18 June

I’ve wasted so much time at physios over the years. ‘Stretch and strengthen’. The thing is, muscles are not tight. They’re not like like bits of leather, or springs, that need to be stretched out. Nor are they weak by default, unless you ‘work’ them. They’re living electrified tissue, woven into your nervous system. Muscles tightEN. Verb. The brain tightENS them, according to need. If you try to bend down without allowing your legs to bend too, you will feel tightness. That’s not because your muscles are tight, it’s because your brain is trying to stop you falling forward onto your noggin. If you live in very physically restricted ways, say hunched over a keyboard staring at a computer screen, your tissues will adapt to that way of doing things. That doesn’t mean your muscles are then tight. They’re doing exactly what you asked them to do. You don’t need to stretch them back to less-tight. You need to stop narrowing into that computer screen.