It’s incredibly common to hold tension in our bodies – and we often do it without even realising, whether that’s clenching our jaw, tensing our legs, hunching our shoulders or tensing our neck. Often, this tension is related to stress or anxiety and over time it can lead to knots and pain elsewhere in the body.
This muscle rigidity is actually one of the most common causes of muscle pain, but the good news is that there’s a lot you can do at home to treat it.
Breathing exercises, for example, can be particularly effective. Checking in with your body and noticing where you’re holding tension allows you to direct your breath to these areas, encouraging them to relax.
Over time, you’ll get to know your body better and will know where you like to hold tension the most, so you can quickly target these places and start to feel less tense.
Massage is another beneficial technique that can address this rigidity. When you’re very tense, the fibres in your muscles shorten and this can affect your movement, but massage therapy can relieve this tension by stretching and increasing the tissue elasticity.
You can do this at home using foam rollers, massage balls and massage guns, but you may find it particularly useful to see a physiotherapist if you’re feeling very restricted and are unable to resolve the tension on your own.
Another option to try is progressive muscle relaxation, where you tense your muscles up before relaxing them, letting go of that tension more easily.
To do this, sit or lie down somewhere quiet and make yourself comfortable. Start by tensing up all the muscles in your face, screwing up your eyes, clenching your teeth and moving your ears up. Hold this as you inhale and then let go of the tension on the exhale.
Repeat this process moving further down your body, until you’ve worked through all the muscle groups. Hopefully, you’ll finish the session feeling significantly more relaxed!
