“I’m so tight”, “I’m immobile” and “I need to stretch more” are 3 common issues you hear athletes bemoaning. Often times it is also those athletes who are spending hours each week rolling, mashing, stretching and band distracting themselves without any discernible improvements in movement quality. Before you fix the problem, you need to understand what it actually means for a muscle to be tight…

-Athletes often refer to a lack of movement ability as muscle tightness, but it is not actually a structural issue at all.

-Muscle shortness is a going to cause a lack of range of motion but that will likely only arise through a chronic lack of motion (ie. having your arm bent in a cast for several weeks)

-What people often perceive as tightness is actually their nervous system protecting them from a certain range of motion where they lack stability.

Now that we understand what it actually means to be ‘tight’, we can begin to discuss solutions. How can you assess if tightness truly exists or just a change in structural position can achieve improved movement…