Muscle Tension

How many times have you heard someone say: “I have so much tension in my ____”?

We use the word tension as if it’s an inherently bad thing.

But tension is simply a description of a force.

When muscles contract, they create tension.

Tension refers to the pulling force within a structure when two ends of that structure are pulled in parallel and opposite directions.

You can think about contraction like you’d think about pulling two ends of a rope apart. Here’s a visual of what tension looks like:

Muscles create tension in the same way that two people pulling a rope apart create tension. In a muscle, tension looks like this:

The green arrows represent the tension force that muscles ultimately create. This is made possible by the white arrows, which represent the direction in which the structures within the muscle pull each other.

Muscle tension is therefore synonymous with contraction.

If you’re feeling discomfort in a muscle, it may be a consequence of tension, but tension itself is not the problem, it’s the symptom.

Tension is a response. If your muscles feel “tense”, it’s because they’re responding to something.

And ironically, relieving what everyone calls “tension” is often resolved by improving a muscle’s ability to contraction.

So, don’t fear tension - use it to your advantage.