part of the problem was discussed in relation to balancing fats to con-
trol inflammation.
Muscle Imbalance
The combination of muscle weakness and tightness is called muscle
imbalance. The most common cause of muscle imbalance is muscle
weakness. When this occurs, another muscle or muscles become tight.
This pattern of weak and tight can occur anywhere in muscles
throughout the body, on the front and back of the arm, thigh, leg, foot
or other areas. The result is reduced movement in joints and reduced
strength, often leading to pain and disability.
For a better perspective, let me explain about normal muscle
movements. In the course of normal activity, muscles become tight as
they contract, and looser when relaxed. We can easily feel this in our
own muscles. While sitting, place one of your hands under your
thigh, with your elbow bent. Then, pull up with your hand, and main-
tain that contraction. With the fingers of your other hand feel the mus-
cle on the front of your arm, the biceps, and feel how tight it is. Now
feel the back of the arm, the triceps muscle, and feel how loose it is.
This is a normal pattern of muscle function during most movements.
When there is an imbalance, muscles become abnormally weak
(too loose) and too tight; and they feel somewhat similar to the ones
in the example above. This state of weakness and tightness can
remain for weeks, months or years following some injury. The origi-
nal injury that first causes muscle weakness can be from a fall, trau-
ma directly to the muscle, overstretching or overuse. But in many
cases the cause of the original weakness is well hidden and people
don’t recall any event that would have caused a problem. And, the
severity of the original injury is often not related to level of disability.
I’ve seen severe low back pain that was debilitating — the patient was
unable to move much, couldn’t get out of bed and was in constant
severe pain. But the cause was due to a muscle imbalance that was
easily corrected, and the patient did not recall any event and I could
not find what caused the problem. (In this case, the patient recovered
quickly once the imbalance was corrected and the problem never
returned.)
It should be noted that muscles attach to bones through tendons.
So when a muscle is not functioning properly, the tendons don’t
278 • IN FITNESS AND IN HEALTH