Why Do Muscles Feel Tight?

And what does 'tight' even mean? That the muscles are short? That they can't relax? And what you can do about it?

When someone says a muscle or body part feels tight they're probably referring to one of these scenarios:

• They have a reduced range of motion
• Their range of motion is OK but it feels uncomfortable or that somethings pulling at the end range
• That muscle or body part isn't able to relax fully
• There's a non-specific, unpleasant feeling of discomfort but not enough to be called pain

Would you agree? 

And that's the issue. Tightness is more of a feeling, rather than something tangible or physically measurable.

So why might a muscle feel 'tight' even if it's not actually physically or measurably tight?

Let's use pain as an analogy.

Pain is a sensation, a feeling, similar to muscle tension. 

Acute pain is often accurate, and acts like an alarm. Think of the pain you feel if you touch something very hot, which immediately informs your brain to send nerve signals to your hand to let go before you get burned. 

But pain can also exist in the absence of any tissue damage. This is typically the case with chronic or persistent pain.

This happens because pain is your brain's opinion of what's dangerous. Sometimes alarms can go off even when there's no actual threat - think of a car alarm that trips when a cat walks across the bonnet, or when the fire alarm responds to burnt toast!

Muscle tension may be thought of as an early warning signal that the muscle is doing something it shouldn't be or wasn't designed to do.

For example, if you trip and sprain your ankle ligament your calf muscles may start feeling 'tight' because they're now being recruited to stabilise the ankle joint. The sensation of tension is physiological stress and fatigue from the muscles doing the work of the damaged ligament.

What Can You Do To Resolve Muscle Tightness and Tension?

By treating muscle tension in a similar way to chronic pain -> change one or more of the inputs into the brain that's leading to a perception of threat.

An obvious strategy to relieve tight muscles is to stretch them.

But if the sensation of tightness isn't coming from the muscle being physically short, is pulling on the muscle to make it longer actually effective?

Many people with tight muscles stretch regularly, sometimes daily, and often aggressively. but their muscle still feel tight, or they feel better but the tension comes back a few hours or days later.

Stretching can have an analgesic effect so you feel less discomfort, but it's only a temporary respite.

Aggressively stretching the muscles, or working the soft tissue with tools like foam rollers and lacrosse balls to break adhesions and melt fascia, may increase your nervous system's sensitivity to stimuli. dialling up discomfort and pain.

Personally I favour a somatic, motor control approach to relieving muscle tightness and tension.

This is where we look to break the habitual patterns that lead to pain, tightness and tension. 

We do this by making the brain aware of the inputs that it's perceiving as threatening, and then showing the brain that these aren't actually dangerous and offering an alternative action.

For example, you gently move the muscle further INTO the tension first, then move out of the tension. When you feel the tension returning to zero, or at least reducing, you pause and allow the nervous system to feel and calibrate this new response.

This type of stretching is called pandiculation, and essentially reboots the nervous system.

This is in direct contrast to traditional methods of stretching where you're trying to move OUT of tension by lengthening the muscle to reduce tightness.

TAKEAWAY

When your muscles feel 'tight' remember that this is often a sensation, rather than structural damage that requires an aggressive solution to reset.

Pain, tightness and tension are sensations on a spectrum. They're responses of the nervous system to a perception of threat.

By changing your brain's perception of what's dangerous you can change how your body responds habitually.

You can learn how to do this in my new event starting in February 2024:

THE BEFRIEND YOUR BODY (BYB) METHOD WORKSHOP RETREAT

How to reduce persistent or recurring pain and muscle tension to move easily and confidently, WITHOUT hard stretches or pricey equipment.

Saturday 10th and Sunday 11th February, 1pm to 5.15pm

Two afternoons where you'll learn how to bring stability, balance and ease back into your body. Each day will finish with a deeply relaxing sound bath experience.

In addition, you'll also receive 30 days of 1:1 personal support to help you implement what you learn from the weekend to build a 10 - 15 mins home care routine that you can use to dial down pain and tension any time.

NEXT STEPS

1) Get yourself onto the early bird interest list for The BYB Method Workshop Retreat : EARLY BIRD LIST 

There are just 6 spaces for each weekend workshop retreat. 

Get on the early bird interest list here to receive all the details first:

EARLY BIRD LIST 

2) You can also:

• Book into a Stretch, Yoga or Pilates class with me - these are a good introduction to The BYB Method and take the first steps to your pain-free body.
• Attend a mind-body retreat - these are deeply relaxing, fun, social small group experiences typically held in various locations within easy reach of Worthing, West Sussex. The next retreat is  on Sunday 24th March.
• Subscribe HERE to receive "The Movement Chronicle", a weekly e-newsletter delivering mobility and pain reduction tips directly into your inbox every Monday morning,

If you would like support with managing pain or an injury please reach out to me on any of these channels:

• Email at norma.pearson1@ntlworld.com
• DM me on Facebook Messenger 
• WhatsApp message to 07801 867361.