Strong? Weak? Tight? Relaxed? What Does This All Mean?

Former or current patients, you’ve had this “lesson” from us before. But stick around because the more we are exposed to this knowledge, the more we absorb. 

Muscles of the body work more optimally when they can be fully shortened and fully lengthened. Equal range of motion - on either side of the spectrum - allows the muscle to live in an optimal “neutral” position with more movement options available. Our bodies LOVE and CRAVE variability. We try to stay away from “right” vs. “wrong”, but say “your body wants variability”. Let’s dive a bit deeper…

In the picture below, we can see that when a muscle has a good resting position, it can easily move from resting to fully contracted and from resting to fully relaxed fairly easily.

 Now, what happens when there is dysfunction? It could be the pelvic floor muscles giving us a hard time. It could be the abdominals. It could be the 🍑 muscles when we butt grip. 

We can see from the pictures above, if the resting position is “too high” or “too low”, it takes more effort from the muscle to work appropriately. 

For example, if we take a look at the picture on the left…If the pelvic floor has a high resting “tone” (or is tight), it may take a lot of effort to relax. This is a great example of someone who may have a hypertonic, or tight, pelvic floor. And why pelvic floor muscle contractions, or kegels, are NOT the best! 

The picture on the right would be an example of someone struggling to perform a pelvic floor contraction, perhaps someone with a hypotonic, or weak pelvic floor. 

Let us know if ya’ll have any questions. Together, We Can Do Better. 

Your Renew Health Team 💜