relaxing causing energy causing sore muscles?

[beoman]

Hey, wanted to report a phenomenon.

 

These days, whenever I lie down and meditate and get into a really comfortable state, I start getting bubbles bursting all over my body.

 

By 'meditate', I don't mean do energy work or anything - I mean relax, get into a nice state of mind, start doing vipassana or samatha if anything.

 

When I am relaxed, I'll get little bubbles appearing + bursting all over my body. I think they are related to energy. Each time one forms + pops I feel slightly better. stuff all over - arms, legs, chest. some really deep ones, some very light ones. some interesting ones around my knees - sometimes I get not a bubble, but it's like both edges of my knee suddenly come in and press quite hard, squeeze tightly, then are released. I don't control any of this, but it happens.

 

It especially happens if I hurt myself, like strained my wrist from drumming too much. I'll get tons of little bubbles around the damaged area.

 

if i lie down long enough (30min-1hr) i get so relaxed, don't want to move around anymore =P.

 

anyway, if i smoke some of the marijuana, this process happens even more so. nothing forced in any volitional sense, it just happens more. really don't want to get up then.

 

I've noticed a few times that, after getting tons of activity in, say, my legs, or my lower back, they will actually be sore the next day or two. This has happened a number of times. I've tried to correlate it with extraneous physical activity, but it seems to only be correlated with when i do this process.

 

my question is - what's going on? is it healthy (for muscles to get sore from this?)? anything i should change (not that i do anything in particular..) to make it 'work' for the 'better'? (in quotes since i dont know what it's doing or whether it's better. my intuition is that my body is healing itself and that it's great, but i dnno.)

[ChiDragon]

Hey, wanted to report a phenomenon.

 

These days, whenever I lie down and meditate and get into a really comfortable state, I start getting bubbles bursting all over my body.

 

By 'meditate', I don't mean do energy work or anything - I mean relax, get into a nice state of mind, start doing vipassana or samatha if anything.

 

1. When I am relaxed, I'll get little bubbles appearing + bursting all over my body. I think they are related to energy. Each time one forms + pops I feel slightly better. stuff all over - arms, legs, chest. some really deep ones, some very light ones. some interesting ones around my knees - sometimes I get not a bubble, but it's like both edges of my knee suddenly come in and press quite hard, squeeze tightly, then are released. I don't control any of this, but it happens.

2. It especially happens if I hurt myself, like strained my wrist from drumming too much. I'll get tons of little bubbles around the damaged area.

anyway, if i smoke some of the marijuana, this process happens even more so. nothing forced in any volitional sense, it just happens more. really don't want to get up then.

 

3. I've noticed a few times that, after getting tons of activity in, say, my legs, or my lower back, they will actually be sore the next day or two. This has happened a number of times. I've tried to correlate it with extraneous physical activity, but it seems to only be correlated with when i do this process.

 

4. my question is - what's going on? is it healthy (for muscles to get sore from this?)? anything i should change (not that i do anything in particular..) to make it 'work' for the 'better'? (in quotes since i dont know what it's doing or whether it's better. my intuition is that my body is healing itself and that it's great, but i dnno.)

1. When you do Chi Kung(vipassana or samatha), it was detoxicating your body. The bubbles were the toxin that your body wants to get rid of.

 

2. The bubbles formed around your wrist, it means your body was going through a healing process. Your white blood cells were repairing your damaged tissues. The little bubbles are the liquids leaked from the damaged body cells.

 

3. The soreness in your muscles was due to your extraneous physical activity. It was because your muscles had used up all the oxygen and the glucose was turned into lactic acid or lactate. Lactate will cause soreness in the muscle until your oxygen debt was paid back to the muscles.

 

4. It is not healthy for your body. In order to prevent the soreness just do your extraneous physical activity moderately or don't do it at all but just do Chi Kung only. Chi Kung will provide ample of oxygen to your body to prevent hypoxia, lack of oxygen, in the muscles.

