Thick Elastic Bands, Carabineers and Girdles

Sometimes, especially in times of extra stress or heavy loads, we might wonder, what is holding me together here?

When it comes to our mental health, that answer is probably going to be a nice set of coping tools such as support of family or friends, a higher purpose, a good counselor, much to be grateful for, and/or a clear plan with attainable goals.

When it comes to our bodies, the answer we’re going to Pick today is Connective Tissue.

Bet some folks never thought about needing to care for connective tissue. (But it's literally holding you together!) Until they started having pain in their knee, elbow, hip or ankle.

Tendonitis is what happens to us when we expect too much from our tendons, and it tends to rear its head in joints where muscles repeatedly pull on bones. Because tendons attach muscle to bone. So you’ve got your Achilles tendonitis, your tennis elbow and your tender back-of-the-knee pain, all the result of inflamed tendons. Maybe they were tight and you kept yanking on them--flexing that muscle, grasping that handle, pounding that pavement with those feet and calves.

And then you’ve got your ol’ ligament troubles, too. I say ol' because it’s more polite than old. Really, ligaments do age and sometimes they get too loose and kinda saggy when you’ve overstretched them past their original plan (dancers, gymnasts, cheerleaders, fast ball pitchers as my witnesses). They get worn down too, holding your bones together your whole life. Because that’s what ligaments do: attach bones to other bones.

You know how underwear elastic just eventually isn’t going to give anymore? That happens to ligaments in a way. Though thankfully ligament wear and tear doesn’t make your legs fall right off your bottom like your old underwear does. What it does instead is cause instability in the examples given above, or tight joints at the opposite end. Ligaments don’t have much natural give to begin with, so they do need your help. Don’t ignore them, and try not to over-pretzelize yourself either, if it's not required by your job.

There's also fascia. You have a sheath of tissue that sort of holds your muscles and guts and stuff inside you, under your layers of skin. It’s interesting to consider honoring your fascia, because its job is so utilitarian. But I have found a way for you to do so.

Pick One Thing: Your Connective Tissue

Tendons are like a thicker version of the elastic bands or cords that are used when someone bungee jumps or at the ends of a hammock where it attaches to the base or a tree. The idea is your muscle tissue ends up as tendonous tissue so it can provide a strong attachment to bones. Which are harder and more solid still. So muscle is juicy and it can flex and grow and pull, but tendon is not so much, so it can hold on to something solid when the juicy part is putting a strain on the whole set up.

If you don’t warm up your tissues before activities, or maintain a regular gentle stretching program, the muscles you use most will aggravate the heck out of the tendons trying to hold on for them.

Ligaments are like steel carabineers that attach hanging things to other long things but allow for movement between then. Examples are rock climbers’ harnesses to the rocks up above them, or pulley systems that might lift a heavy platform with a piano on it. The idea is that you’ve got two strong things that must be attached without being fused solid to each other. Like, your thigh and your calf.

ACL, MCL, PCL… sports fans and athletes themselves have likely heard these terms before, when someone went down and was out for the season. The L stands for ligament. Think of your knee ligaments, then imagine a snapped carabineer. Stuff will dangle.

If you don’t warm up your tissues before activities, or maintain a regular gentle stretching program, the joints you use the most can cause a sudden and unmanageable strain on the ligaments trying to hold your bones together. Some things bear repeating.

Fascia is like an inner girdle of sorts. A sheath is such a good way to think about it. In certain places in your body it holds pretty darn tight, for reasons it thinks are good ones. For example, around your calves and around your pelvic area. Because your calves and your pelvic area have such tough jobs which put a lot of strain on the muscles there. Fascia support to the rescue.

But say you want your calves to grow more muscle? That fascia might hold you back a tad. Body builders might be able to get a little extra edge by stretching the fascia that surrounds their muscles, leaving extra room for development. At least, Arnold Schwarzenegger swore by it. He says that by doing an a chest fly series after his upper body workouts, he was able to build the biggest chest muscles ever, because his blood had already pumped up the muscles, then the stretching maximized the room the tissue had to respond as it repaired.

Massage is another way to release fascia. If you ever hear the term self myofascial release, that means self massage. It usually is called for over large muscles and their attachments. You can use things like a rolling pin or a foam roller tube to work out some pretty tight and tender areas, help you reduce the risk of injury, recover faster from the strain of your workouts, heal muscle fibers in more organized pattern to keep it from tugging weirdly on your bones…and overall, just feel better in the end.

Gentle stretching and proper warm-ups are also a must for long term achievements in fluid movement and agility without pain and popping. All of the above are very useful to offset risks of repetitive motion injuries, from carpal tunnel syndrome to runner’s knee.

Some trainers like to think that there’s no point in stretching past the resting length of a muscle. But many of us like to disagree, especially if we know someone who might, say, want to kick a ball really far… or join a middle age softball league… or slip on the ice.

You never know when you’re going to need to count on a little more give from your connective tissue. So I say, give it a little more love. It’s a habit you should start now, and keep for life, so you can maintain that graceful edge when you’re 90 and competing for the dance queen contest at the senior center. Or when you’re running for public office and want people to remember those pecs.