Tight muscles and stretching

It is often assumed that if a muscle "feels tight" then the most obvious thing to do is to stretch it. Though stretching can sometimes be the right thing to do, it is not always. This article examines some to the reasons behind this.

Why is this
The feeling of tightness in a muscle is a subjective feeling. The brain cannot tell you if a muscle is in fact short or not. What you are feeling is the body telling you something is wrong, and this is interpreted as "a feeling tight" sensation. Often if a tendon or muscle is over stretched it can "feel tight". In this situation vigorous stretching may not be the right thing to. 
Which muscles do people most commonly feel are tight
Some frequent  areas are tight hamstrings, calf muscles and gluteals (buttock). Because they are all slightly different I will deal with each one in turn.
Tight hamstrings
Feeling tight in the hamstrings is a very frequent complaint and has nothing to do with whether they are in fact physically short or not. This is so important I will repeat it. Hamstrings that "feel tight" have nothing to do with them being tight. The importance of this cannot be over emphasized and it is one of the most frequent mistakes I see in patients coming to me.
  The person on feeling their hamstrings are "tight" will proceed to stretch them. Then despite all their best efforts the hamstrings will go on continuing to feel tight. This is because the sensation of tightness in the hamstrings is either due to a problem in the back (and there may be no symptoms there) or a local problem in the hamstring muscles themselves, such as scar tissue and nothing to do with their overall length. If it dominates in one leg there is a possibility that the sciatic nerve may be involve.
Gluteal muscles
These muscles can also often feel tight when the problems is something else. For example if the sacroilaic joint on that side is moving to much, the gluteal and piriformis muscles can tense in a attempt to stabilize it. The problems then is stretching the gluteal or pirformis muscles can put added strain on the sacroilaic joint and potentially making it worse in the long run.
Calf muscles
These often are problems area in runner. With the achilles tendon (TA), this is usually overstretched though the calf muscle itself may be tight in places. A common mistake is for athletes with TA problem to do calf stretches. Often what happens here is the area that moves to much (normally the TA) will be stretched more and the tight areas remain tight.
What is the solution?
The important point here is that it necessary it identify that a muscle is actually short, rather than " feeling tight". Stretching is very important and can be an essential part of solving a problem. However one should not stretch muscles on the basis they "feel tight". It may be that more "muscle strength" is required to stabilize the areas moving to much or something else needs to be stretched (not the area that feels tight). For example I have had people come to me complaining of one hamstring feeling tight, which they have be stretching in order to get rid of it. I have then advised them to stop stretching that hamstring and to stretch the tight hip flexor on the other side (which I have found to be tight, but feels normal to them). The symptom of the tight hamstring then goes. Of course this is just one example, there are main others.

Flexibility and stretching

Chris Reynolds Osteopathy & Physiotherapy