What happens in the musculoskeletal system during acutely high stress?

The body’s response to fear & stress from a biomechanical perspective

Maybe I’m beating a dead horse by addressing the topic of fear and stress. It seems like everywhere we turn right now the experts are giving us tips on how to manage these things. But, honestly, it felt like an injustice not to address it from an orthopaedic PT perspective. One of the things I love the most about being a PT is teaching people the tools they need to take back control of their symptoms, injuries, and bodies. My hope is that this article does just that for you.

As well all know stress and anxiety can manifest in our physical bodies. The idea that we “hold tension” in certain parts of our body is something you will hear a lot if you take even a small step into the health & wellness industry. But what does that actually mean? What is truly happening in our musculoskeletal system? To understand this, we first have to identify what the common physical response is to stress.

What happens?

When we are stressed, one of the first things that changes is our breathing pattern. It can be subtle or very obvious, but it absolutely changes. Typically, we begin to breath more shallowly, at a higher rate, and primarily with our front upper chest.

The way we take in air has a direct impact on the position of our rib cage and spine. When we breathe primarily at the front upper chest, the following happens to our posture:

-the front rib cage flares upward

-the natural curves in the neck, mid back, and low back are flattened

Check out the photos below to see what I mean.

What are the consequences?

Since the spine and rib cage are the central, stabilizing component of our body there can be many consequences of this positional change. Before I get into the consequences, I want to clear something up: these postural changes are not bad in and of themselves. No single posture or position is inherently bad. The negative impact comes when we are using them at the wrong time or when we cannot get out of them freely. There is a time and a place for each posture and position; the key is to have the movement variability so you can move in and out of them with ease.

Taking that logic to a stressed breathing pattern – it becomes a problem when the stress is continuous, locking us into this posture. I’ve seen this happen with several of my clients in the last few weeks. But to be honest, in our fast-paced demanding culture, I tend to see this type of problem relatively frequently.

The postural change causes the following:

-using the neck and back muscles for breathing rather than using the abdominals

-increasing demand on neck and back muscles

-inadequate abdominal stabilization for lifting, pushing, pulling, and other demanding activities

-limits spine rotation

-traps stale, stagnant air in the bottom portion of the lungs

-impairs proper oxygenation

-decreases accessibility to stabilizing muscles of the hips and shoulders putting extra demand on other muscles like the rotator cuff, biceps, quadriceps, hip flexors, piriformis, and many others

As you go through that list, I’m sure you can imagine what sorts of strains and pains may result from this type of postural change. Not only that, it can flare up old injuries that you thought you had dealt with long ago. So maybe your back “goes out.” Your sciatica rears its head once again. The shoulder impingement suddenly resurfaces. Your neck stiffens up. The list can go on and on.

So there you are, already in a stressful state and then an injury occurs which increases your stress further. You don’t know why it happened. You’re concerned that it is going to side line you from critical life demands. You’re fearful that you may not recover. All of these anxieties build on the stress and the breathing pattern is further impacted. Posture gets locked into the pattern even deeper. Then the ailing body part seems to worsen. And so on. Does this sound familiar?

Rest assured!

You can absolutely intervene on this vicious cycle. You can reset your posture, reset your breathing pattern, and restore your body to a more homeostatic state. Click on the video below to learn how to do this. Before you start the video, sit on the floor near the sofa, a chair, or an ottoman.