Understanding Muscle Tension

You've heard it before, but perhaps it doesn't make sense yet -- the idea that refractive errors are caused by tension. Heck, you've read this same idea here at this website. What is tension anyway? And how does it lead to myopia? In order to answer these and other related questions, we must first understand how muscles work in general.

In a nutshell, a muscle is a tissue that is composed of fibers that are capable of contracting to effect bodily movement. In mammals, where there is movement, there are muscles, and without muscles, movement would be extremely difficult, if not impossible.

Perhaps the most important muscle in the human body is the heart, which contracts and beats an average of 72 times per minute, day in and day out. If we do the math, 72 beats per minute equals 4,320 beats per hour, 103,680 beats per day, and 37,869,120 beats per year. For a person who lives to be 80 years old, their heart will have contracted some 3,029,529,600 times over the course of their lifetime without taking a break. Over three billion times! And this number is even higher if we take into account the time that the heart is beating in the unborn fetus before birth. What a miracle the human heart is! Can you think of any man-made object that can move more than once a second, non-stop, for 80 years or more without breaking down? I can't.

Within the human body, there are three different types of muscles. The human heart is made up of cardiac muscle not found elsewhere in the body. The second kind of muscle is called smooth. The stomach, intestines, and bladder are examples of smooth muscles. Smooth muscles contract involuntarily or automatically -- it takes no conscious thought to digest your food or to move it along the intestinal tract. The third kind of muscle is called skeletal muscle. These muscles are controlled by conscious thought and normally work in pairs. The muscles on your arms, legs, chest, back and shoulders and eyes are all examples of skeletal muscles.

Skeletal muscles are made up of thousands of long cylindrical cells called muscle fibers, and each muscle fiber contains many smaller cylinders of proteins called myofibrils. Within these myofibrils, there are two types of filaments that run along the length of the fiber -- a thick filament and a thin filament. Each thick filament is surrounded by a hexagonal pattern of six thin filaments.

Now comes the fun part -- the part where the muscle starts to move.

The thick filaments consist of a protein called myosin, and the thin filaments are composed of a different protein called actin. At the molecular level, the thick filament looks like a cylinder of myosin molecules, and the thin filament looks like two thin strands of actin molecules twisted around each other. 

When a muscle contracts, the thick myosin filaments "grab" the thin actin filaments and form a connection known as a crossbridge. The thick filaments then pull the thin filaments past them, thus making the muscle shorter. During contraction, the muscle becomes more dense because the thin filaments are now bundled along side the thick filaments.

When a muscle contracts, there are literally thousands of molecular reactions taking place to make the movement possible. Like reeling in a rope in hand-over-hand fashion, the thick filaments "reel in" the thin filaments to create movement.

After the crossbridges have been created and the muscle has contracted, it becomes time to relax the muscle back to its original length. Remember that skeletal muscles normally work in pairs, like the biceps and triceps on the arm. When the biceps contract, the triceps relax and vice versa.

Muscles consume energy in the form of ATP. Simply put, chemical energy from the ATP is used to "reset" the crossbridge and allow the thick myosin filament to release the thin actin filament. When this happens, the thin filaments are free to slide away from the thick filaments, and the muscle length is then increased. It's important to understand, however, that during relaxation phase, the muscle does not automatically extend itself. In other words, the thin filaments do not "push" against the thick filaments to move themselves out of the way in the opposite direction. The muscle simply softens as the crossbridges are released, but the muscle does not attain its fully relaxed length unless movement from other muscles within the body stretches it out.

As you know, there are cases where muscles do not relax and remain slightly tense. If you've ever been to a massage therapist, they might say that you have a "knot" in one or more of your muscles. This occurs when some of the crossbridges remain intact or when some of the thin filaments have not been stretched past the thick ones. Through rubbing, vibrating, pushing, and even light pounding (ever see a massage therapist play the drums on someone's back?), the therapist is able to release these "knots" and initiate greater muscle relaxation.

