Muscles that feel tight are usually weak.
This isn't 100% always the case, but from my experience, people that come to me complaining of chronic "tightness" in their muscles usually have perfectly normal flexibility.
Many time they are even more flexible than most people!
So why do they always feel "tight"?
The theory for why this occurs is that muscles that are underutilized or weak tend to fatigue very easily. This fatigue gives a sensation of discomfort to the nervous system and brain.
Since, many times, it is difficulty for most people to decipher what this sensation actually means without anyone telling them otherwise, it is interpreted as "tightness" rather than "weakness". So the natural response is to feel that we should stretch these muscles.
In some cases, stretching does seem to relieve this "tightness" in the short term, but the muscle(s) never really STOPS feeling "tight" all the time. You may have experienced this yourself.
The key, in many cases, is to work on building up the STRENGTH and loading capacity of these muscles so that they can better manage the demands that we put on them during our daily lives, exercise, or sport. This will allow them to become more TOLERANT to fatigue and feeling less "tight" all the time.
This may seem counter intuitive if you've never thought about it this way, but you may be surprised by how good you feel after working on strengthening these muscles for a few months (remember building strength takes time)./
So what do you think? Do you have any "tight" muscles that never seem to feel relief in the long term?
If so you are the perfect person for one of my limited available FREE Total Body Diagnostic Movement Assessments. Just fill out the application HERE to get yours scheduled.
This isn't 100% always the case, but from my experience, people that come to me complaining of chronic "tightness" in their muscles usually have perfectly normal flexibility.
Many time they are even more flexible than most people!
So why do they always feel "tight"?
The theory for why this occurs is that muscles that are underutilized or weak tend to fatigue very easily. This fatigue gives a sensation of discomfort to the nervous system and brain.
Since, many times, it is difficulty for most people to decipher what this sensation actually means without anyone telling them otherwise, it is interpreted as "tightness" rather than "weakness". So the natural response is to feel that we should stretch these muscles.
In some cases, stretching does seem to relieve this "tightness" in the short term, but the muscle(s) never really STOPS feeling "tight" all the time. You may have experienced this yourself.
The key, in many cases, is to work on building up the STRENGTH and loading capacity of these muscles so that they can better manage the demands that we put on them during our daily lives, exercise, or sport. This will allow them to become more TOLERANT to fatigue and feeling less "tight" all the time.
This may seem counter intuitive if you've never thought about it this way, but you may be surprised by how good you feel after working on strengthening these muscles for a few months (remember building strength takes time)./
So what do you think? Do you have any "tight" muscles that never seem to feel relief in the long term?
If so you are the perfect person for one of my limited available FREE Total Body Diagnostic Movement Assessments. Just fill out the application HERE to get yours scheduled.
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