Feeling tight? Try these tips.

Muscle stiffness can be a result of a number of things. Two common reasons include exercise and stress.

When you feel sore and stiff after a workout it is often due to minuscule tears in the muscle fibers caused during an intense workout. These micro tears signal to the body that there is damage that needs to be repaired, which results in a feeling of soreness and tightness in the affected muscles.

In contrast, long periods of inactivity might also lead your body to feel tight. This can be due to lack of joint lubrication, poor body posture, etc.

When you are feeling extremely stressed or worried, you might tighten up your muscles as a coping mechanism. Cortisol, the stress hormone, gets released into the body in response to your stress, and this can cause you to go into a ‘fight or flight response’ and your muscles tense up. You might not even realize you’re doing this but the end result can be muscle discomfort.

Tips for relieving muscle tightness

Luckily, there are some great ways you can relieve muscle tightness or potentially reduce it in the future.

Stretching

Stretching is a great way to lengthen your muscles and helps keep them feeling flexible. Although stretching after exercise might not prevent you from feeling sore, a regular stretching routine is still beneficial. This is because stretching can help improve how your muscles work and may reduce your risk of injury.  

Mobilization work

Alongside your stretching routine, it is helpful to work on mobilizing your joints. This is when you move your joints in a full range of motion. For example, you could start with neck and shoulder rolls, followed by oblique stretches, hip circles, leg swings, and ankle rolls.

Light movement

Whether you’re sore from the gym or from inactivity, getting in some light movement might just be the remedy that you need to relieve your muscle stiffness. Simply taking a light walk around the park or doing some gentle yoga at home can be great ways to move your body without causing excess stress.

Drink water

Some studies show that being dehydrated can affect your muscle endurance and may decrease your performance. If your muscle cells aren’t supplied with enough water, they are at increased risk of being damaged during your workout and feeling stiff and sore after your workout.