“I don’t have much pain. I just feel incredibly stiff.”
This is something I hear regularly in the clinic. Interestingly, when I examine some of these patients, their movement may be quite good. Their muscles are not necessarily excessively tense, and their joints do not always appear particularly restricted.
So why do they still feel stiff? The answer may be that the sensation of stiffness and the physical measurement of stiffness are not always the same thing.
A fascinating study published in Scientific Reports investigated people with persistent lower-back pain who also reported feeling stiff.
The researchers measured spinal stiffness using a mechanical device that applied a controlled amount of pressure to the lower back. They then compared this objective measurement with how stiff the participants reported feeling.
They found:
The researchers proposed that stiffness may sometimes be a “protective perceptual inference.” In simpler terms, the nervous system may create a sensation of stiffness to encourage someone to move more cautiously—even when the back is not mechanically restricted.
The study was relatively small, involving 30 people in its initial experiments, so it should be considered preliminary. Nevertheless, it presents an interesting explanation for something many clinicians observe in practice.
Read the original study by clicking here.
No. The sensation is completely real.
However, bodily sensations are not direct measurements produced by a single structure. The brain continually combines information from the joints, muscles, skin, vision, balance system and previous experiences to estimate what is happening in the body.
It also considers questions such as:
The final sensation may be stiffness, heaviness, tightness or resistance—even when actual movement remains relatively normal.
This does not mean that physical stiffness never exists. Arthritis, inflammation, muscle guarding, an acute injury, and prolonged inactivity can all produce genuine restrictions. The important point is that perceived and mechanical stiffness should not automatically be treated as the same thing.
Stretching is not inherently wrong. If it feels pleasant and helps you move, there may be no reason to stop.
However, repeatedly stretching harder may not solve a sensation that is being produced primarily as a protective response. Some people stretch several times a day, feel loose for 20 minutes and then become “tight” again. That pattern may indicate that they are temporarily changing the sensation without addressing why their nervous system keeps producing it.
Instead of continuously trying to pull on the same tissues, consider giving your nervous system a greater variety of safe experiences.
Move the area in several directions rather than repeatedly stretching it in only one direction.
For the back, this might include gentle bending, rotation, walking, pelvic movements, hip hinges, or moving between sitting and standing.
The aim is not to force maximum range. It is to remind the nervous system that different movements remain available and controllable.
Sometimes what feels like tightness is partly a lack of confidence or capacity.
Light resistance exercises can provide the nervous system with evidence that the area is capable of producing and tolerating force. Over time, gradually loaded movement may be more useful than endlessly attempting to become more flexible.
The problem may not be one particular “bad posture.” It may simply be spending too long in any one position.
Change positions, stand up periodically, take brief walks and allow your back to move throughout the day. Think of posture as something dynamic rather than a position you must hold perfectly.
Pain and stiffness often become more noticeable when someone is sleeping poorly, under considerable stress or recovering from unusually high physical demands.
These factors can increase the nervous system’s general level of protection. In that situation, another aggressive stretch may be less useful than sleep, gentle activity and temporarily managing overall workload.
Repeatedly bending, twisting or touching your back to check whether it is “still stiff” keeps your attention fixed on the area.
Occasional assessment is reasonable. Constant monitoring can potentially reinforce the impression that something must be wrong. It may be more useful to focus on what you can comfortably do rather than repeatedly searching for the sensation.
Chiropractic treatment and other forms of manual therapy may help some people feel less stiff, even when their mechanical stiffness has not substantially changed.
This does not necessarily mean that a vertebra was “put back into place” or that shortened tissue was permanently lengthened.
Manual therapy provides a large amount of sensory information through pressure, touch, joint movement and changes in muscle and joint input. The nervous system may interpret this as new information about the area. This can temporarily modify sensitivity, guarding and the way movement feels.
A 2020 randomized study involving people with persistent lower-back pain found changes in pressure-pain sensitivity following spinal manipulation without corresponding significant changes in measured lumbar stiffness. Importantly, the neurological change was not a reliable substitute for clinical improvement, and the study did not include a sham-treatment group.
Click here to read the 2020 study.
A more recent randomized study found that one session of lumbar manipulation produced an immediate change in how the nervous system weighted proprioceptive information from the lower back during balance. This is interesting emerging evidence, but it does not yet establish how long the effect lasts or whether it directly treats the feeling of stiffness.
Read the 2025 study here.
Therefore, I see manual therapy as potentially useful for creating a window of opportunity:
This is different from making someone dependent on repeated treatment to be “put back into alignment.”
At Coastal Wellness, we assess whether stiffness is coming from genuine movement restriction, tissue irritation, reduced capacity or a protective nervous-system response, and choose treatment accordingly. It always starts with a conversation and evaluation. Click here and book yours today.
