Relieve Muscle Tension with These Easy and Effective Techniques

Learn simple techniques for relieving muscle tension, such as stretching and massage, to improve your mobility and comfort.

Do you have a stiff neck? Achy? You can’t move as well as you used to?

One or more tight muscles are most likely to blame. But what exactly does it mean when muscles are tense?

Dr. Neal H. Patel of Providence St. Joseph Hospital in Orange County, California, compares the muscles to “rubber bands with a certain level of natural stretch and elasticity.” When someone says their muscles are tight, it means they are stiff like a rubber band and cannot move as freely or as elastically as they should.”

Why Do Tight Muscles Occur?
According to Claire Such, a physical therapist in sports medicine at Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center in Columbus, there are several reasons why your muscles may feel tight. “In some cases, the muscle is shortened in comparison to its ideal length,” she says. This can be caused by being too sedentary or being in the same position too frequently.

According to Such, “feelings of chronic muscle tightness can also be due to muscle weakness and fatigue” in other cases. This could indicate that the muscle group requires strengthening.

“If you don’t use it, you lose it,” Patel continues. As a result, he claims that if you don’t exercise or stretch regularly, you can reduce the natural movement and integrity of your muscle fibres and tendons.

Sitting, especially while concentrating on a computer or other device, is one of the most common causes of tight muscles.

“When you sit, you keep your hip flexors constantly shortened, yet underload(ed),” explains Dean Somerset, a kinesiologist and medical exercise specialist based in Alberta, Canada. After all, your hip flexors not only pull your knees up to your chest, but they also stabilise and help keep your spine in place. As if tight hip flexors weren’t bad enough, their constant tension also pulls the top of the pelvis forward, tightening your hamstrings and preventing you from touching your toes.

Meanwhile, chances are you’re hunched over a keyboard, tablet, or phone while sitting. “The ideal alignment is with the head directly over the spine,” says Somerset. “When you move your head forward, your upper (trapezius) muscles must work extremely hard to prevent your head from falling off your shoulders.” As a result, those muscles shorten and fatigue.

How to Relax Tight Muscles for Good
“If your muscles have tightened up, they’re not operating at 100% capacity,” says Kelly Collins, co-founder of SISSFiT, a programme designed to help women live healthier, fitter lives in Costa Mesa, California. “As a result, loosening your muscles will not only relieve stress and reduce your risk of injury, but will also improve your overall functional performance and the results of those workouts.”

According to Such, if you’re doing static stretching (moving the muscle into its longest position without pain and holding it for 15 to 20 seconds), “it’s important to perform this after you’re warm and finished with any exercise or activity you’re doing.” Warming up improves the results of both stretching and your workout.

When your muscles are tense, your body’s neuromuscular control system can become overprotective. Somerset describes this system as “an array of neurons and protective tissues that must fire (or not fire) in a specific way for any given muscle to stretch to its full physiological capacity.”

So, in order to fully stretch a muscle, your neuromuscular system must let go of its resistance to stretching that far. It accomplishes this by telling your muscles not to worry and that it is safe to stretch this far.

Stretching techniques known as “proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation,” or PNF, are commonly used by exercise physiologists to accomplish this. While there are several ways to perform PNF stretching, many experts believe the hold-relax with agonist contraction method is the most effective for combating excessive tightness, increasing muscle length, and improving range of motion. It’s a mouthful, but it’s simple enough to do at home with the assistance of a friend or family member.

Here’s how to do the stretch with commonly tight hamstrings, but this type of stretch can be applied to any tight muscle. Perform this stretch two to four times per day, either immediately after exercise or at the end of the day.

Step 1: Lie on your back on the floor, one leg straight out towards the ceiling. Hold your lifted leg firmly in place with one hand on your heel and the other on your knee.

Step 2: Have your partner press on your leg to move it towards your chest until you feel a mild hamstring stretch. Hold this stretch for 10 seconds with your partner. Make a point of relaxing into the stretch.

Step 3: With your partner still holding your leg firmly in the stretched position, contract your hamstring for six seconds to push against their hands and “fight” the stretch. Your leg should not move as you work in opposite directions.

Step 4: Relax into the stretch again, this time using your quads to “pull” your leg closer to your chest and deepen the stretch. Hold the position for 30 seconds. You should be able to stretch the hamstring even further than in Step 2.

Five Tips for Better Stretching
Including the following strategies in your routine can help you get more out of each stretch:

Increase your core strength.
According to Holly Perkins, author of “Lift to Get Lean,” a Los Angeles-based certified strength and conditioning specialist, “short, tight muscles are often caused by nothing more than a weak core.” That’s because your core is in charge of keeping your spine and pelvis stable. So, if your core is weak, your spine and pelvis will be out of alignment, causing you to tighten some muscles.

Perkins suggests strengthening the core with exercises such as planks and “dead bugs.” Lying on your back on the floor, engage your core muscles, and raise and lower your arms above your head and legs with knees bent in an alternating pattern that resembles a dead bug lying on its back.

Increase the muscle group’s strength.
Strengthening can also help relieve muscle tightness in muscle groups other than the core, according to Such. When it comes to strength, it’s best to gradually increase your strength training rather than trying to do too much all at once.

“Strengthening that muscle group gradually over time will allow for more permanent elimination of those sensations and will lend more dynamic stability (ensuring your body moves efficiently the way it was mechanically built) to the joint or joints it supports over time,” Such explains.

Combine stretching with foam rolling.
Spend some time with a foam roller before diving into your favourite stretches. While research on the effectiveness and best application of foam rolling has been mixed, there is some evidence that it can be a useful warmup activity to improve flexibility before exercise and can also reduce muscle fatigue and soreness after exercise.

Collins recommends that you spend at least 10 minutes stretching and foam rolling three times per week, regardless of your activity level.

Keep hydrated.
“Because muscles retain water, particularly after exercise, dehydration can also be a cause of muscle tightness,” Patel explains.

Make sure you’re getting enough water; the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine recommend 15.5 cups (3.7 litres or 125 ounces) of fluid per day for men and 11.5 cups (2.7 litres or 91 ounces) for women. Approximately 20% of your daily fluid needs are met by the foods you eat; the rest should be met by drinking, and plain water is usually the most effective drink you can reach for.

Increase the pressure.
Patel recommends getting a massage from a licenced professional, “ideally one that places deeper tissue pressure,” in addition to stretching. Massage guns like the Theragun or HyperIce, he says, can also help relax and break down muscle tension. These devices are commonly used in professional sports to assist athletes in reducing tightness when they are not actively participating in the game.

Combating an Aging Effect
Patel points out that, while tight muscles may appear to be an issue, they are not.

According to Dr. Akash Bajaj, a longevity specialist and the founder of the concierge wellness practise Remedy Wellness & Anti Aging in Marina del Ray, California, muscle tightness is common. “As we age, we can expect to experience episodes of muscle tightening due to lack of use, injuries, and mineral depletion, such as magnesium.”

Magnesium is essential for keeping muscles flexible and loose. “This is why we must pay special attention to staying young and treating our bodies well as early as possible,” Bajaj advises.

Moving as much as possible and incorporating stretching into your daily routine, just like brushing and flossing your teeth, can help keep your muscles supple and ready to move well into your golden years, according to Patel.