Herbal Antispasmodics for Tense Winter Muscles

If you're like me, keeping your muscles from tensing up during these coldest months of the year requires intention. As bodyworkers know, tense muscles abound in winter; this is the time of year that massage therapists are most likely to fill up their practices.

Physiologically this makes perfect sense. Our bodies are always trying to achieve homeostasis, or balance. Exposure to cold triggers our bodies to compensate to keep us safe - blood vessels constrict, blood flows to the core to keep our vital organs warm, and we shiver to generate heat. In the process constriction sets in.

Essentially, we brace ourselves against the cold. Add into the mix an array of daily or chronic stressors, trauma, oppression, or bearing witness as atrocities unfold on the global stage, and you can wind up with your own built in body armor of knots. This, like all armor, is meant to protect and shield us, but ends up sending a signal to our nervous systems that there is a threat. The knots tighten more.

How do we stay soft during these literal and metaphorical winterings, when there's plenty to brace against?

We can't force the body into softness. As a friend of mine who's a yoga teacher recently reminded me, if you stretch a muscle too far it will tear. Rather than pushing too hard too fast, by gently stretching and releasing a bit at a time, we eventually create more space, more suppleness. Like a branch in the wind we bend rather than break.

Stretching and other movement practices can help with tension, but aren't always accessible to everyone for a variety of reasons. For those with limited mobility, chronic illness, certain injuries, time constraints, or mental health struggles, releasing through movement may not always be possible or the right fit.

Plants can be an external support in these circumstances. When tension is part of the picture, herbalists reach for what we call antispasmodics - herbs that reduce tension/spasm in muscles. Sometimes this happens directly, via chemistry that acts on either smooth or skeletal muscle, or both, and sometimes this happens reflexively, via calming the nervous system - a grounded nervous system can break the cycle of storing tension in the body.

The body works through feedback loops. Softness in the body can also soften an overly "stiff" nervous system. In somatic approaches to therapy they call this a "bottom up" approach: releasing tension in the physical body as a starting point for emotional release. Antispasmodic herbs can be part of this bottom up approach.

There are many antispasmodics, and each fits different circumstances and physiological presentations. Here are just a few of my favourites for when life leads to too much bracing:

• 🌿 Passionflower: helps release stress-induced spasms and tension, quells teeth-grinding, soothes backaches. I reach for passionflower for the person experiencing a combination of circular thinking and body aches, especially when it’s leading to insomnia. Passionflower increases the calming neurotransmitter GABA (if adrenaline is the gas pedal on the nervous system, we can think of GABA as the breaks). It also contains a variety of flavonoids - some that are antispasmodic and some that are analgesic - making it a helpful ally when tension contributes to chronic pain.

  🌿 Catnip: not just for our feline friends! Unlike the spastic effect it produces in most cats, catnip a mild sedative for humans. I love catnip for a nervous belly - when stress and tension manifest as holding in the gut, leading to indigestion, bloating, or constipation. I also reach for it to provide relief from tension headaches.

  🌿 Skullcap: a key ally for nervous irritability - that “wired and tired” feeling, especially for tension that’s been there for a long time and manifests as twitchiness or restlessness. I love skullcap for the person who has reached overwhelm, who is thinking, feeling, and processing a lot. My teacher Larken Bunce recommends skullcap for people with "too many whiskers" - i.e. overly stimulated by their environment.

These herbs are widely available on the market in both tea and tincture form. You should be able to find them at your local apothecary or health food store*.

Wishing you softness as we navigate the rest of this season.