Pain in general, is rooted in perception. Therefore, if we change our perception we can then change our current experience with pain.
But what does that mean, how does changing your perception influence your pain?
Think about cooking dinner, you’re making this pasta dish that needs a splash of lemon. You squeeze the lemon and now you have this stinging sensation at your fingertips. You have a cut that you are now clearly aware of. It was always there, you were just unaware. As time passes, you still feel the discomfort, long after washing your hands and enjoying your meal.
Let’s take this concept a step deeper.
When we think about perception, we first think about vision. This is our primary way of experiencing the world using our eyes. Next is our vestibular system, located in our ears which senses changes in position and space. The last is the one most coaches and therapists are aware of, proprioception. We experience the world through our movement. Changes in vision or vestibular systems can influence things like balance and gait, therefore it makes sense that this shapes how well you can interact with the world.
The one place we have a large direct impact is movement-based training inputs.
How you move right now is your interpretation of the world
Muscles have spindles that detect the rate of stretching that occurs during your movement.
This information (afferent information) goes up to your brain, which in less than a second creates a plan for movement and produces an electrical current (efferent information) to produce muscle contractions. This is a closed feedback loop that will provide a road map for how much tone or tension you feel at rest. It’s why you have tight shoulder muscles, no amount of massages is going to change that.
When you try to massage, foam roll, trigger point, acupuncture/dry needle, stretch, cup, or whatever; it attempts to circumvent the incoming information at the muscle tissue level. This is why you get a temporary decrease in tension and an increased ability to move deeper.
This is the problem of thinking I can loosen up before a lift, run, or movement-based activity and get stronger there. You have temporarily increased your range of motion but overall, your movement capacity remains the same. This is why you have to continue loosening yourself up before training. From a macro perspective, your movement is the same, at a micro level, it is continuing to stagnate.
I say this half joking, but have you thought about moving better?
It’s important to keep in mind that until you intervene at the appropriate level, it will not change your movement quality (let alone alter any tissue composition properties).
This cross-section of muscle illustrates the point that all levels of muscle, tissues sense tension. Regardless of what you’re doing, you’re either improving tissue quality or it’s getting worse. Maintenance is a myth.
Change the incoming information in your back to increase the utilization rate of your muscles. This will be due to an improved outgoing signal.
And no, you can’t just stretch (because if it was going to work, it would’ve already the other times you’ve tried to stretch your back).