Why your tight muscles won't loosen up (it's not flexibility)


If you’ve tried massaging and stretching muscles in your neck, shoulders, back or legs… and the tightness just won’t go away, may I present you the annoying truth that weak muscles feel tight.

Imagine you’re on a very unstable bridge, or on ice skates. You’re not confident in your ability to do the simple job of staying upright. What do your muscles do? Do they kick back and relax… or do they tense?

Something similar happens in your body when your muscles can't provide the stability you need. Your body compensates by creating tension in other areas.

Here's how it might look for you:

  • Your shoulders are constantly tight because your upper back muscles are weak from looking down at screens all day.
  • Or your lower back feels blocked because you have lost all core support over years of sitting too much.
  • Or the front of your hips feel locked because your bum muscles have gone to sleep.

Or maybe a little bit of all of that...

That’s why therapeutic yoga isn’t only about stretching and massaging (although we do that a lot too). It’s also a lot of muscle awareness and stability work. Making your body stronger and fitter, so that you have more energy to meet the demands of your life and do them pain-free.

If you're ready to address the root cause instead of just managing symptoms, I'd love to help you create a personalised plan. Reply with "PLAN" and I'll send you details about my therapeutic yoga approach.

Your body has been compensating long enough. Let's give it the support it actually needs 🧡

Clem

Clémence Dieryck

I'm a bilingual yoga teacher who helps people who sit a lot gain mobility, move without pain and reduce their stress.

Read more from Clémence Dieryck

I used to love posting spectacular yoga poses on social media. You probably know the ones I'm talking about: arm balances, deep splits... the poses that make people go "wow". Then I realised that it was going against everything I stand for. These images were sending the wrong message: that yoga isn't for everyone. That you need to be fit, healthy, flexible and strong to practice. Yoga is for everyone. But not everything is for everyone. Most of my clients come to me precisely because they're...

I've been reflecting on a question that keeps coming up in my coaching practice: should we lean into our natural tendencies or push ourselves beyond them? As often happens, the answer is: a bit of both. Let me share what I mean. I recently talked with my niece Manon, who struggles with maths but constantly compares herself to her naturally gifted brother. For her, forcing herself into a maths-heavy career would mean working twice as hard for half the results. She'd be fighting an uphill...

It’s not always easy to motivate yourself to move on a regular day, but when it’s 35°C… Yet it’s still just as important to take care of yourself and your body. So how do we do it? Well, we adapt! Yoga is for the morning! Today, I did yoga with one of my clients at 8:00, when it was still “only” 23°C, and it was divine. We did just enough movement to energize and relax before what promised to be an intense day. It reminded me how important it is to adapt our practice to the season. If you...