I hear this from people who are starting chiropractic care. Sometimes I hear it from people who have been under care for many years too. “Doc, my neck is stiff and I’ve never had this feeling before” or “Doc, I have some lower back pain that I’ve never had before.”
Think about doing a new workout, or raking a bunch of leaves, or exercising on the escarpment stairs, or sleeping on a new mattress. What would you expect to happen? When you’re first doing the activity, you might feel some discomfort because your body hasn’t done this activity in this way for a long time, or maybe ever. Your joints might be a little sore and your muscles can feel tight and achy.
When you move your body in new ways, there can be tissue damage. Now I’m not talking about a torn muscle or tendon. When you exercise, there is microscopic muscle damage that occurs – that’s actually one of the purposes of exercising. When your body is challenged, it responds and adapts. The idea is that you’re breaking down tissue, so stronger, more efficient tissue can grow it its place.
That same concept is true when we’re changing the structure and function of your spine. When we do something different, your body responds and adapts. To get your joints to move better, joint capsules, ligaments, tendons, discs and muscles have to change. If they stayed the same, well, they’d be the same! To get your nerves to work at 100%, we have to change the tissue around them. Don’t look at them as negative side effects, look at them as expected, adaptive changes your body is undergoing in order to rebuild a better you!
Read this article to learn more.
