Question about the lightning network

Hi Everyone, let's start some conversations on here. I think it is more interesting than just posting links.

I have a question. Regarding the lightning network, my understanding is that every time a transaction goes across a channel it locks up the BTC in that direction for each channel. My confusion is that this sounds like it will lock up a lot of BTC.

For example, let's say we send 1BTC through 5 channels to get to the payee. That is 1 BTC for each channel, so 5 BTC would then be stuck in one orientation and a transaction of equivalent size would have to come through in the other direction to clear it up. But if BTC is more often moving in one direction over the other, how does this resolve without constantly having to reconcile it with the main blockchain?

Is there a trick or some other solution I am missing here? Or will these bottlenecks always form?