Regardless of your age, profession or fitness level, Flexibility is something that everyone should make time for. Flexibility is often one of those core health concepts that is either greatly misunderstood or greatly ignored. I can’t tell you how many times I look at someone’s training program or a patient’s rehabilitation chart only to see one (if that) activity that focuses on flexibility. It is something so common that people tend to take it for granted. But for some people, like my father, flexibility can be the difference between daily pain and a pain free day.
Flashback to a year ago. My father, who is in his 70s, was overweight, over stressed and frustrated with his failed attempts to take control of his health. He had tried dieting and exercise and was making small improvements until an achilles tendon injury stopped him, quite literally, in his tracks. This prompted the age old “I told you so” discussion from me. You see, I had written a daily warm up/ flexibility program for my father some three years prior. My father made the same mistake many people make when trying to get healthy. They focus on their size or strength or endurance instead of focusing on the basics that will ultimately lead to an increase in fitness. Yes, lifting will help to improve strength, and yes running will help to improve endurance, but few tend to look at flexibility, at least not until it’s too late.
So let’s take a look at what flexibility is and how we can improve it. In a nutshell flexibility is the body’s ability to move through certain ranges of motion without injury. In order to move the human body has thousands of muscle fibers that are attached to bone. When these contract they pull the bone and cause movement. Muscle possesses a unique ability to stretch beyond its normal length and produce a contraction in order to shorten itself. Flexibility is the muscle’s ability to stretch without any damage or loss of function.
So how do we increase our flexibility? Stretching. That’s right. I said it. I said the word that most athletes groan about. Now there are A LOT of ways to stretch. In fact, that may be a future post for me, but for now let’s just say that stretching helps to improve our body’s flexibility. It has been proven that stretching at least once a day for 15 minutes can help boost health and performance. In fact, some studies suggest that if person stretches twice daily, in just 5 days the improvements are enough to enjoy general health benefits. “But can you ever be too flexible?” I am glad you asked that, because the answer most certainly a YES.
As is the case with most things, exercising moderation is not just suggested it is NEEDED. To explain the reason why let’s pull out the old rubber band imagery. If I stretch a rubber band around two fixed points, it still has extensibility (the ability to become longer) and resistance constantly pulling on those two fixed points. But what happens if we slowly move those fixed points further and further away from each other? If it is stretched to its breaking point the resistance begins to cause tears in the rubber band until it snaps. Well something similar can happen to a muscle. Muscles contract in order to shorten the distance between its anchor points. When several muscles work together, we have movement at a joint. If a muscle is put on a long stretch and then asked to contract, it can become damaged (which is known as a muscle strain).
It is important to balance flexibility with strength. The longer a muscle is the harder it is for it to contract fully. At the same time a shortened muscle is unable to, or sometimes painful to stretch. The only way to tell how balanced your flexibility and strength is, is to move and make note of when you feel restriction. If you can’t lift your leg more than 30 degrees or you can’t quite touch your opposite shoulder, chances are you need to work on some flexibility. If you feel unsteady or shaky when you move, chances are you need some strengthening. Finding and maintaining that balance can bring a whole new range of painfree motion and increased performance.
Which again brings me back to my father. I am happy to report that my father recovered, albeit slower than he would have liked, from his achilles tendon injury and continues to improve his health to this day. The injury did bring attention to my father’s lack of flexibility but luckily his determination to improve his health continues to drive him to try new things, or old things. I can say that after four years my father is finally performing some of the exercises and stretches I had prescribed for him, and seeing a tremendous difference in his ability to be physically active.
So whether you are working to become a competitive athlete or just trying to maintain your own health, don’t forget the importance of staying flexible.
Flashback to a year ago. My father, who is in his 70s, was overweight, over stressed and frustrated with his failed attempts to take control of his health. He had tried dieting and exercise and was making small improvements until an achilles tendon injury stopped him, quite literally, in his tracks. This prompted the age old “I told you so” discussion from me. You see, I had written a daily warm up/ flexibility program for my father some three years prior. My father made the same mistake many people make when trying to get healthy. They focus on their size or strength or endurance instead of focusing on the basics that will ultimately lead to an increase in fitness. Yes, lifting will help to improve strength, and yes running will help to improve endurance, but few tend to look at flexibility, at least not until it’s too late.
So let’s take a look at what flexibility is and how we can improve it. In a nutshell flexibility is the body’s ability to move through certain ranges of motion without injury. In order to move the human body has thousands of muscle fibers that are attached to bone. When these contract they pull the bone and cause movement. Muscle possesses a unique ability to stretch beyond its normal length and produce a contraction in order to shorten itself. Flexibility is the muscle’s ability to stretch without any damage or loss of function.
So how do we increase our flexibility? Stretching. That’s right. I said it. I said the word that most athletes groan about. Now there are A LOT of ways to stretch. In fact, that may be a future post for me, but for now let’s just say that stretching helps to improve our body’s flexibility. It has been proven that stretching at least once a day for 15 minutes can help boost health and performance. In fact, some studies suggest that if person stretches twice daily, in just 5 days the improvements are enough to enjoy general health benefits. “But can you ever be too flexible?” I am glad you asked that, because the answer most certainly a YES.
As is the case with most things, exercising moderation is not just suggested it is NEEDED. To explain the reason why let’s pull out the old rubber band imagery. If I stretch a rubber band around two fixed points, it still has extensibility (the ability to become longer) and resistance constantly pulling on those two fixed points. But what happens if we slowly move those fixed points further and further away from each other? If it is stretched to its breaking point the resistance begins to cause tears in the rubber band until it snaps. Well something similar can happen to a muscle. Muscles contract in order to shorten the distance between its anchor points. When several muscles work together, we have movement at a joint. If a muscle is put on a long stretch and then asked to contract, it can become damaged (which is known as a muscle strain).
It is important to balance flexibility with strength. The longer a muscle is the harder it is for it to contract fully. At the same time a shortened muscle is unable to, or sometimes painful to stretch. The only way to tell how balanced your flexibility and strength is, is to move and make note of when you feel restriction. If you can’t lift your leg more than 30 degrees or you can’t quite touch your opposite shoulder, chances are you need to work on some flexibility. If you feel unsteady or shaky when you move, chances are you need some strengthening. Finding and maintaining that balance can bring a whole new range of painfree motion and increased performance.
Which again brings me back to my father. I am happy to report that my father recovered, albeit slower than he would have liked, from his achilles tendon injury and continues to improve his health to this day. The injury did bring attention to my father’s lack of flexibility but luckily his determination to improve his health continues to drive him to try new things, or old things. I can say that after four years my father is finally performing some of the exercises and stretches I had prescribed for him, and seeing a tremendous difference in his ability to be physically active.
So whether you are working to become a competitive athlete or just trying to maintain your own health, don’t forget the importance of staying flexible.
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