Do your muscles feel so tight and tense you feel like they could snap? Does your massage therapist tell you that your muscles feel like rocks? Or maybe your partner can feel a crunch when they rub your shoulders. What do you do about chronically tight muscles? Or more importantly, what do you NOT do about it? Let me break it down for you in today’s blog.
What causes chronically tight muscles?
It’s super common to carry tension in your muscles. This may be caused by using your body a lot, like if you have a physically demanding job or are on your feet often during the day. This can also be emotional tension and stress. When stress isn’t properly processed, it can be stored in the muscles, especially the neck, shoulders, jaw, hips and low back. The result is tense, knotted and sore muscles, which nobody wants!
When your muscles are extremely tense like this, it can actually restrict the movement of your joints and body as a whole. Think of it like this. Clench your fist like you’re gripping something tightly and move it back and forth. Now relax your fist, then move it back and forth again. Which one felt easier? Chances are, it felt easier to move your fist when it was relaxed. The same is true for any part of the body. When there is tension around a joint, it’s harder to move it.
What NOT to do
Speaking from personal experience, if you carry a lot of muscle tension, then go do a lot of lifting or strength training, you’re going to feel worse afterward. Why? It’s not the lifting or strength training that’s the problem. Strength training is fabulous for the body. There are just some important steps to do FIRST to set your muscles and body up for success.
When your muscles are already tight and tense, they don’t have much capacity to contract because they are already contracted. You can’t get to where you want to go if you’re already there! If we think back to our clenched fist analogy, we need to relax the fist first before we’re able to move the wrist well.
How to relieve chronically tight muscles
So how exactly do you relax the area of tension and prevent it from getting tight again? This is where my 3-step process comes in. It helps my clients gain strength and resilience to perform in their workouts and in daily life. Let’s break it down:
- Calm tension in the body. My favorite two strategies are hands-on muscle release and awareness of the breath and body. Hands-on muscle release can be accomplished through dry needling, cupping, trigger point release, and myofascial release, just to name a few. Awareness of the breath and body is especially helpful when the source of muscle tension is related to emotional stress and overwhelm. Simply bringing awareness to how this feels in your body is a very effective way to ease the tension. Additionally, focusing on belly breathing allows the body to relax. There are physiological changes that happen within the nervous system when you practice intentional breathing. It promotes relaxation and a shift to the parasympathetic nervous system (aka the part that allows you to rest and digest).
- Retrain the way your body moves. Once you experience good muscle release, you need to teach the muscles how to work in an optimal way. Otherwise, they’re probably going to go right back to being tense because that’s what they’re familiar with! I like to think of it as a bunch of kindergarteners on the playground. If there are no teachers there to supervise, it will be absolute chaos! They just don’t know what to do so they get into everything. Just like those rowdy kindergarteners, your muscles need direction and instruction on how to function properly.
- Get strong! Once your body and muscles are moving well, you want to lock that in with strength training. Being strong makes your body resilient and capable of meeting the physical demands of daily life with ease.
And there you have it! If you’re experiencing chronically tight muscles, avoid jumping straight to heavy strength training before your body is prepped for it. Instead, follow my 3-step process first, then start to incorporate the right dose of strength training. Watch how your body thrives while also keeping tight muscles in check. Want a more customized plan that’s tailored to treating your areas of tension? Contact us.
