"Flexibility Exercises"

An Overview of Flexibility Exercises

Which flexibility exercises are the most highly recommended by top Personal Trainers across the world? As our understanding of human movement, sport movement, and functional movement becomes more adept, we have realized that the answer to this question has evolved as well.

All of us move through stretches each day whether we realize it or not. Bending down to pick laundry up off the floor, lifting your son or daughter from the floor to a high chair, and sliding your briefcase under your desk at work are all forms of stretching.

These movements are not specifically exercises that will maintain or increase our range of motion, but they are important to mimic during your workouts to help prevent injury.

Benefits of Flexibility Exercises

There are several reasons why each of us should include stretching exercises in our daily fitness program. Here are some of the most important benefits of our flexibility programs.

• Increase and maintain range of motion around joints
• Reduce muscle soreness
• Relieve joint stiffness
• Promote muscle recovery
• Relieve imbalances
• Prevent pulls, strains, and tears

These benefits hold true for our entire population; young and old, male and female, short and tall. If you’re already stretching, congratulations! If you are not stretching as much as you should be, then keep reading to find out how to stretch your best!

Types of Flexibility

Today we rely on several varieties of stretching to ensure the greatest results in injury prevention and increased range of motion for our athletes and Personal Training clients.

The three most important types of flexibility training for you will be static stretching, dynamic flexibility and mobility, and foam rolling or soft tissue work.

A Quick Look at Each

We'll be diving in deeper later on, but here are the basics of each of the types of flexibility we will be discussing.

Static Stretching - This is what most people think of when they think of stretching, the typical "touch your toes and hold for 60 seconds".

Mobility - the ability achieve a specific range of motion combined with the ability to stabilize within that range.

Soft Tissue Work - techniques aimed at "getting the knots out". Think along the lines of heading to a massage therapist.

In our next few installments, we'll cover each of these in greater detail and show you how to enhance your flexibility training.

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