but isn’t tension, like… bad?

“Holy crap Steven.”

“Jeesh.”

My parents were almost... worried.

“You are really lifting that thing, huh? You’re like, shaking.”

It was Christmas vacation, and my family had rented a house near Hunter Mountain, though we are decidedly not skiers. We were getting ready to leave for dinner, but I found something better to do: single arm deadlifts with my kettlebell. I was practicing my full body max tension, shaking a bit as I pulled my hips back and gripped the bell, before popping up to a tall stance. 

But my parents... they were put off. “Do you have to work that hard, Steven?” they asked.

Their faces said it all—isn’t tension a bad thing?

So as we got into the car, I explained:

Tension gets a bad rap. But the blame and fear of tension is misplaced. Let me say this: it’s true that unnecessary holding patterns in the body aren’t ideal. That’s unnecessary tension. 

But what most people miss is that one of the main reasons you have unnecessary tension, or feel tight all the time, is the fact that the right muscles aren’t producing enough tension. They aren’t strong enough, so other muscles are “holding on,” producing tension they shouldn’t have to. 

A really common issue for all of us is the upper shoulder area being slightly pulled up towards the ears and forward towards the chin, because the shoulders are making up for what is weak (or can’t produce enough tension): the back. 

What’s amazing is that when you learn and implement your strength, lots of little things start to clear up. The nagging pain in the neck and shoulders begins to dissipate. The fear around certain movements ceases. And when you learn more about how to strengthen your body, you walk into the gym and don’t need to head straight to the cardio machine while you wait for class to begin. You start taking your practice more into your own hands. 

When the body feels strong, the body feels safe. 

It’s time to stop worrying about having too much tension. Our aim is to direct the line of energy the parts of our bodies that need it, in the right doses.