Tension, Safety, and the Nervous System

Tension

Muscle contraction and relaxation

As a topic this is really complicated, with calcium ions, ATP, tropomyosin and all sorts of other fancy words that don't help us in a practical sense.

But essentially, there are times when a muscle may contract, and then it may hold that tension and "forget" to let go.

We have all felt it.

Maybe it was a cramp, a pulled muscle, an ongoing ache that wouldn't go away for weeks or months.

Reducing this tension is a large part of my injury management work.

More often than not I explain it to clients as I'm reminding the nervous system that it is safe and capable, that it can allow these muscles to relax.

I've no idea if that's right or not, it's what I call a "nice lie"

A "white lie"

It's a story that is plausible enough for a person to understand and lean into without any risk of harm.

It doesn't fall into the nocebo (opposite of placebo) type language that the internet is full of and even used by a lot of (not all) medical professionals.

The truth is, we don't really and honestly know why the body will hold tension in some muscles more than others.

Vladimir Janda back in the 60's talked about Tonic and Phasic muscles, giving us the Upper and Lower Crossed Syndromes, all of which research has since told us is incorrect

But in practice, is still a model that helps a lot of people (not by calling it a "syndrome" that makes it nocebic)

We have manual therapies telling us we can "release" a muscle, what "release" actually means, no one knows, it probably is just allowing the nervous system to tone down and the muscle to relax.

We currently have a slew of internet experts telling us it's the "missing 20lbs" of fascia in the body that is causing the pain.

But as we do not have a single unifying theory.

And I'm OK with that.

And I'm OK with telling my clients that we do not actually know, we have stories, narratives, but very few certainties.

My favourite story is to talk about safety and security. I'm a martial arts dude, an former bouncer with a load of training from the security field, so these words work for me.

When we talk about muscles holding tight to provide safety, then we can view the tension as a protective mechanism rather than a problem.

We can look through the lens of reducing the need for protection, for threat management, rather than simply trying to convince the muscle.

One thing we are clear on is how muscles respond to the nervous system, usually subconsciously, so that's where I like to try and work.

And what is one of the best ways to manage the nervous system and to down regulate that system towards parasympathetic?

Breath. Long exhales, how long? So long as they take more time than the inhale, you're on the right lines.

But that's not all.

Easy movement based stretching.

Hot showers

Hot water bottles

Massage (self or otherwise)

Laughing

Spending time in nature

Novel movement

Chi Gung

Meditations / Non Sleep Deep Rest

And more.

The commonality?

Safety.

And fun.

It's hard to have fun if you don't feel safe.

Training to develop attributes (strength/mobility/endurance etc) requires pushing towards limits, challenging safety to stimulate adaptation

Allowing the body recover, repair, make the adaptations, this is retreating into safety. Resting, laughing, gently moving.

It's not "Go Hard or Go Home"

It's "Go Hard, Then Go Home"

Up regulate to get shit done

Down regulate to recover and repair so you can get more shit done next time.

Simple

Not Easy

Why Are You Training?

Why are you training?

It's a question that gets asked a lot.

Why do we do these things?

For most of the people I work with, training serves a purpose.

It is to provide them with the strength,  mobility and endurance to go out and take on various challenges. 

Be that sports, be it traversing the mountains, security work, or simply doing everyday stuff without pain and discomfort 

So to this end I view creating training plans as a process of reverse engineering.

Every client that comes to me tells me their blue sky version of an end goal.

Becoming world champion 

Running their first marathon 

Playing with their as yet unborn grandchildren 

Then we assess their current state.

That gives us a Destination and a Current Location, just like Google Maps. 

And with those two points of reference we can plot the route from the current location to the destination,  with as many or as few detours as we like.

And just like any good road trip, we may actually change our destination from time to time and plan a new route.

But in order to plan a route, we must have a destination in mind.

That is what keeps us on track, it's what brings us back on track after a detour, it's how we get going again after a break.

Looking at training in this manner is what keeps our consistency and discipline. 

Without a destination in mind it's easy to fall victim to training “ADHD” and program hop.

And while I have no issues with variety and variation in training, random training will not necessarily get you where you want to go.

We can have variation without randomness,  just like if we go off track, Google Maps will plot a route back.

And that's my job,  my job is to be your Google maps app and help you get to that magical destination with as many adventures as possible along the way.

Regards 

Dave Hedges 

www.davehedges.net 

....and we're back!

We are back!

I hope you had a good break over Xmas and New Year, and are now ready to get stuck into another 12 months of awesomeness.

If you have done as I have and eaten your bodyweight in mince pies and mash potatoes, then it'd be good advice to get back into the swing of things a little slowly.

In my own training, I rolled it back 2 weeks.

I'm following a plan that is based on Jim Wendlers 5/3/1, where the weights we lift each week are calculated on a "gym 1RM", or a 1 rep max that you can do without getting hyped up to perform.

I've always liked 5/3/1 as a plan, it works really well if you commit to it over a long period.

And it's that extended timeline that means it is a good idea to take breaks here and there and also roll back a few weeks from time to time.

And while I used to to believe every training session had to be a PR, I have grown up a lot since then.

That idea of "go hard or go home" is great if you're in your late teens or 20's

It works great if you don't have a sport or activity to train for and the gym is an ends in its self

But that isn't my average client.

it certainly isn't me.

I think i got away with the "go hard or go home" mentality for so long because I had the luxury of being able to set my life up around training.

Hell, there have been periods where I literally lived in a gym, rolling out a sleeping bag each night!

However, my lifestyle of old isn't most people's lifestyle.

So we need to consider energy balance, time management , injury management and recovery.

We can only train as hard as we can recover, and recovery is mostly driven by" calories and counting sheep" (food & sleep), not by ice baths and morning routines.

And a big part of recovery is the mental reset you get by stepping away from routine.

Routine is great, it keeps us on track, keeps us going in the right direction, but it can get, well, routine.

And that's where the Xmas break comes in, it's a near global break from routine.

Now we are out the other side of it, it's time to slip back into routine, mentally and physically refreshed and ready to go.

Just start slow

And each session, each week, each month gradually ramp up

It's not "new year new you", it's new year but it's still you, just you that's reset and reinvigorated.

So let's fucking go!

Simple.

Not easy.

--

Regards

Dave Hedges

www.DaveHedges.net