Dr. Erin: Why am I so tight?
I recently came across this video on YouTube that shows an anatomy professor explaining how muscles get tight and form scar tissue (or “fuzz” as he calls it) during the night and after an injury. He shows what this looks like on a cadaver as well as compares healthy and injured tissues so that you can understand why you have limited motion or chronic tightness in your muscles.
What was particularly interesting in his lecture was how injuries limit motion and allow this “fuzz” to accumulate, night after night” without any loosening because of the pain associated with stretching. Patients frequently ask why they can’t just stretch out a tendonitis or sciatica pain. The reason is after you have 10, 30 or 500 nights of “fuzz” build up, you require additional force (such as assisted stretching, trigger point work or Gua Sha) to break up this stuff in order to start the healing process. Patients that have these types of deep tissue treatments as part of their plan tend to heal faster and stay pain-free longer.
*Warning: the video does show actual cadaver muscles.*