Muscle tightness isn’t just how your muscles feel. There are actual physiological changes to muscles fibers, fascia, and nervous system regulation that cause you to feel stiff and restrict movement. Understanding muscle tightness and how soft tissue treatment restores motion can help you take a proactive approach to reduce pain and improve your mobility.
At Alpha Sports Performance Medicine, we combine soft tissue therapy, corrective exercise, and performance training to help people move more freely and feel better.
Let’s talk about why your muscles get tight in the first place.
Why Do Muscles Become Tight?
Microscopic changes within your muscles can cause fibers to be stuck in a semi-contracted state. When sarcomere length is altered and cross bridges are maintained, your muscles resist being stretched and feel stiff.
Repeated movement or injury can cause muscle tone to increase as nervous system receptors become sensitized. Muscle spindles respond more readily to stretch which means your muscle can’t relax as much.
Connective tissue can also develop adhesions that cause neighboring muscles to overactivate and limit smooth gliding motion.
What Does Soft Tissue Therapy Do?
Therapists can use their hands to apply pressure to specific areas within your muscles and fascia. Techniques like myofascial release, trigger point therapy, and deep tissue massage work to break up adhesions and restrictions.
Direct mechanical pressure elongates tight muscle fibers and loosens tissue. Sensory feedback from the treatment also impacts nervous system behavior by:
Decreasing muscle guard
Lowering baseline muscle tone
There’s even evidence that soft tissue therapy helps muscles relax more than stretching alone.
Increases Circulation
Soft tissue work improves circulation in the treated area. Manual pressure creates a pumping action that stimulates blood flow at the microvascular level.
Increased circulation means more oxygen and nutrients are available to deliver nutrients to the tissues. Lymphatic flow increases as well which helps clear metabolic waste and reduce swelling.
This may be one reason why many athletes experience less soreness and improved range of motion immediately after soft tissue therapy.
Decreases Muscle Tightness
As your muscles and fascia become unstuck, your joints have a greater capacity to move. You experience increases in range of motion without compensating with other muscles.
You’ll also be able to create force more efficiently through a full range of motion. Not only does this allow you to move better, but it also protects against strains that can occur when muscles become restricted or overloaded.
Preventive exercises can help maintain this improved mobility.
Decreases Compensation
Compensation occurs when your body tries to move or complete a task without using the muscles it normally would. Over time, these alternative movement patterns become “learned” by your body and cause you to move improperly on a chronic basis.
Compensation can contribute to pain and injury by overloading joints with excess stress. Soft tissue therapy helps break the cycle of compensation by releasing short tight muscles.
When you combine mobilization with exercise that trains your body to move correctly, you’ll move better and decrease your chance of developing repeated issues.
Tools Used During Soft Tissue Therapy
This type of treatment allows the practitioner to more precisely feel and treat deep fascial restrictions.
Compression techniques may be used to access deeper layers by applying negative pressure to separate the tissue.
Cupping
Very similar to instrument assisted soft tissue mobilization, cupping uses negative pressure (created by a handheld pump) to lift soft tissues. As therapists move cups across the skin, patients experience deep decompression to restricted areas.
Percussion Tools
Sometimes referred to as “tap-ing”, percussive therapy is used to increase soft tissue circulation and decrease muscle tone. These portable devices come in different tip sizes and material (rubber or plastic) to allow the clinician to deliver rapid stimulation to muscle tissue.
The Purpose of Soft Tissue Therapy and Why It’s Important
Like most rehabilitation and training services, soft tissue work should be periodized based on your training or activity levels. Follow up appointments should be used to assess improvements in mobility, strength, pain levels, and other physical benchmarks.
Your soft tissue sessions will likely be scheduled in between these workouts. During down time you can use self care techniques like mobility drills, stretching, and reducing your training load to encourage recovery.
The therapists at Alpha Sports Medicine use soft tissue therapy alongside corrective exercise and performance training to ensure your hard work in the gym isn’t sidelined by muscle tightness.
What to Expect During Your Appointment
Your appointment will start with a movement assessment to determine how you’re moving, your posture, and areas of focal tightness. The therapist will apply pressure to stimulate tight muscles and fascia which may cause some discomfort, but should not hurt.
After the appointment you may experience some soreness from the release of tight tissues. Think of how your muscles feel after a hard workout. This should subside within 24-48 hours. Aftercare recommendations will be provided to help you continue recovering after your session.
Frequently Asked Questions
WHAT DOES SOFT TISSUE THERAPY TREAT NEAR ME?
Soft tissue therapy is used to treat many of the same conditions that physical therapy addresses. If you’re experiencing limited range of motion, decreased strength, recurring pain, or suffered an injury due to muscular imbalances, soft tissue therapy may help.
HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE FOR SOFT TISSUE THERAPY TO WORK?
Some people notice an immediate change in mobility and feel less tense after their first session. To fully correct underlying problems can take multiple sessions along with specific corrective exercises.
IS SOFT TISSUE MASSAGE THE SAME AS THERAPY?
Technique is very similar between the two; however most soft tissue therapists are trained to address musculoskeletal issues using anatomy and exercise as a guide.
CAN SOFT TISSUE THERAPY HELP PREVENT INJURY?
Yes! Soft tissue therapy can restore and maintain your mobility so that your muscles and joints aren’t placed under excess stress.
WHAT SHOULD I DO AFTER I RECEIVE TREATMENT?
Stay hydrated, move around or stretch, and complete any corrective movements that your therapist provides. Just as you would after a hard workout, it’s important to help your body recover from your session.