I've always known that in general it's good to be flexible as well as strong, and stretching is important. I didn't know that in the short term, stretching can make a body a whole lot weaker.

One can learn a lot while working with qualified professionals. While struggling for the past several months to deal with a muscle problem (I call it a hip injury for short, but that's an oversimplification), I've learned the names and locations of all sorts of muscles that I'd never heard about (the psoas and iliopsoas, and something called the "TFL" for short, though I still haven't learned what that stands for).

Unbeknowst to me, I'd been running around with some extremely tight, shortened muscles (hip flexors, especially). My physical therapist, Mary Korslund at Merrimack Valley PT, says my hip was tighter than anyone she'd ever seen. My hip flexors, ITB, TFL and other associated stuff were so tight, they were pulling my leg out of place in my hip. Not good, in the long run.

After several weeks of intensive, daily stretching, I've got those hip flexors stretched out pretty near (if not quite) normal. Trouble is, they aren't used to that. They were good and strong when they were all clenched up. Now, as they get longer, I feel frail... because I am. Apparently, this newly elasticated muscle tissue has the fortitude of soggy Kleenex.

I'm still not sure how I got into this mess, but I know that it's been brewing since at least last fall. If there's a moral here, it's to pay attention to your body and seek help with problems sooner than later.