibrotic which can lead to disabililty.