One thing I love about sport and exercise sciences is that there just always happens to be more to learn and experience.

Competing in sports often serves to intensify training and, therefore, accelerate such learning, presenting the participant with frequent challenges to overcome and problems to solve.

Overcoming muscle tightness seems to have been the latest stop on my personal road towards a more in-depth understanding of exercise and fitness. A recent painful episode almost spelt the end for my participation in what has been my most passionate hobby to date.

I was recently preparing for the European Small Nations Weightlifting Tournament. Such events are the ideal targets to which training programmes can be tailored. Competitions give us focus, a purpose and, ultimately, something to shoot for and get excited about; this was going to be a big one, because it was happening right here on ourown soil.

As I set about my preparation, primed and motivated, I was surprised when I became dogged by a nagging pain in my neck. It intensified with each and every workout and just wouldn’tgo away.

Being on the wrong side of 30, I actually accepted the pain, modified my technique and training schedule and did my best to work around what I assumed was an unavoidable consequence of time and repeated strain. My training was eventually down to just one hard session a week, leaving the rest of the time free for recovery.

This didn’t seem normal at all, and no way could I attain any sort of competitive standard with such a minimal training load, not to mention the constant excruciating pain in my neck which prevented me from turning my head even a couple of inches.

I had had enough. It was time to call in the big guns. I had never seen a therapist before, and now as I searched through my network of trusted experts, I found myself dialling a well-respected sports masseur with just over a week to go before the competition.

“Muscle tightness,” he said instantly upon laying his hands upon my abused trapezius muscle. His treatment involved various aggressive manipulations of the muscle to relieve tension over the course of about half an hour. The session itself felt like passing through a meat grinder.

He warned me I would need a few days simply to recover from the effects of his hands. However, he assured me I would feel less pain in my neck on the day of the competition. Battered and bruised, I emerged from the couch in worse pain than when I had gotten on.

Many of our back, shoulder and neck pains are precisely a result of muscle tightness

Just a few hours later however, the original pain was all but gone. I could hardly believe it, and over the next few days I finally experienced freedom from my ordeal that had lasted over a month.

When the competition finally came round, it was the perfect day, and a happy ending better than any I could have hoped for. But more importantly, I learned an important lesson: when muscles get tight, we get serious problems.

It’s hard to believe so much pain could be a result of something so simple, and many of our back, shoulder and neck pains are precisely a result of muscle tightness in those muscles in question or others nearby. When postural muscles get tight, our body position is altered, and this could lead to inuries or tightness elsewhere too.

Many muscles in our body connect together in a chain, and what happens to one link often affects the others too. This is why injuries sometimes spread, causing a chain reaction where the body compensates by altering position thus training other links of the chain instead.

In the spirit of prevention over cure, there is always something we can do before problems escalate to the levels discussed. Just like good health can be promoted by fixing the basics first and foremost of good food, good exercise and managing stress, so many injuries can be averted by a good stretching programme that preserves flexibility in the key muscles of the body. The good news is that a basic stretching programme is easy to integrate into your routine. Here are the basics.

After you increase your heart rate and body temperature with a basic warm-up activity like walking, jogging in place or easy cycling, perform a series of static preparatory stretches, holding each for between six to 10 seconds in a standing position. Static stretching means taking the muscle to close to its maximum range of motion and holding it there, preparing for the more vigorous workout to come.

After you finish your workout, during your cooling-down phase, it’s time for developmental stretching. The muscles are now maximally warm and can be pushed to, and slightly beyond, their normal range of motion.

This results in permanent increases in the length of the muscles, or in other words, increased flexibilty. Cool-down stretches are normally performed in a seated or lying-down position. Hold each maximally stretched position for between 15 to 30 seconds. Take deep breaths and relax deeper into each stretch position with every exhalation.

The instructor at your gym will be all too happy to teach you the basic stretching movements for warming up and cooling down, but the onus is on you to make stretching a habit.

In your lasting injury and pain-free state, you’ll be thrilled you took the time and effort.

matthew.muscat.inglott@mcast.edu.mt