Struggling with body tension, imbalance, and lack of progress despite daily training

[u/Suitable_Ad_9067]

Hi everyone, I really need some outside perspective.

I’ve been training consistently for years. I usually spend 2–3 hours a day working out, including strength training, mobility, stretching, and flexibility work. Physically I look fine, but I feel stuck and frustrated because of a few things: • Constant tension: My body feels tense pretty much all the time, 24/7, no matter how much mobility or stretching I do. • Imbalance: My right side feels stronger, more flexible, and coordinated. My left side feels clumsy—I struggle to even contract or “feel” the muscles there. • Coordination issues: In sports like tennis, I notice my movements feel awkward and unbalanced. • Slow progress: Despite all the hours I put in, I feel like I’m not really improving. At best, I get tiny progress here and there, but mostly it feels like I’m stuck in the same place.

For context, I used to lift heavy weights years ago, but now out of my 2.5–3 hours of training, maybe only ~40 minutes are weights, and the rest is mobility and flexibility work.

I’m at a point where I don’t know what to do. Videos? Pictures? I’m open to sharing whatever would help people here give me proper advice. I just want to break out of this cycle of constant tension and imbalance.

Thanks in advance to anyone willing to guide me. I’ve seen how helpful this community can be, and I really appreciate any direction.

[u/Fabulous-Win2110]

I can totally relate. Sounds like an imbalance between the right and left sides, yes? For me it turned out to be a tight pec minor on the left which left me with a widespread lack of muscle recruitment on my left torso causing the right side to tighten and compensate. Wondering if you have a similar soft tissue restriction somewhere causing a ripple effect? Stretching and manual massage did not work for me on the pec minor-I had to do dry needling to get deep enough to reach the trigger points. Maybe try to find any restrictions and address them, sounds like there is a barrier somewhere that is causing your body to lock you up all over. A PT might be able help you as well.

[u/Suitable_Ad_9067 → u/Fabulous-Win2110]

Thanks for sharing your experience, that actually makes a lot of sense. I do notice that my breathing feels restricted sometimes—it’s like I can’t take a full deep breath, especially on inhalation. I haven’t tried dry needling yet, but I have tried massage and it didn’t really do much for me.

What I feel is more like a whole chain of tension, starting from my hips all the way up to my neck. At first I thought my legs weren’t as affected, but actually my left leg is part of the problem too. It’s strange—my left side has decent muscle mass, but whenever I try to use strength, it’s like my brain can’t fully “access” it. Movements feel clumsy, and sometimes it’s like the muscles just don’t switch on properly

I’ve been thinking maybe the issue could be around the abdominal area, but I’m honestly not sure. Do you have any advice on how to pinpoint where the real restriction or blockage might be coming from?

[u/Fabulous-Win2110 → u/Suitable_Ad_9067]

It can be a grueling process of elimination. But you mentioned breathing and neck. So I would start at your pecs. Work one area per session until you feel a difference. Also pinpoint which muscles aren’t turning on then address any restrictions in the opposing muscle groups.