Your Body Is Choosing to Be Tense — Here’s How to fix It
Most people assume they’re “just tight.” Maybe you can’t touch your toes, or you feel stiff in your back and shoulders no matter how often you stretch. But here’s the truth: tightness isn’t always about your muscles being short or weak.
Your body is programmed to hold on to tension.
Negative Muscle Memory
Every time you’re stressed, rushing, or bracing against discomfort, your nervous system stores that pattern. Over time, your body develops what we call negative muscle memory — a default setting of clenching, guarding, and holding.
That’s why even at rest, you might notice your shoulders creep toward your ears, your jaw stays tight, or your hips feel locked. Your nervous system is protecting you, even when there’s no threat.
The Nervous System: Fight-or-Flight vs. Rest-and-Digest
Your nervous system has two main modes that shape how your body responds:
Sympathetic Nervous System (Fight-or-Flight)
This is your “alarm system.” It prepares you to react to danger by tightening muscles, speeding up your heart rate, and sharpening focus. It’s useful if you need to slam on the brakes in traffic — but when it’s constantly active, your body stays stuck in clenching mode.Parasympathetic Nervous System (Rest-and-Digest)
This is your recovery mode. It slows the heart rate, deepens the breath, and allows muscles to soften. In this state, your body feels safe enough to release tension, digest food, and repair tissues.
The problem? Most of us spend way too much time in sympathetic overdrive — phones buzzing, deadlines looming, stress on repeat. That constant state of alert teaches your body to hold tension like it’s the default.
Common Signs of Chronic Clenching (Negative Muscle Memory)
You may not even notice how much your body is bracing throughout the day. Some of the most common signs include:
Jaw clenching or TMJ pain (holding tension in the face)
Tight shoulders and neck (shrugged toward the ears)
Shallow chest breathing (keeping you in fight-or-flight mode)
Lower back tightness from hips and hamstrings guarding
Anxiety-related holding (body stays braced even at rest)
Frequent headaches from scalp and jaw tension
Digestive issues (sympathetic mode keeps your body too “on guard” to fully rest and digest)
If any of these sound familiar, your body is carrying tension not because you “need” it, but because your nervous system has learned to keep the brakes on.
Reprogramming With a Body Scan
The good news: your nervous system is trainable. Just like it can learn negative muscle memory, it can also learn positive muscle memory.
A body scan is one of the simplest ways to begin reprogramming. It’s not about forcing muscles to stretch farther — it’s about teaching your body a new memory: release.
Here’s how to try it:
Find a comfortable position. Sit or lie down where you can relax.
Bring awareness from head to toe. Start at your face — unclench your jaw, soften your eyes. Then slowly move your focus down through your shoulders, chest, belly, hips, legs, and feet.
Notice tension. At each point, ask yourself: Am I holding here?
Soften with your breath. Inhale through your nose, exhale slowly, and invite that area to release.
Each time you practice, you’re creating positive muscle memory — training your body to associate awareness with relaxation instead of holding. Over time, this retrains your nervous system to find safety and softness in more moments of your day.
Why This Matters for Flexibility
If you’ve ever wondered why stretching doesn’t “stick,” it’s often because you’ve only addressed the muscle, not the nervous system. When your body feels safe, it unlocks new range of motion. That’s why clients are often amazed at how much flexibility they gain simply by breathing and scanning — before we even do a deep stretch.
Try It For Yourself
You don’t have to live with constant tension or the feeling of being “tight all the time.” By learning to reprogram your body with practices like body scans, you’ll not only move better, but also feel calmer and more at home in your body.
At Keswick Health, we help you release both physical and nervous system tension through:
Assisted Stretch Therapy
Chiropractic Care & Adjustments
Health & Wellness Coaching