So I was talking to my feldenkrais PT today who is trying to help me strenghthen the little muscles-

and he had an interesting perspctive on the effects of Pain on your muscles. No papers or whatever that I can reference, but he is well educated, always seems to be off doing continuing ed classes for PT's...

Anyhow, he said basically that there are two "sets" of muscles...the big ones that we use for big movements, and the little ones that sort of steady our bones to let the big ones do their thing.

For instance, there are tiny muscles that go from one vertebrea to the next to stabilize the vertebrea against each other, and bigger muscles that extend over the spine to help it bend and twist and whatnot.

Another set of very small muscles is at the rotator cuff in your shoulder.


two things I found to be very interesting

1. The very small muscles contract and stabilize things when we start to THINK of moving....so BEFORE we actually do anything, those muscles are working.

2. When the body is in pain, the big muscles tighten, and these little muscles just relax and stop doing their job, making the big muscles work harder, get tighter, and provide a contribution to the pain cycle i didn't know about before.


i have more but darn, I have to run, i'll come back and type some more later...

Johanna