People in pain commonly complain of tightness and stiffness, while health professionals often blame tissues – like tight muscles and stiff joints – as the cause of pain.

Consequently, treatments that purportedly loosen and release ‘problematic’ tissue structures have become very popular, such as massage, manipulation, scraping, cupping, needling, stretching and foam rolling.

Besides the issue that these treatments do not meaningfully change tissue structure, there is a mismatch between ‘perception’ of tightness/stiffness and ‘reality’. That is, ‘feeling’ tight and stiff does not equate to ‘being’ tight and stiff.

This mismatch is particularly true when we have pain because pain distorts how we perceive our body. For instance:

• In one study, people with back pain who reported stiffness were shown ‘not’ to have more ‘measured’ stiffness when compared to those without back pain.¹
• In another study, people with neck pain who reported stiffness were shown ‘not’ to have more ‘objective’ stiffness than those without neck pain.²

Tightness and stiffness may just be normal protective (arguably overprotective) sensations that do not necessarily have to be fixed.

If you want to reduce those sensations and treatments like massage and stretching help, then you can keep using them. However, it could be worthwhile reconsidering what those sensations mean to you because you might be able to save some time, money and effort.

Interestingly, just working on your general health, such as moving more and sleeping better, can help to reduce your sensitivity to such sensations but also provide additional health benefits.

As always, consult with a trusted health professional for advice specific to you.

TL;DR:

1. ‘Feeling’ tight doesn’t always mean ‘being’ tight.
2. Feeling tight can be normal and ignoring the sensation can be an option.

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References:

1. Stanton et al. (2017) (PMID: 28851924)

2. Dieterich et al. (2020) (PMID: 31905095)