One of the top physical complaints I hear from prospective clients is that their back tightens up when they drive for longer periods of time. They often have to change from favoring one hip to another as they shift their body weight back and forth during their trips. And when they finally arrive at their destination, there can be some difficulty getting out of the car right away because their back and hips feel tight.
More times than not it has been recommended to them that they need to spend more time stretching their low back and hips so they don’t tighten up so easily. While there may be some merit to this kind of suggestion, I offer up a different solution that they don’t often hear – they need to find the muscles that are too loose and tighten them up.
What?? They need to intentionally make muscles tighter?? Yes, and here’s why: Think about your body like a painting. The frame of the painting is like your skeleton. The canvas is everything within the painting – your organs, blood vessels, etc. The wires holding the painting up are like your muscles helping to keep your skeleton upright.
Pretend there are three wires holding up the painting. One day, one of the wires snaps. Now, instead of three wires, there are only two. Are those two wires having to hold up more weight than they were before? Yes, they went from holding ~ 33% of the weight to holding 50%.
Do you think those two wires that are now holding 50% each are tighter or looser than they were when they were holding ~ 33% each? That’s easy, they would be tighter.
But here’s the thing, we usually don’t like things that are tight. When we feel our muscles tighten up, we almost always try to get rid of that feeling by loosening them. If we apply that same logic to the painting scenario, that would involve loosening up one of the remaining wires. Now, there would only be one wire holding up the painting.
If we decide to again loosen up the final wire, what will happen to the painting? It will come crashing down.
So, the question then becomes, how can we keep the wires looser without having the painting come crashing down? We need to find the wires that are too loose and tighten those back up. That way, the stress of holding the painting is distributed equally across all of the wires. None of the wires get too tight because none of the wires are too loose.
With our bodies, our muscles often tighten up to take on the workload of other muscles that are too loose. Because of this, we need to figure out which muscles are too loose and strengthen them so they can do their share of the work.
If your back tightens up when you sit for long periods of time, such as when you are driving or riding in a car, the muscles that may need to be strengthened are those in your hips in and trunk. If you have been cleared for regular exercise by your medical professional, here are five exercise tips to make sure your hip and trunk muscles are getting the proper strengthening they need.
- Incorporate regular strength training into your health and exercise plan.
If you are currently exercising on a regular basis, make sure to incorporate strength training into your exercise plan at least two days each week. Regular strength training will help to improve how well your muscles can support your skeleton. Strength training can also help to get your weaker/looser muscles back on track.
- Perform strength training exercises for your trunk and lower body.
Risch et al. (1993) found that engaging in resistance training for back muscles can improve low back symptoms (1). Additionally, strengthening your hip muscles may also affect back symptoms (2). Consider performing exercises where you are moving only around one joint or set of joints, such as only your knees or only your hips, instead of around more than one joint. Examples of these kinds of exercises are seated knee extensions, leg curls, and the hip abduction/adduction machine. The more joints you have moving during an exercise, the more opportunity there is for your body to compensate and use muscles that are already strong. Remember, you are incorporating these exercises to work the muscles that are too weak, so make sure to do exercises that are able to focus on those areas.
- Utilize isometric exercises while strength training.
If moving fewer joints means you are able to strengthen specific muscles more directly, then not moving at all may be a great thing to do, as well. Isometric exercises have tremendous efficacy when used to help address orthopedic complaints (1, 3). Consider incorporating isometric exercises into your strength training program on a regular basis.
- Focus on the muscles you are trying to challenge.
In the same manner that focusing on squeezing your muscles helps to build muscle, it also helps to make them stronger. Instead of thinking about moving the weight that you are using, challenge yourself to focus solely on squeezing the muscles you are wanting to challenge. Taking this internal focus of attention will help to ensure that you are exercising for the health of your body, not the health of your ego.
- Don’t exercise to the point of soreness.
Exercising to the point of soreness is not a sign that the exercises are working. It is simply a sign that you did too much. Likewise, a sunburn is not a sign that the sun is working, it is just a sign that you stayed outside too long. Exercising should make you feel healthy and strong, not broken and brittle. If you are exercising to the point where your muscles are sore or your joints are achy, consider cutting what you are doing in half. Keep cutting your workouts in half until you can exercise without experiencing any soreness. Once you get to that level, slowly increase your workload using soreness as a regulator. If you experience it, you are doing too much. Cut it back.
If your back tightens up when you sit for long periods of time, incorporate these five tips into your workout routine to try to help strengthen the muscles that are too weak. Remember, the muscles that you feel are tight are probably the ones that are working really well. They are having to do too much work for the muscles that aren’t strong enough. By getting the weak muscles stronger, you may be able to reduce the tightness you feel.
If you have questions about how to incorporate these tips, we would love to connect with you. Additionally, consider searching for a certified Muscle Activation Techniques™ practitioner in your area. They will be able to tell you exactly which muscles of yours need to be strengthened and how to exercise to do so.
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References
- Risch S, Pollock M, Langer H, Graves J, Norvell N, Risch D, Fulton M, Leggett S. Lumbar Strengthening in Chronic Low Back Pain Patients. Spine. 18(2): 232-238, 1993.
- Kankaanpaa M, Taimela S, Laaksonen D, Hannien O, Airaksinen O. Back and Hip Extensor Fatigability in Chronic Low Back Pain Patients and Controls. Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. 79: 412-419, 1997.
- O’Sullivan P, Phyty D, Twomey L, Allison G. Evaluation of Specific Stabilizing Exercise in the Treatment of Chronic Low Back Pain With Radiologic Diagnosis of Spondylolysis or Spondylolisthesis. Spine. 22(24): 2959-2967, 1997.
