Why is your body less prone to breaking when you fall/ get thrown hard when you are relaxed?

Question

Why is your body safer and less prone to breaking when you are relaxed when you hit something at high speeds or with great force?

In: Biology

Answer 1

Think of it like this: if you throw a piece of glass at a wall, it will shatter. If you throw a rubber ball at a wall, it will bounce off. If you hit a wall when you’re all tensed up, you have a higher risk of breaking something because you’ve gone rigid, like the glass. However, if you hit a wall while relaxed you’ll be a lot less likely to incur damage due to being more elastic, like the ball.