Why stretching won’t solving your problems
When your back feels stiff or like it needs to be stretched, stretching is often not the right answer. That stiffness can be deceiving because it isn’t always caused by “short” muscles. More often, stiff muscles are a protective mechanism created by your nervous system.
This tension is the body’s way of guarding an area it perceives as unstable, irritated, or limited in its mobility. Because of that, stretching can actually make the irritation worse rather than better.
If we look at this through the lens of subluxations (misalignments in the spine, aka where we adjust), improper spinal alignment creates a cascade of effects, including muscles tightening to compensate and protect the area. When you stretch those guarding muscles without addressing the underlying misalignment, you may remove the body’s protection while leaving the real issue unresolved, potentially exacerbating the problem.
This is also why stretching often provides only temporary relief. It doesn’t address the root cause, so you’re essentially pulling on tissue that’s already working overtime.
That’s not to say stretching never has a place because it absolutely does. But relying on stretching alone to fix a low back issue won’t get you very far. This is why specific chiropractic care is so effective long term: it addresses why the guarding is happening in the first place, allowing the nervous system to stop sending protective signals and the muscles to finally relax naturally.
