post stretching tightness in posterior leg muscles
I'm a 28yo female, very physically active (circus arts, martial arts, cycling, yoga), and have been for my entire life. I have partial hyperflexibility (arms, lower back, toes), and have been working towards general mobility and flexibility for my entire life. For the past year I have noticed chronic tightness in my calves, posterior knees, hamstrings and periformis, one leg worse than the other. My splits have worsened, it's as if my body wouldn't let me go further, only getting worse, it feels very sudden. I understand that it comes with age and all, and maybe I have overworked it.
Basically, it's normal for me to have a mild stretching or yoga practice, and within literally minutes my legs go back to being as tight as if I've just woken up. I can see no progress at all. I could never do full on forward folds, but I can easily lie down onto my left leg, while my right leg wouldn't let me anywhere near it.
It worries me because stretching - static or dynamic doesn't seem to help at all, maybe even hinders it. Sports massages leave me sore, as they should, and do nothing either. I keep well hydrated, take magnesium, my protein intake seems to be adequate. The physiotherapists I have seen don't seem to be understanding the problem. I get some relief with being taped, but not close to the ideal state. How do I untense myself?
TL DR: chronically tight muscles in the back of the legs despite stretching
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If your goal is overall physical fitness (power, strength, stamina, coordination, skill), stretching is not very important. A study of 1400 runners showed that stretching before running has no effect on injury prevention. Another meta-study (analysis of 104 previous studies) showed that stretching before exercise actually reduces strength, power, and explosive performance. One of the authors of this meta-study suggests dynamic warm-ups instead.
What seems like "tight" muscles to you is probably not something you need to worry about (unless you need extreme flexibility for your job).
There could be issues with your body causing all this tightness which until addressed will leave you perpetually tight. Your posterior chain works as a unit, so a bad link in the chain will make the entire unit have issues. Some of these include:
High or low arches in feet, plantar fasciitis, or other foot issues: this can cause your calves to overcompensate for your feet issues, causing them to become very tight. Tight calves then make your hamstrings tight, and so on until your entire posterior is tightand one day you have lower back pain skiing with tight piriformis.
Anterior pelvic tilt or lordosis can cause tight hamstrings and tight piriformis which in turn cause tight calves
Muscle assymetry, having different muscle groups strong while others are weak.. such as weak tibia muscles but strong calves can cause this.
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