Flexibility Five Ways To Improve

Let’s talk flexibility because it is important. I have found out that greater flexibility has helped improve my performance, deepen my range of motion and decrease my chance of injury as well as improving my day to day quality of life. Quickly you should know the three common types of exercise that people use to increase flexibility are Dynamic Stretching, Static Active Stretching and Ballistic Stretching. Im not getting into details for each of them here I just want to touch on this ‘feeling’ of old. The “I am too old for this too old for that conundrum….pffbt.

To me, fitness , flexibility is part ability and part mental…Stay with me, because I believe being flexible improves the ability to link movements together smoothly and can help prevent injury.

Can’t Fight This Feeling

Yes, that ‘feeling’ old – It happens but i’m going to say I do not believe that we “feel old” because we hit a certain age, rather its because of lifestyle factors. It adds up and we lose mobility, stability and flexibility. Injuries can make us feel old at 20! and guess what I bet with proper mobility work it can make us feel young at 80 – i’m going to be trying anyways.

To help you avoid those aches and pains, and previous injuries adding up, and to help you feel YOUNG at every age…I wanted to share these five biggest flexibility mistakes I made when I first started on my fitness journey – so you don’t have to.

Heres how to avoid them, because the answer mom babes isn’t simply “stretch more” to see better results! I invite you to improve on your flexibility with this points in mind.

Flexibility Five Ways To Improve

Not holding the stretch for long enough This is the number one culprit for a failed flexibility practice. Holding a stretch for 15–30s isn’t really going to do much for you. Not if you’re goal is to increase your range. Try to build up to holding a stretch for 60 seconds.
Pushing too hard At the other end of the scale are the people who push too hard. Who will just go all in, trying to do the splits every day with no regard for volume or intensity. This is also a terrible idea. This is how you get hurt. You wouldn’t walk into the gym and try to hit a max squat every day, so don’t go into flexibility training trying to always max out either.
Not practicing This is probably the biggest mistake anybody makes when it comes to trying to improve at anything. Thinking about it but never actually doing it. You need to put the time in. Be consistent.
Not paying attention This is probably the biggest lesson for anyone trying to get better at anything: Be intentional. Most people just go through the motions — with flexibility training, but also with everything. But if you’re not paying attention to what you’re doing, you’re doing yourself a disservice.
Not Pushing Into Stretch Being flexible isn’t just for show. It’s for life. Our bodies get really good at what we ask of them. For the most part, all we ask is that it can sit well. We sit all day — at work, in the car, on the bus, on the sofa, the dining table. All day, sitting. If we don’t also tell our bodies to make other shapes, we lose them. We get older and we struggle to get out of a chair by ourselves or to get up off the floor. Although aging is inevitable, I do believe that what we do now will impact how we live later, push yourself.