The muscle originates at a stationary point inthe body, it then crosses over a joint and inserts onto another bone. Whena muscle contracts it pulls the insertion point toward the originationpoint, and the joint bends. For example, the biceps and triceps areresponsible for bending the elbow. If your arm is straight out and youcontract the biceps muscle the elbow begins to bend. At the same time, inorder for the arm to completely bend, the triceps muscle must fully stretch.If you then want to straighten your arm again the triceps must contract andthe biceps must fully stretch. If you try this, slowly, with your own armyou will understand the concept easily.If, for example, the triceps muscle is contracted and shortened by a spasm,you will only be able to bend your arm as far as the triceps will stretch.Many people then think that they have a problem with the elbow, while theproblem is actually less serious than it appears.We teach our clients an analogy that is very helpful in understanding theroot of the muscle spasm situation. Imagine a young child standing betweena deep well filled with water, and a big rain barrel. The child has aneyedropper and is going from the well to the rain barrel putting tinyamounts on water into the barrel, many times back and forth for hoursevery day. Then, about 40 years later, the rain barrel overflows. Thechild (who is now an adult) says "I don¹t understand, I¹ve been doing thisfor years and it¹s never done this before!" Likewise, people say to us:"I¹ve been doing this (exercise, etc.) for years and it never hurt before, Imust be getting old" No you¹re not getting old, you just never emptiedyour "rain barrel" and now its overflowed!The body is amazing. We have mechanisms for healing that are so incrediblethat science still hasn¹t been able to fully understand how they work. Ourbodies mutate very slowly, but life is now changing rapidly. It wasn¹t sucha long time ago, before electricity was discovered, that people would workvery hard all day and then rest when the sun went down, going to bedearly. In the past, when people would rest at the end of the day, the bodywould begin its process of removing the lactic acid that is the naturalby-product of muscle action. This is the body¹s method of emptying the rainbarrel. But, when electricity increased the hours in our days, we began tostretch ourselves by working out in gyms, staying on the computer until lateat night, and even doing fun things like dancing until the wee hours. Ourbodies weren¹t able to keep up with the increased lactic acid production,and we began to pile up spasms one on top of the other. This continued dayafter day, and our muscles started getting tighter and tighter.This situation leads to the next analogy that we share with our patients.Remember that muscles originate in one place, cross over the joint and theninsert in another place. Muscles always pull on the insertion point. Now,visualize pulling your hair at the end. You don¹t feel it at the end whereyou are pulling, but you do feel it on the scalp where it inserts.Likewise, you rarely feel the pain in the part of the muscle that is beingpulled, but you do feel it at the insertion.With so many people working for hours on the computer, we are seeing moreand more people with wrist and hand pain. Using the information justmentioned above, examine the muscles that move the hand. The muscles of theforearm Screw Barrel For injection molding machine Manufacturers originate at, or near, the elbow. They then insert in the hand andwrist. The muscles on the top of the arm are called the "extensors", and themuscles on the underside of the arm are called "flexors". When the flexorscontract the hand is pulled into a fist, &/or the hand moves down.