If you've ever seen a world-class athlete in motion, it is truly an amazing sight, especially runners and sprinters. Though their bodies are working at a very high rate, they still look very relaxed and their movements are extremely fluid. This can only happen when the muscles are supple and well conditioned. Contrast this with someone who is uncoordinated -- their body movements are much more inconsistent, erratic, and jerky. This is because their muscles are tighter and not used to relaxed movements. Their muscles, because of residual tension, are moving in "sections" as opposed to soft, fluid, complete movements.

So, what does all this mean for the NVI practitioner? Well, all muscle movement is triggered from the brain in the form of nerve impulses. When it comes to moving our skeleton with the skeletal muscles, the brain sends the signal to the muscle and the muscle moves. You've heard of the fight or flight response, right? If the brain is not fully relaxed or if we're afraid or something, then the brain transmits a small signal to the muscles and they remain ever so slightly tensed up, ready for action. If this continues over time, then these ever so slightly tensed muscles become ever so slightly shorter because they are not fully relaxed. When this occurs, the posture of the body is altered and ultimately the eyes become an easy target for being ever so slightly "squished". The only remedy is not only to relax the face and eyes but the entire body. And again, this can happen only when the mind if fully relaxed.

What does relaxation mean? Does this mean you have to quit your job and move to the country in order to relax? Does this mean no more differences of opinion with anyone? Does this mean no more strenuous physical activity? No, no, and no. Relaxation means two things -- softening and warming, and these can be accomplished, with practice, in the midst of a hectic life. Life will always be busy, and through we can't always change the pace of life, we can change our approach to living without having to try to control everything around us.

Relaxation is the key to better vision -- if you don't remember anything else from this website, remember this one concept. Also, in my opinion, the single most important skill to learn in order to be successful at NVI is to learn what it feels like to relax a specific area of the body.

When a muscle relaxes, two things take place: the muscle becomes softer and it becomes warmer. With relaxation, the muscle becomes less dense and it softens. When this happens, circulation and blood flow increases to that part of the body, and this causes the muscle temperature in that region of the body to slightly increase.

Sometimes, we don't know how to relax, and even worse, sometimes we don't feel the need. If you don't believe me, try driving down the freeway in bumper-to-bumper traffic during rush hour, and you'll know what I mean. If you don't know how to relax your body, at least you know what the concepts of soft and warm mean.

Here is an excellent exercise to practice in order to learn the important skill of relaxation.

Begin by sitting or lying down in a comfortable chair or couch. Take off your shoes and get comfortable. Close your eyes and take 5 or 6 deep breaths, exhaling slowly each time. In order to learn what it feels like to relax a specific area of the body, we will artificially create tension in that spot and then release it. Our goal is to target every major muscle area in the body, starting with the feet. Tighten your toes and hold them for about 4 or 5 seconds and then release all the tension in that one spot all at once. While you're tightening, continue to concentrate on deep, consistent breathing, and during the relaxation phase, let your mind record what it feels like to relax that part of the body. Feel the softening and imagine an increase in both circulation and warmth to that area. Continue to breathe deeply, feeling greater relaxation with each breath. Next, move to the calves and do the same thing -- tighten for about 4 or 5 seconds and then let go of all the tension all at once. Repeat this for each major body part all the way up to your face. Personally I like to target the following areas:

Feet
Calves
Thighs
Buttocks and hips
Stomach
Lower/upper back
Hands
Arms
Shoulders
Neck
Mouth and jaw
Eyelids (squeezed tight)
Eyebrows (raised as high as possible)
Forehead and scalp
Face

Don't rush through this, and take as much time as necessary. Spend 20 or 30 seconds during the relaxation phase. Again, the important part is not so much on the tightening but on the relaxing and softening. The skill you want to learn is knowing what it feels like to relax a specific part of the body and then be able to duplicate this feeling at will throughout the day as needed. Practice this skill over and over again and you will begin to improve.

In the future, I will show you how this skill applies to improved vision.

DISCLAIMER: The information presented on this website is for informational purposes only.