Joint Stiffness and Muscle Pain

If you bend at the waist and notice stiffness in your back and hamstrings it is a built in safety mechanism to protect you from injury. It is similar to the message a baseball player gets when chasing a fly ball and he crosses the warning track. Watch out, you are getting close to the right field wall!! In the same manner, the muscles and joints are telling us they are approaching the limit (viscolelastic limit). Anything beyond what is considered as normal motion could cause soft tissue damage to the muscle, tendon, ligament, disc, or bone damage may occur.

To understand how this works, visualize motion and tension receptors that are strategically placed around all of your joints. These receptors send information about muscle tension and joint movement to your central nervous system (brain and spinal cord).

If our muscles range of movement is consistently restricted on a routine basis, by sitting, driving, and being physically passive our body will adapt to this routine (passive insufficiency). When the muscles and joints are asked to move, the motion and tension receptors do their job by telling the brain to slow down by generating resistance to movement in the form of stiffness.

The nervous system continually monitors joint movement and muscle tension and makes proportional adjustments. The number one priority of the joint and muscle receptors is to protect the musculoskeletal system. When danger is present (reaching muscle tension and/or motion limits) there is a split second assessment made, and the least damaging option is selected such as, a muscle, or ligament tear. This is similar to a circuit breaker tripping before an overloaded circuit burns down the house. The problem is that our circuit breakers are being set off by simple demands such as, going up a flight of stairs, bending over to clip toenails, and putting on shoes and socks - which were once routine movements for our bodies.

If our movements regularly engage all of our muscle groups, then our body easily accommodates whatever physical demands we put on it, squatting, bending, jumping, and running all in a normal day (lifestyle).

You can taylor an exercise routine to meet your goals, if you want to get rid of stiffness, joint pain, or make it easier to perform your daily activities.

Dr. Connelly would be happy to consult with you regarding exercise, daily routines and treatment for joint stiffness.