Saturday, November 19, 2005

After Effects of Stretching (Popping is Normal)

Yes, that's what I was told. Contrary to the idea that any change in our physical body, particularly those noisy in nature, my legs "popping" more frequently when bent and stretched are more likely to happen, and this was ok. In fact, I was told several things that are contrary to my instinctive belief:

1. The more I stretch (my hurt legs in particular) , the more popping I will likely be hearing. Don't worry, your bones aren't going to pop off your joints. Its because you're getting flexible and more "space" is being created because of this flexibility.
2. The more I stretch, the more pain I will feel in new spots in the surrounding stretched area. No need to be alarmed, this is because once you stretch an area, old spots previously inflexible will become flexible, and some pain or strain that existed previously won't hurt as much/not anymore. At the same time, since the old spot is now pain free, you'll start noticing OTHER areas that may feel "sore" or hurt. In a weird way, becoming aware of new pain is actually a good sign.
3. The more I stretch, the more my tangled muscles tend to loose and detangle itself. In some cases, surface bleeding/ruptures may occur. Despite that it looks bloody black (sometimes even painless) and outright scary and horrible, this is actually normal, and nothing to worry about.

In almost all of the cases, you'll never hurt yourself when stretching by yourself. If any of the above signs do happen, they're not a sign to stop stretching; In fact, they're a good signs that your stretches are leading you to the right direction. (Silly me, I actually reduced my stretching frequency when I thought otherwise)

Oh, and I've clarified with my physiotherapist, it seems that for people with problems, stretching 5x per session, several times a day (5 or 6 actually) is not too much. Normal healthy people should go for 2-5x per session .... and stretch whenever you do remember (and you're excused when you dont pull as hard - just as long as you make sure there IS a pull).

How enlightening. I wonder what other stuff I'm going to find out next week.

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