Exercises Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ayLWs7i3OI

Video Transcription

Hi, Ant & Ali here with our Wellbeing Words of Wisdom.

Today we want to discuss Adaptive Muscle Shortening

which can be a huge problem for anyone who spends a lot of the day sitting at a desk or hunched over a computer.

It can also be a problem for athletes and gym goers, who continuously work the same muscles, causing them to tighten and shorten.

Adaptive Muscle Shortening occurs when a muscle is forced to remain in a shortened position for a long period of time.

The body is so efficient that the muscles will change their functional resting length to adapt to the length they are habitually used.

As muscle attaches to bone, when these muscles become shorter and tighter, they pull on the skeleton which shifts the body out of alignment and will eventually lead to pain.

Let’s take for example someone who is constantly sitting all day, legs bent, hunched over a computer or laptop.

The hip flexors, which are the muscles at the top of the legs become shortened

which can pull the hips out of alignment and cause knee, hip and lower back pain.

The chest and front of the shoulders can also become tight, causing them to round, putting pressure on the upper back and neck, also causing pain.

Those who run or cycle for long periods, can also suffer from tight hip flexors.

Cyclists can also experience rounded shoulders from hunching over the handlebars of a bike, causing the chest to tighten.

As muscles work in pairs, if one muscle tightens and shortens, it’s opposite muscle usually lengthens and weakens.

Therefore, if the hip flexors tighten on the front of the hip, the glutes will weaken at the back of the hip.

To combat this becoming a problem, you should stretch the hip flexors and strengthen the glutes.

To stretch the hip flexors, you can try stretches such as the Pigeon Stretch, Butterfly Stretch and Hip Flexor Stretch.

And to strengthen the glutes and lower back, you could try doing the Glute Bridge or Bird Dog exercise.

With regards to the chest and shoulders becoming tight and shortened, the upper back can become weakened.

Again, we need to stretch the tight muscles, i.e. the chest and the front of shoulders and strengthen the weak muscles, i.e. the back.

To stretch the chest and front of the shoulders, you can try using the bent arm wall stretch or clasping the hands behind the back and pulling the shoulder blades together.

To strengthen the upper back, try doing a weighted rear fly.

As you can see adaptive shortening affects a multitude of people.

If you suffer from pain in your knees, hips, back or neck, it could be a case that this is due to adaptive muscle shortening.

Having a regular stretch routine and a balanced strength routine is key to combatting the problem and will help alleviate some of the pain caused by muscle shortening.

You can also try foam rolling to help release any tension in the tight muscles.

It’s a much cheaper alternative to a massage, but definitely not as enjoyable.

Check out the video link in the description to see a demonstration of the stretches and exercises we’ve spoken about.