why does our body tend to tense up rather then to relax when bracing for impact, when relaxing our muscles can potentially lessen the damage?

Question

Read somewhere that drunk people and infants sustain less injury when falling over because their muscles are more relaxed.

In: Biology

Answer 1

Because for most of our evolution, you were only likely to suffer a seriously life threatening impact if you fall out of a tree or off a cliff or something, in which case being tensed up and ready to grab at anything that could stop your fall is a better option.