Flexibility

Original Editor - Lucinda hampton

Top Contributors - Lucinda hampton, Anne Dixie Lim and Aminat Abolade  

Introduction

General flexibility is a key component of health, well-being, and general physical conditioning. Reduced flexibility has both physical and mental/emotional etiologies and can lead to musculoskeletal injuries and athletic underperformance.

Flexibility is operationally defined as “the intrinsic property of body tissues, including muscle and connective tissues that determines the range of motion achievable without injury at a joint or group of joints.” Flexibility is highly specific to each joint.

• Stretching exercises are typically performed to increase flexibility and to allow improved joint range of motion.
• Common forms of stretching include static stretch (passive and active), proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation, ballistic stretch, and dynamic stretch. Other forms of physical activity that require stretching of the MTU (e.g., gymnastics, dance) can also result in improved flexibility.

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The ability to fully use one’s ROM plays a role in day-to-day activities (e.g., reaching, bending, turning) as well as athletic endeavors. Flexibility losses are may be brought to full attention when we eg can't put shoes on due to loss of hip, knee or spinal loss of range of movement with arthritis; have restricted ROM in the neck from sitting constantly hunched over a computer screen; loss of flexibility from the aging process. If people neglect to spend time focused on flexibility it can result in an avoidable loss of ROM. Flexibility exercises should be included as part of an overall exercise program as a proactive way to maintain, or even improve, ROM.

Flexibility exercises used to improve ROM can take a number of forms, including the following (¹):

• static stretching (stretch and then hold the final position for a given time)
  • active static stretching (holding position by contraction of agonist muscle(s))
  • passive static stretching (holding position with no involvement of agonist muscles, may use partner or stretching aid)
• dynamic stretching (stretch with slow movement; progressively increase the range of motion through repeated movements)
• proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation (isometric contraction is followed by a static stretch)

Dynamic VS Static Stretches

When preparing the muscles for action, eg swimming, running, you need to prepare your muscles with a warm ups that typically include stretching. So the question arises which gives better results static Or dynamic stretches

The stretching portion traditionally incorporated static stretching. However, there are a myriad of studies demonstrating static stretch-induced performance impairments. More recently, there are a substantial number of articles with no detrimental effects associated with prior static stretchingeg

• Dynamic stretching improves repeated-sprint performance to a greater extent than static stretching and no stretching
• Immediately after a single bout of static stretching significant reductions in maximal voluntary strength, muscle power or evoked contractile properties have been recorded.
• Active warm-ups encompassing such exercises as sprints and plyometrics can enhance power and strength performance. Meanwhile shorter, static stretching not only fails to provide such a boost, but may also reduce strength.
• A meta-analysis of 32 studies on warming up and performance in 2010 also found that doing an active warm-up before engaging in sports yields improved performance — in this case, by 79 percent across all criteria examined.

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