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Great works are performed, not by strength, but by perseverance.” – Samuel Johnson

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Tense muscles cause many more problems than the majority of people realize.

There are many causes for muscles becoming tense, from body posture to stress and even improper exercise. Injuries can cause this as well, although this is the most difficult cause to recognize, as injuries can cause a muscle problem days or even weeks later, with no noticeable symptoms at the moment the injury happened.

The next logical question when experiencing muscle tension would be what can be done to reduce it.

Many people go the route of therapy or just don’t bother doing anything, to wait it out. In most cases the tension in the muscles can be caused by the way the muscles are being used. When that is the cause, there are ways to resolve it with more exercise. Many times, all it takes is a change in the form of exercise you do, to notice muscle tension being reduced. Results with muscles take patience to achieve, so whatever change it is, the best is to keep at it even when the lack of results demoralize you.

I myself never thought that regular exercises done consistently for a longer period of time would have much of an effect.

In many cases where a specific muscle was tense and/or was causing discomfort, I was already doing an exercise for that muscle, which made it difficult for me to understand why this was happening. It turned out that the exercise for that muscle was not in the proper frequency, intensity or duration to develop the muscle enough to counteract tension caused by the muscles surrounding it.

Normally, muscles shouldn’t have this effect on each other, although there is an explanation. When muscles are more developed, they can handle higher intensity, frequency or duration exercises; Relatedly, when a specific muscle is not developed enough, it is too weak to handle the strain the more developed muscles place on it and all too easily moves out of proper placement.

A great example to explain how this happens, as I have experienced it personally:

Over-developed chest muscles combined with under-developed back muscles will have the effect of the chest muscles pulling the back muscles out of place.

I thought this wasn’t a possible cause for the discomfort I felt until I started changing my exercise routines every few weeks as well as eliminating training with heavy weights. It was after that change that I noticed the tension my back muscles had, slowly go away.

Before that happened, I tried other methods, too; There was some relief from stretching, although it was largely a temporary solution giving relief for a half hour at most. Weight training focused on increasing muscle strength and mass in my back did help some as well. It took me a long time to find a combination of exercise and stretches that made a lasting improvement.

Where did this realization come from?

At a certain point about 5-6 years ago, I started experimenting more with stretching, mainly to become more flexible. As I tried new stretches and increased the difficulty of ones I was already used to, other changes started to be noticeable; muscle discomfort that I once assumed was something I would have to live with soon started to go away. In some cases, it no longer was a problem as long as I continued with the same formula.

What could be the main causes for the muscle discomfort I had? I often wondered as there was no specific moment in time that I could define as the exact cause. Eventually it became clear to me that many small stresses added up to the muscle tension being what it was. Among the most prominent and frequent of these was that I spent too much time sitting. It depends from person to person how long is spent stationary in a sitting position, although it’s certain that nearly everyone living in North America spend far too much of the day in a sitting position. By nature, the human body isn’t designed to sit for long periods of time. There is a wealth of information available online detailing the tension this creates in the muscles on the back of your legs. For those who don’t believe it’s true, just try for yourself a stretch where you bend your upper body downwards at the waist and try to touch your feet with your hands; a fairly good indicator of this muscle being too tense is the inability to get your hands even past your knees.

This muscle being tense directly has an effect on the flexibility of your lower back muscles. There is no easy way to get around the North American lifestyle; houses are far from any businesses and stores, rarely does somebody work within walking distance of their workplace, friends and relatives live near and far, requiring much traveling. And on top of that, the distances are often large between destinations and/or the amount of traffic to be dealt with leaves us no choice.

A factor that is rarely taken into account on why people keep living a lifestyle, even if it isn’t the best: Societal influences such as attitudes and beliefs.

These two have a strong influence, although are rarely recognized or discussed.

Have you wondered, why do certain countries have different lifestyles than countries in other parts of the world and above that, these lifestyles are still untouched even after so much has changed in the world?

Certainly the layout and design of buildings and infrastructure along with the population density play a role, although it can’t be said that it is a major one. All of this changes with time, and logically lifestyle would change.

Obviously, that’s not the reality.

Instead, the way I view it, the more realistic explanation would be societal attitudes and beliefs. These influences cross generations and rarely change, even if generation after generation tries to actively make a change.

I feel this is why countries that had one specific lifestyle a century or more ago still have more or less the same lifestyle now.

Backtracking to the main point of this article, to finish off:

For me, small changes in my lifestyle and daily or weekly schedule made substantial improvements over the long term.

Give it a try yourself!

Just make sure not to set an unrealistic standard which you can’t maintain for more than a week with your current lifestyle and schedule. The longer you keep at one specific change, the more noticeable improvements in your health will be.

Make your goal the long term result, instead of hoping for something to change overnight.