Tight muscles OR sub clinical spasm??

Hello

Has any one heard of sub clinical spasms?

For conditions such as upper and lower cross syndrome, where ive only ever heard of opposing muscles being tight, ive read else where today that they may NOT be tight and that stretching them may be the wrong thing to do and may have an adverse effect on the muscle therefore causing it to get tighter. In fact they may have gone into sub-clinical spasm where they are protecting a damaged nerve or joint .

Does this sound correct or has anyone ever heard of this ?.

Thanks

anyone heard of sub clinical spasm?

subclinical may indicates early stage or a mild form of a medical condition, without obvious symptoms yet.. spasm normaly comes due to overuse, secondary to trauma, overactive (with/without increase emg), etc.. its a clinical findings..

eg, spasm of upper trap may due to trauma / whiplash to cervical in accident, may due to overactive of it during shoulder elevation secondary inhibition of mid/lower trap of scapula. morover, stress, computer work, posture of sitt n std also affect upper trap's property.. gentle stretch on spasm muscles will ease spasm n pain; improper streching may induce more spasm s it triggers the protective mechanism, which further increase 'tightness' due to spasm.

upper n lower cross syndrome (UCS/LCS) happens when there is contrary tightness (spasticity) and weakness between agonist n antagonist muscles / muscle groups secondary to muscles imbalances. UCS/LCs only is defined when someone realy shows d typical posture/ do develop particular weakness n tightness..

nutshell, spasm is more likely protective mechanism, which improper stretching may induce more pain n spasms. tightness/ spasticity in UCS/LCS needs stretching accordingly to enhance proper corecttion of the UCS/LCS.

Do you mean reflex muscle guarding/spasm? Im inclined to accept bensynergy's explanation... pain relief is the only real way of reducing spasm, because pain and spasm occur in a vicious cycle, if you are stretching when there is pain (invariably when there is spasm) then you are likely to increase the spasm/reflex muscle guarding... im not sure how spasms can be subclinical?

cheers