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With our modern lifestyles, it’s hard not to feel tightness all throughout your body.

We sit a lot on fixed furniture, we stand in one place for long periods of time, we’re tied to screens much of the time, we don’t utilize a squat position, we bend and lift things incorrectly, we don’t get our arms above our head very often, we don’t put most of our joints and muscles through their full ranges of motion, and so on.

I’ve noticed this is especially common after we’ve come home from work, school, or a physical activity, that we’re reminded of how tight we feel in the evening.

When I’m having a night like this and I have the time and energy to address it, I will do several of these options:

Get Socks and Shoes Off

This may be obvious to you but I have recently realized how nice the feeling of taking off your socks and shoes is after you’ve been on your feet for hours.

Especially if you were just standing on a hard, flat floor that didn’t let your feet or ankles get any kind of sensory input, taking these off makes them feel like they’re waking up again. This is exactly why I advocate for walking on uneven surfaces, preferably natural ones but anything will do.

When I take my socks off, I can literally watch as the two outside toes on both feet can finally spread out again. That’s been bothering me that they’re stuck like that for so long, I’ll have to figure something out to solve that.

Toe Separators

Next, you can just stretch your feet out however you want, or if you get really sore and stiff feet, you can put on toe separators.

I’ve been doing this for probably over a year now and it’s just a little thing I enjoy doing sometimes when my feet have been stuck in shoes for too long.

They help spread your toes back out after you pull them out of the shoes and it gives a nice sense of relief to the feet when the toes are back in their natural position again. Having your toes configured properly will also improve circulation, improve posture, and lessen the chance of injury through having more functional feet. 

Deep Squat

Next, I will add in some deep squatting.

The main reason for this is the incredible back stretch that it gives. It will also help your ankles, knees, and hips, but I think it is most beneficial for the back because you have to dip your butt very low when your feet are flat on the ground and this allows for the full back to get stretched.

It should feel good in general to get the body into this position after a long day. This is the natural, upright resting position for human beings after all.

Sitting / Laying on the Floor

This is an interesting one for many people because they don’t understand why they would use the floor instead of furniture. But that’s exactly the point.

If you’re already tight, furniture is just going to make it worse by forcing us to take up positions that fit the furniture, sinking into the cushioning and slouching as a byproduct, and being kept there for far too long because it’s comfortable so we don’t want to move.

These are all the things you don’t need when you’re already sore or tight, so hit the floor!

The floor will obviously be firmer, keeping your posture more intact, giving you some needed sensory input, and giving you some light myofascial release work which you can never have enough of.

Rox Mat

One thing I like to do while I’m on the floor is self-massage.

An excellent, multi-purpose tool that I’ve come across is what Xero Shoes calls a “Rox Mat”, but any sensory-stimulating mat will do. It has a bunch of hard knobs covering it that will massage and provide relief to whatever part of the body you’re using it on.

My favorite spots to use it on are my feet, hips, glutes, and sometimes my back.

As you can probably guess, I will stand on it and work out some of the tightness in my feet if I was on my feet for much of the day. I will also sit directly on it. Even though this looks painful, it actually feels great when you angle it to massage one hip or glute at a time. 

Foam Roller

Moving on with the theme of massage, foam rollers are also an excellent tool for this that you’re surely familiar with.

They are useful for any part of the body, but I typically use mine on my calves, hamstrings, quads, and back. The roller is great for targeting the larger muscle groups of the body, while for the smaller muscle groups, I will use….

Massage Ball

Massage balls are probably the most underrated tool I’ve used in my recovery process. The are incredibly effective for breaking up tightness in the body, alleviating stiffness and soreness, and restoring mobility where it was once lost.

I credit massage balls with helping me get rid of terrible plantar fasciitis I used to struggle with.

I will use these balls on my feet, ankles, shins, calves, hips, glutes, and back. It is definitely a more intense sensation because it is smaller and firmer than a foam roller, so a little use can go a long way.