There are many reasons you can experience tightness in a
particular muscle or overall in your body.
Nearing 40years of age, I have been training since I was 15,
coaching many athletes from almost two decades. I can give you a general know
how that why you get tight even after regular physical activity or otherwise.
1) Hormones: - In women as they age nearing 40 estrogens
levels start dropping they can become tight and inflexible. On the other hand
in men as the testosterone levels peak up in their twenties they can become tight
and stiff as collagen fibres tend to dense up with increased testosterone
levels.
2) Dehydration: - It’s not about grabbing a glass of water
just now. Chronic dehydration surely is a huge cause for stiffness in any age
group and gender. Black coffee, alcohol, sugary foods and high simple carbs
diet worsens the situation.
Having an apple instead of a black coffee and muffin will
help you to reduce tightness in hamstrings if you feel like munching while
sitting on a desk. Drinking plenty of water throughout the day is advised as it
makes muscles supple. Also frequent loo breaks will add up to your daily active
minutes.
Most of us fight with early morning stiffness that’s because
of less water intake the day before followed by high carb dinner and dessert.
Remove simple carbs completely from your dinner plate and a big no to post
dinner dessert.
Another reason of morning tightness is that your organs
ligaments and joints absorb more water as you sleep. Your fascia and muscles
hold enough water at night so body drives that water to the organs that make
you feel tight in the morning. It is advised to have a glass of water before
you sleep and at least a 500ml as soon as you get up before putting your first
step down on the ground.
3) Inactivity: - Chair sucks your fluidity. Sitting on a
desk for more than an hour or while commuting makes you tight, your hip and
spine becomes stiff no doubt about that. A simple four word formula works like
magic for most of the sedentary population "M.O.V.E". As simple as
walking around in office, while talking on phone, standing work tables,
standing meet-ups will make a huge difference in your musculoskeletal system
and you may feel relief from chronic aches and pains.
Things can get worse with prolong sitting as constant
pressure on some areas like more weight on one side while sitting can compress
nerves and arteries of that area and you might even feel referral plain in
other parts of the body for e.g. sciatica nerve pain. So get up and move as you
read this article...
4) Lack of proper warm-up and mobilization techniques: - This
is for my fitness lovers and fairly active people. With new fitness trends coming
up every other day and time crunch for a full one hour workout people try to
squeeze it into short bouts of high intensity multiple times in a week. Good
for many but there is a problem; ideally there is a transition time between
rest to exercise and then back to rest. “Warm-up - Workout - Cool down” This
applies even to a 10min exercise session with 5 min warm-up and 5 min cool down
exercises. Without these transition periods you are just shocking the body with
immediate stress and its leaves muscles, organs and fascia in dilemma state and
you might not see any major improvement but keep falling prey to injuries and
prolonged stiffness.
Even if you want to stretch your hamstrings in office it is
advised to walk for a few minutes before attempting the stretch.
5) Injuries: – A fall, soft tissue injuries or bone
fractures all can make a joint or series of joints stiff and tight, so if you
are feeling tightness in hip while running when you are 40 it can be your ankle
sprain in a football match in class 10th. Idea is to ask few questions before
accessing any issues for pains and aches at any point of time in life.
Aggressive rehabilitation work is required to fix musculosketal injuries
including the past ones as fresh issues will keep coming back till the time we
don’t fix the old ones.
6) Inflammation: - Minor stiffness post a hard workout is ok
and gets better in a day or two but chronic inflammations can make you feel
tight and sore all the time. Check your diet and lifestyle to counter these
issues. Caffeine and nicotine can make things worse on the other hand having a
cup of warm turmeric milk can ease out the situation and then you can work upon
mobility and flexibility exercises to release stiffness.
The EYE OPENER!
Due to my early morning commitments, I use to sleep for
about two hours after my lunch. Even with a very light dinner comprising
vegetables chicken breast and soup I was unable to figure out what’s going
wrong with my left shoulder as it was getting tighter and I was unable to lift
weights as I used to do few months back. Reduced range of motion and clicking
sound was bothering me in every workout. Trigger point releases during warm-up
enabled me to complete my workout but next morning it used to go back to same
position. It became a long non breaking cycle. Then one day I was just so tired
I skipped my lunch and just fell asleep after my classes in first half of the
day. I got up around 4:00pm and my shoulder was not bothering me. I had my pre
workout meal and headed to gym. I was surprised with the range of motion and
flexibility in the shoulder. Since then I started replacing my lunch with fruit
yogurt protein smoothie and a handful of almonds giving a time gap of 30-60mins
before my afternoon nap. I started improving on my shoulder stiffness and had a
pain free push up after a long time. Looked up for articles, researches and
journals but could not find any.
What I concluded if your insulin levels are still high and
blood still has higher sugar levels and you lie down high sugar blood gets
trapped in muscles as skeletal load restricts blood flow on the side you sleep
(I sleep on my left) you tend to get up tight on the same side more often.
Disclaimer :- This article is not intend to prevent/ cure /
treat any severe medical conditions, please refer to your dietician for diet
modifications and your doctor / exercise specialist for any modification in
your training program or before starting one.
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