Q&A Video #7: Why do my muscles shake when I’m practicing the movements?

Transcript of video:

Hi guys! Today I’m answering the question: Why do my muscles sometimes shake when I’m practicing the movements?

If There are two typical reasons why your muscles might shake. The first is simply muscle fatigue. Even though these movements are intended to be very gentle, it does take some strength and control to move slowly. So, you may notice that certain muscle groups tend to get fatigued when you’re moving very slowly through a range of motion repeatedly. Students often report this happening in the Internal Hip Rotator Release, in which you slowly lower your knee out to the side. If your muscles are shaking due to fatigue, it’s nothing to worry about, but you can take it as a sign that you’ve done enough of that movement for the day.

Your muscles might also get fatigued if you’re holding a part of your body in one position for a while. For example, in the neutral starting position with your knees bent and feet on the floor, some students report that their hip adductors, the muscles on the inside of their thighs, start shaking. This is typically because their external hip rotators and abductors are tight, pulling their knees outward, and their adductors have to work extra hard to keep their legs in this parallel position. So, doing Somatics exercises to release those tight muscles, like the External Hip Rotator Release, Gluteal Release, and Iliotibial Band Release, should help to alleviate that issue.

The second reason why you might feel your muscles shaking is actually due to the process of your nervous system releasing tension. This might feel like shaking, or it might feel more like painless muscle twitching. As your muscles start to “wake up” and release after being stuck in a frozen, contracted state, sometimes the nervous system doesn’t know whether to keep them tight or let them relax!

The nervous system is dealing with conflicting messages, the old versus the new, and the result is muscle twitching or shaking. The twitching or shaking should be temporary, and you can take it as a sign of progress. You can just relax and allow the twitching to happen as you continue your movement. Or, you can try to make the twitching stop by taking a break, making the movement smaller or more gentle, or just trying to stay more relaxed as you do the movement.

So, I hope that was helpful! Thanks for watching, and I’ll see you next time!