Strength Training Can Help You Feel Less Stiff & More Limber, According To A Physical Therapist

Do you sit all day at a desk job? Hello, tight hip flexors and shoulder tension. What about feeling stiff after a workout? For me, it's always tight hamstrings. When your muscles feel more like plywood than a rubber band, then everything gets harder—from picking something up off the floor to sinking deeply into a squat.  

And if you're anything like me, your mind may jump straight to stretching as a way to help. But surprisingly, strength training may be exactly what your body needs. Loading your muscles can actually reduce stiffness and perceived tightness by stabilizing the joint and improving muscle stability. 

"Firstly, it's important to know that perceived muscle tightness is not the same as true muscle stiffness. They can be present alone or together,” says Leada Malek, P.T., DPT, CSCS, SCS. The main difference is anything can feel tight, but "stiffness can limit how well a muscle lengthens, which can impede range of motion," Malek notes. And we don't want that to happen. 

Having a solid range of motion—aka mobility—improves just about everything: flexibility, joint health, blood flow, posture, injury prevention1, and (yes) perceived muscle stiffness. To achieve optimal mobility, Malek emphasizes that the joints and muscles have to work together, which is challenging if the muscles are stiff or weak. 

Strength training to enhance mobility focuses on building strength within specific ranges of motion. This helps increase muscle length and strengthens the muscles surrounding the joints—which may contribute to improved flexibility. In turn, this means fewer shortened and stiff muscles. 

"The beauty is there are a lot of ways to target this," says Malek. "It might be done on the lighter side, such as when training shoulder rotation, or it may be heavier, such as when doing deadlifts for hamstring length." While bodyweight may be an appropriate resistance to start with, Malek emphasizes that building up to higher intensities (through the full range of motion) is needed to really target flexibility.

Stretching, of course, provides a huge benefit to flexibility, range of motion, and muscle elasticity4—meaning they can contract and relax with more ease. 

Add in stretching three to five times a week by doing a seated hamstring stretch and holding each side for 30-60 seconds, two or three times. You do this by sitting on the floor with one leg extended and the other bent—with the foot of the bent leg against the inner thigh of the other. Then, hinge at the hips, reaching forward toward your toes while keeping the back straight. You should feel a gentle stretch in the hamstring.

If you're stretching before a workout, consider two to three sets of a moving, or dynamic, stretch, like hamstring sweeps for 30-45 seconds.