The first thing some clients want to know is: “What stretches can I do to relieve tightness?”
While I have some favorites to help with acute feelings of tightness, I don’t recommend relying on only stretching to fix chronic tightness which is attributed to unaddressed weakness and bad posture. In these cases “tight” muscles need to be strengthened. Additionally the joints near these muscles need to keep moving through the full range of motion (such as in mobility drills) to allow freedom for the muscle to shorten and lengthen in a natural way and not just through forced passive stretching.
I occasionally enjoy a nice stretch but when it comes to chronic day to day tightness in muscles around the hips and spine, addressing strength and mobility is key.
The most common areas for chronic tightness are the hip flexors and hamstrings. When these muscles are weak they may already be under lengthening and pressure. For example, in a person with anterior pelvic tilt (hip tilting forward with overly lumbar extension) the hip flexors are in a near constant state of lengthening and fatigue. To fight this, our brain sends a signal to the muscle to become rigid. This rigidness is a defensive position a weak muscle takes in order to continue its job at least in the minimum capacity.
After the short lived relief wears off from stretching the muscle goes back to it’s weak and defensive state. Tightness will continue to come back if the underline problem(s) aren’t addressed: 1) Lack of strength 2) Lack of movement in the surrounding joints.
How exactly does strength training help with tightness?
- Neural control through both eccentric (lengthening of muscle under load), and concentric (shortening of muscles under load) muscle actions.
- Improved joint range of motion and muscle elasticity.
- Recruitment and increased length of muscle fibers.
- Adaptation of muscle to grow in size and/or density.
- Increased strength and elasticity of tendons and ligaments.
- Increased stability of joints.