If increasing your flexibility is one of your fitness goals, you are not alone. Many of us experience our bodies as feeling very tight, and struggle with figuring out how to improve our overall ease within a broad range of movement. Some aspects of flexibility are easier to achieve than others and some of the popular beliefs about flexibility are just not borne out when it comes to the research. Read on for some myth-busting – and some ideas for how you can work towards your flexibility goals!

What is flexibility?

Flexibility is the ability of a joint to move in an unrestricted, pain free range of movement. It is not something you are born with.  Or is it?!  Most babies are actually incredibly mobile in their joints, so in a sense, we are all born with more flexibility than we have as we age. With that said, if we don’t work to stay mobile (e.g., getting down into deep squats on a daily basis, as babies do) we lose the ability to do so. Regular movement that helps us to continuously use the range of motion in a joint helps us to retain that movement. 

You might think of flexibility as more of a problem of tight muscles though.  And to a certain extent, muscles do play a part. The range of motion of a given joint will be influenced by the mobility of the soft tissues that surround it which include muscles, tendons, ligaments, joint capsules – and even skin!

Myth-busting

Some myths about stretching and flexibility have resulted from misinformation. Like most fields, exercise science has changed over time, but information about how we understand the body is not always updated or communicated effectively. Here are some myths – busted!

Myth 1: Muscles need to be lengthened.

Muscles are the length that they are, and stretching doesn’t change that. In fact, the degree to which a skeletal muscle feels tight has very little to do with its length, and much more to do with your nervous system and its reactivity. If a muscle is tight, it reflects hyperactive neural processing that gives you the perception that it is tight. Your brain can be re-trained to be less reactive (more on that below in Myth 2).

Myth 2: If I could stretch longer, I’d be more flexible.

What’s this about brain re-training?! Overriding that neural hyperactivity that keeps you in a restricted range means that you want to build more ‘stretch tolerance.’ Here’s where we need to bust the myth: holding a stretch for a long time doesn’t work if your goal is stretch tolerance. Instead, try cyclic stretching, where you hold stretches for 3-5 seconds and repeat 10-15 times.

Myth 3: Stretching before a workout will help me avoid injury.

Joint mobility in an appropriate range of motion can certainly contribute to a lack of injury, but there is very little evidence that stretching just before a workout prevents acute injury. In fact, static stretching (holding a stretch) is actually associated with decreased athletic performance. In contrast, a dynamic warm-up (actively moving through a range of movement) is a form of stretching that can be very helpful in preventing injury (we talk more about dynamic stretching, just below).

Static stretching just after a workout (cool-down phase) is actually great for preventing muscle soreness, and is not something to give up altogether. Just be mindful that it is not the only stretching you want to do, and you might actually see more benefit from dynamic stretching, especially before a workout. Dynamic stretching comprises reciprocal inhibition, which means that when one muscle contracts, the muscle responsible for the opposite action relaxes. And as you can imagine, the greater the contraction, the greater the relaxation. 

Picture the Radio City Rockettes and their kick line. That is an example of a dynamic stretch of the hamstring (among other muscles). In that example, the muscles in the front of the leg such as the quadriceps contract in order to lift the leg, and the muscles in the back of the leg relax to allow that to happen. You can do a static version of this stretch lying on your back with one leg up, but save that static version for after you are done the performance at Radio City!

Programming any kind of stretching is something that your physical therapist can help you with. Our therapists here at Beacon Physical Therapy can help you to determine areas where your range of movement is restricted, and help you to devise a personalized plan for both static and dynamic stretches. Remember, not only are we all born with flexibility, but we can also all work to get back to it!   

At Beacon Physical Therapy, we support our patients in leading a healthy life and establishing a healthy lifestyle. We’d love to meet you and get you back to doing what you love.