These 5 Exercises For Cramping Muscles Will Make You Feel Good As New

Nov 20, 2018 by apost team

Have you ever reached the end of a long day and literally had an ache that caused you not to be able to turn or bend your head or straighten out your back? Wilhelm Reich, a major contributor to 20th-century body-mind sciences, came up with the reasoning for this as energy that’s so bound by muscular contraction that it can’t flow properly through the body. 

Your psychological problems, such as stress and anxiety, manifest themselves as muscle spasms and tension. There are a lot of great tension exercises and exercise classes out there, but the problem is that most people need exercises that take little effort.

Want to know how to remove the blocks in various parts of your body? Want exercises, that take less than five minutes to produce results, that don’t involve complicated positions and movements, and that can be done anywhere and anytime? We’ve got you covered with these 5 exercises:

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This is the exercise if you suffer pain in your waist or mid-back. From muscular blockages, herniated discs, pinched nerves and vertebra, spinal curving, and osteochondrosis, there are many disease processes that can cause constant tension in your back muscles. Remove that tension with back-arc exercises:

• Begin in a standing position with shoulders back, chest out, and core tight.
• Slowly lift your arms and bring them behind your head as if you were about to do a sit-up.
• Push your chest out as you arc your back; your head will look up at the ceiling.
• Return to start.
• Repeat 5 times at least once per day.

Did you know that your neck is one of the first areas to physically react to stress? As your neck tenses, it impacts nerves and important blood vessels carrying nutrients and oxygen to your brain, which in turn can cause everything from more muscle weakness and pain to headaches. Odds are that you’re sitting at your PC or hunched over your mobile device to read this article, and it’s likely that your body mechanics are poor as you do it.

So, first check to see that you’re sitting using good body mechanics:

• Are your shoulders down and back?
• Are your trap muscles loose and relaxed?
• Could you balance a book on the top of your head?

If the answer to any of these questions is no, then you need to work on your posture. Slouching and/or shoulder tensing, stress, and fatigue can cause a lot of trapped tension in your trapezoid muscles.

 Neck nods will help keep your trapezoid muscles loose and stretched:

• Stand with your shoulders back and chest out
• Your legs should be shoulder-width apart
• Place your hands on your hips
• Slowly bring your head forward until you feel the gentle stretch in the back of your neck and tops of shoulders
• Slowly bring your head backwards until you feel the gentle stretch in the front of your neck and shoulders
• Repeat for 8 reps

Neck and shoulder cramping isn’t uncommon if you don’t warm up and cool down before and after exercise, perform repetitive desk tasks, carry a heavy backpack or purse, and other such activities. The trapezius muscles can develop myositis inflammation and become quite tight, painful, and cramping. Remove neck cramps with this exercise:

• Assume a standing position with shoulders back and core tight
• Place your right hand on the left side of your head near behind your ear and gently pull toward your right elbow until you feel the stretch across the left side of your neck; hold for 10 seconds
• Repeat the process for the opposite side using the opposite hand
• Do 8 reps.

Head and facial muscles can carry cramps and tension, too. You might not even feel it, but a look in the mirror can often alert you that it’s there. You may see that frozen grimace or scrunched forehead. While your face itself isn’t likely to hurt, the results of facial tension can be migraines, blurred vision, rapid fatigue, jaw problems, and edema. Carrying facial tension can adversely affect the teeth and constrict the blood vessels nourishing the face with nutrients and oxygen. Hello, premature aging.

Remove facial tension with the ‘say no’ exercise:

• Assume a good standing position
• Place your hands on each side of your head to where fingertips just meet, not interlace
• Look to your right and hold for ten seconds
• Look to your left and hold for ten seconds
• Repeat for four reps
• Starting at the center and working outward in a circular pattern, gently massage your tense facial areas with the pads of your fingers.

For some people, tension, pains, cramps, aches, and stiffness can spread like wildfire throughout the body as stronger muscles are overused or placed in awkward positions to compensate for weaker muscles and circulation to other areas of the body is impeded by edema. Even internal organs can be affected by pain as pinched vertebrae, for example, cause neurons to carry pain sensations throughout various areas of the body.

Remove this physical tension with exercises like this one that decreases the load on the core muscles of the back and abdomen:

• Assume a good standing position
• Place your hands behind your head just until your fingertips meet, not interlock
• Bend to the right as you outstretch your left hand out and over your head to the right
• Go back to start position
• Do the same for the opposite side by bending left as you outreach your right hand
• Repeat for four reps.

Having trapped psychological stress is as dangerous for your mental health as it is your physical health. Many describe it as a constant feeling of light tension, physical fatigue, and emotional discomfort that has the power to progress to anxiety and neurosis if left unchecked. Unfortunately, psychological stress doesn’t dissolve as easily and rapidly as it can appear, and it takes vigilance and immediate recognition to prevent tension from becoming stress, anxiety, depression, and other mental health disorders.

This is a good exercise to practice as soon as you sense a stressor causing you psychological tension:

• You’ll need a well-ventilated room that’s quiet and secluded
• Assume a position that feels comfortable; it doesn’t matter if it’s sitting or standing
• Straighten your back, with your shoulders down and your back and your neck aligned with your spine
• Keep your core tight, your feet together, and your hands relaxed at your side
• Close your eyes

• Feel your breathing calm, even, and steady
• You’ll move off-center now by bringing your shoulders backwards and down like you’re shrugging something off you and then shifting your weight onto your pelvis
• Hold until you feel how strong and supported you are by your leg muscles
• Return to start as you feel the tension dissipate
• Stay perfectly still at start for five minutes as you allow your mind to clear of everything other than your presence in the moment
• Gently massage your head, face, neck, and shoulders as you feel the tension leave your body.

You may not be able to isolate where you’re tense; you just know you feel the mental and physical ramifications of exhaustion sucking your energy levels down and destabilizing your mindset. This is a simple, albeit highly effective, way to release the tension you’re harboring in your lower extremities after a long day of sitting or standing. Bonus: it also helps to improve circulation to lower the load on your heart and prevent issues like varicose veins and edema in your legs and feet.

Here’s what to do:

• Find a sturdy wall without adornments
• Lie on your back and scoot your butt as close to the wall as possible
• It’s okay to place a pillow under your lower back and buttocks if desired
• Place your legs on the wall
• Close your eyes and clear your mind
• Focus only on the inhale and exhale of your breathing
• Stay as long as you like, but try to allow at least five minutes for the exercise.

We’d love to hear how these or any other exercises have helped with your tension. Have these 5 exercises helped you? Feel free to pass this info on to someone that suffers with tension and to your friends who might need some help in this area.

Our content is created to the best of our knowledge, yet it is of general nature and cannot in any way substitute an individual consultation by your doctor. Your health is important to us!