[beoman]

3. The soreness in your muscles was due to your extraneous physical activity. It was because your muscles had used up all the oxygen and the glucose was turned into lactic acid or lactate. Lactate will cause soreness in the muscle until your oxygen debt was paid back to the muscles.

this was my main reason for posting. i didn't mean that i did lots of physical activity (i know muscles get sore from that =P) - i meant that i had a lot of energy activity from the relaxing-meditating, NOT physical activity, but my muscles got sore afterwards. at least, that's what it seems like. is it possible for that to happen?

[ChiDragon]

this was my main reason for posting. i didn't mean that i did lots of physical activity (i know muscles get sore from that =P) - i meant that i had a lot of energy activity from the relaxing-meditating, NOT physical activity, but my muscles got sore afterwards. at least, that's what it seems like. is it possible for that to happen?

oops....

Sorry, my bad English. I misinterpreted "extraneous" and thought it was "strenuous".

 

anyway, if i smoke some of the marijuana, this process happens even more so. nothing forced in any volitional sense, it just happens more. really don't want to get up then.

 

Maybe this was the cause of your sore in the muscles. Smoking this kind of stuff may deplete all the oxygen in your body. For the same reason, your glucose turns into lactate due to hypoxia and causing the soreness in the muscles. That's all I can think of it is the marijuana was doing something undesirable inside your body. IMO Energy should not have any adverse effect on your body but make it better. It seems to me that you have lots of toxin in your body. Why don't you try to stop smoking that stuff and see what happens...???

[Otis]

my question is - what's going on? is it healthy (for muscles to get sore from this?)? anything i should change (not that i do anything in particular..) to make it 'work' for the 'better'? (in quotes since i dont know what it's doing or whether it's better. my intuition is that my body is healing itself and that it's great, but i dnno.)

Hi Beoman,

 

What you're describing is very familiar to me.

 

IME of my body: when one muscle relaxes, then other muscles are revealed, as being too tense. They appear to be sore, but the truth is: they were already that sore, but I just didn't realize it.

 

Sensation is experienced via change. If I put a shirt on, I only feel it for awhile, and then it fades, until I think about, or take it off again.

 

Likewise, if my body is tighter than it needs to be (and I think most bodies are), then I only notice that tension, when something releases.

 

On top of that, prior to the relaxation, my body had achieved its own dysfunctional tense internal balance. Too tense muscles need to be balanced by other too tense muscles, and still other muscles end up being atrophied, due to disuse.

 

So, when a tense muscle relaxes, and I return to normal habitual physical activity, then the other tense muscles tend to freak out, to go into spasm, because they are no longer "balanced" by the earlier tension. The solution to this, is to carefully decompress from the relaxation, not go back into habitual action, but slowly, and with much listening, find the body's path of ease into movement.

 

I've spent the last ten years, unwinding my body from over-tension, and the pattern that you described, I've felt over and over again (including the use of weed). My attention shifts, with the pain in my body, and follows whatever needs most to be released, right now. As I release one thing, then some other area calls my attention to it, and I move there with my awareness. And then that releases, and a new area calls me to it, and so on.

 

Warning: if your body is anything like mine, then the process of releasing goes on and on. Once that Pandora's box (of putting attention into the body) is opened, then the path doesn't end quickly. It is amazing, how much tension and pain I was carrying around, without being aware of it. Releasing is joyful and (dare I say) spiritual work, but once I allowed myself to feel pain, then I am always aware of pain. I see that pain as my friend, as my road-map to unwinding, but there's no turning away from it, ever again, without going back into the unconscious tuned-out tension, that I had since childhood.

 

Edit to add: but it's worth it! My body has changed radically in the last 10 years, in terms of ability, flexibility, endurance, strength, and lack of injury. All this from the dual practices of unwinding/stretch and finding "authentic" (ease) movement/dance.

Edited July 6, 2011 by Otis