The Importance of Flexibility

The importance of flexibility in your movement practice

This one will be short and sweet.

If our range of motion is limited and our muscles are tight, we literally resist ourselves as we try to move. As the muscle lengthens, it contracts to try and protect itself (research the stretch reflex to understand this better).

So the more flexible we are, the more relaxed our muscles are, and the less tension we carry as we try to move. This means we are more efficient, and use less energy as we practice.

In traditional fitness the aim is to burn as much energy as possible, to exhaust the system (usually to make up for a sedentary lifestyle) but in skill based movement practices we are looking to improve our physical capacity rather than trying to tire ourselves out. The less effort we expend practicing a skill, the more practice we can do and the more accessible harder variations and progressions of the skill will be.

This means that improving ease and flexibility directly leads to faster progress in our skill work.

Do you do enough flexibility training?