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What Constitutes a Tight Muscle?

When you move your skeletal system (bones), the muscles attached to that bone contract (shorten), and pull/move the bone. Following the muscle contraction, the muscle then returns to its normal length at rest. This is how you walk, run, sit, etc.

However, if your muscle is injured it cannot return to its normal length at rest. Therefore, it is shorter in length at rest than it should be. This constitutes a tight muscle. The tighter/shorter it is, the better chance it has to pull the bone it is attached to out of alignment and cause pain. It should be noted that the degree of tightness determines how misaligned a bone becomes. Major trauma may injure the muscle enough to cause pain right away. Whereas repetitive stress usually takes months or years to cause pain, since the muscle continues to get tighter with use over time.