There may be several reasons why your muscles are always tight. The most common reasons are dehydration, poor sleeping positions, muscle weakness, and muscle inhibition.
The symptoms make it hard to make any type of movement that is usually pretty simple, such as stretching out your arms or walking. In a healthy person, the stiffness will usually go away on its own; especially if it was caused by exercise or sleeping in an awkward position.
Massage is an effective treatment to release muscle tightness. Massage uses a range of techniques to increase the blood flow, break down inflexible scar tissue and stretch and loosen muscles. Pain is decreased from allowing the muscle to move and restoring blood flow.
The greatest change in ROM with a static stretch occurs between 15 and 30 seconds;13,14 most authors suggest that 10 to 30 seconds is sufficient for increasing flexibility. In addition, no increase in muscle elongation occurs after 2 to 4 repetitions.
A deficiency in magnesium is most likely to cause muscle stiffness because this nutrient is needed to keep muscles flexible and moving efficiently, as well as relaxed.
Muscles that feel tight are generally short and weak. The common misconception surrounding strength training is that it will make your muscles really tight.
"Working out when sore is okay as long as it isn't affecting your movement to the point where it's causing you to compensate and do something in a way that's unsafe," says Dr. Hedt. "Muscle soreness can be a deterrent to exercising, but it's temporary and the more you exercise, the less you should feel it.
Tight and rigid muscles are often the result of injury. In some cases, muscle tightness and rigidity may come with other symptoms, such as muscle pain, muscle spasms, or reduced mobility. Mild muscle tightness and rigidity is often benign and treatable.
Chronic muscle tension may increase your risk of heart disease. When the muscles remain in a constant state of tension, blood pressure rises, placing additional stress on arteries, blood vessels and organs. Subsequently, this can lead to stroke or other serious heart disease.
Magnesium is essential for proper muscle function and acts to relieve tight, sore and cramped muscles. It controls muscle contraction and acts as a muscle relaxant.
Magnesium- This mineral is a natural calcium blocker, helping your muscle relaxes after contracting. When magnesium levels are low, your muscles may contract too much and cause symptoms such as cramps or muscle spasms.
Myotonia is a rare condition where your muscles aren't able to relax after they contract. For example, you might not be able to let go of someone's hand after you shake it, or you may have trouble standing up. This disorder can affect other organs throughout your body.
Magnesium. Magnesium plays a major role in the tissue and muscle health in any part of your body. While calcium helps generate contractions in the muscles, magnesium is in charge of helping muscles relax after said contractions.
"When your muscles are making energy anaerobically, lactic acid is created as a byproduct," says Dr. Hedt. "It does build up in the muscle during exercise, and your muscle can be chock-full of it by the time you finish a strenuous workout, but generally all of this lactic acid is gone within about an hour afterwards."
If you have tight or cramping muscles but don't have a muscle relaxer or want to avoid the side effects of one, consider OTC options or home remedies. NSAIDs like ibuprofen and naproxen can help alleviate acute back pain or muscle pain.
Polymyalgia rheumatica is a common condition that causes pain and stiffness in older adults. Symptoms include severe muscle aches and stiffness, unexplained weight loss and fatigue. Some people with polymyalgia rheumatica develop giant cell arteritis (inflammation of the arteries).
Get medical care right away or go to the emergency room if you have muscle pain with: Trouble breathing or dizziness. Extreme muscle weakness with problems doing routine daily activities. A high fever and stiff neck.
Spasticity is stiff or rigid muscles. It may also be called unusual tightness or increased muscle tone. Reflexes (for example, a knee-jerk reflex) are stronger or exaggerated. The condition can interfere with walking, movement, speech, and many other activities of daily living.
It is used to relieve pain associated with muscle spasm such as strains and sprains, back pain, and tense neck muscles.