Muscle Tension Due To Stress

Does your neck hurt a lot, even when you work seated and maintain good posture? Do you notice your jaw sore after receiving a sudden load of work?  If the answer is yes, you are likely suffering from muscle tension from stress – a physical manifestation of a health problem that affects more and more people.

The article Academic Stress defines very well all those psychological symptoms that underlie stress. He exposes it as demands that cause pressure, loss of control and exhaustion.

The demands are so high that they lead to stress that needs to be expressed, even physically. For this reason, back pain, jaw pain and headache appear.

A major problem

The fact that many people suffer from muscle tension due to stress has led to a “normalization” of the problem. Of this affected part, a good number of people have assumed that they have to be like that, so they do not consider carrying out an intervention to correct the problem. This is none other than the pernicious face of acceptance: resignation.

On the other hand, some of the alerts that tell us that we are supporting an important work or study load is the tension in the shoulders. We feel stiffer and suffer contractures that often extend to the neck.

Have you ever seen someone move this part of their body from side to side while massaging it? It may be subtle at first, but if we don’t reduce our stress over time, it can be a nuisance that becomes habitual.

Also, if on any occasion we have felt very stressed, we will have noticed how we contract the muscles of the legs excessively. This, although it does not seem important, can lead us to suffer cramps and even at night cause the twins to climb on us. Maybe you feel identified with these unpleasant episodes.

Muscle tension from stress and tears

It may seem like an exaggeration, but it is not. Stress, for example, by increasing muscle tension, can be a risk factor for injury. This is something an athlete knows well, hence they gently stretch their muscles – it is about relaxing, not gaining flexibility – when an intense workout ends.

When we suffer muscular tension due to stress we are not doing any physical exercise, therefore, we do not stretch. However, our muscles are stiff and therefore susceptible to injury.

Prevent and reduce stress

If we don’t take steps to start reducing and preventing muscle tension from stress, it will get worse; In this sense, going to a physiotherapist can be like putting a band-aid on the wound: it is useless if we do not act directly on the factor that is not damaging.

. How to reduce stress in our life? Taking a series of apparently simple measures, but that require our conscious involvement. Although they give us a lot of laziness, they will mean an important change that will allow us to feel better.

• Relaxation techniques : from meditation, to mindfulness and yoga, we have a wide variety of options to relax and release the stress that we may be accumulating in our body. Active breaks from work are an excellent opportunity, too, to do so.
• Practice assertiveness : if we can say “no”, let’s do it. Many times, we have this option but our search for the recognition and approval of others does not make use of this resource. Let’s not compromise our health for this.
• Cognitive restructuring : it is an excellent tool that is learned in psychology consultations. It consists of taking distance from a very stressful situation to identify what is fueling the stress and, thus, be able to cope with the circumstance in a better way.

Finally, we would like to remind you of something very important. When we are away from the environment that is causing us stress, let’s focus on the present moment.

In the nature that surrounds us while we are taking a walk, in how good we are feeling when exercising our muscles in the gym, in the joy of our friends with whom we share projects … Finally, and better, we can also seek help from a professional.