Muscles Should be Toned, NOT Tight!
The human body is comprised of a Skeletal Structure, aka bones, Soft-Tissues, everything that is NOT a bone and Joints, the articulation where Bones meet and connect through ligaments. Soft-Tissues include the word Soft because they are ideally supposed to be soft and pliable. NOT tight as steel as is otherwise suggested through mass marketing ploys.
Muscles, and other body-wide Soft-Tissues should be healthy, happy and toned. And, they ought to be tightened upon contraction pursuits. That is a given. But, they ought not be tight in leisure body placements and they ought not be placed in short, over-tight, over-stressed compromised positions for long periods of time.
When Soft-Tissues are repeatedly placed in these undesirable positions their fibers remember to stay this way perpetually which leads to a predicament of whole body adhesion and deprivation-distress. This is the actual CAUSE of chronic aches, pains, restrictions, strain, bouts of stiffness/tightness, inflammation and a whole other slew of chronic compromise conditions that bear fancy names, such as Plantar Fasciitis, Sciatica, Thoracic Outlet Syndrome, IT Band Contracture, Low Back Pain, Herniated Discs, Pinched Nerves, Carpal/Tarsal Tunnel Syndromes… and so on.
The ideal fitness goal should be to achieve a long and lean, toned but relaxed physique of Soft-Tissues. If we continue to live with the deceiving notion that tight as steel is attractive, desirable and recommended, we will continue to miss the boat completely on comfort, resilience, ROM perform-ABILITY, body contour, height enhancement and injury prevention.
