08/09/2021
Experiencing muscle tightness after workout ⁉️ Tight muscles are not only frustrating and painful, but can also limit movement. Worst of all, they can make it harder to stick to your exercise program. 🥴
🙆🏾♂️Knowing how to manage and prevent tight muscles will help keep you exercising. Muscles can tighten up for a number of reasons. Three times when muscle tightness can occur are during periods of prolonged inactivity, during exercise, and post-exercise.
🤔so, what causes muscle tightness? During prolonged inactivity, for example long days and weeks working at a desk, working at a desk ,some muscles can get tight as a result of their restricted movement. When you are seated at a desk, your hips are in a bent, or flexed, position. This puts the muscles on the front of the hip (hip flexors) in a shortened position, and the muscles on the back of the hip (glutes ) in a lengthened position. In addition, as you sit at a desk reaching forward to work on a computer, your chest muscles (pectorals) will be in a shortened position, while your upper back muscles (rhomboids) will be in a lengthened position. Over time, this can result in muscle imbalances with the shortened muscles becoming “tight” and the lengthened muscles becoming weak.
If you look around you, you’ll notice many people have developed poor posture with forward rounded shoulders and underdeveloped glutes.❌ 🍑
😣Another time when muscles tighten up is during exercise, for example, a muscle cramp. During a muscle cramp, the muscle fibers remain shortened and are unable to lengthen due to fatigue or improper hydration and nutrition. Let’s the muscle relax, because stretching the muscle too fast can result in injury.
👍🏽Muscles can also tighten up following exercise. This is felt as muscle soreness. Soreness felt is a result of small ruptures within the muscle. While the soreness will usually disappear within 72 hours of onset, increased blood flow to the sore area, either by moderate intensity exercise or massage may help soreness.🙌🏽