Flexibility IS Strength!
Many people don’t know this, but strength and flexibility go hand in hand. How? Aren’t they two different things?
Well the short answer is yes.
Flexibility is the ability to bend easily without breaking or tearing. So in workout terms, it’s your muscles being lengthened to the furthest possible extent.
Strength is relative to each person but overall means how physically fit someone is or the ability for a person to utilize their body to create force and power.
Now how does flexibility help strength?
Well the more you’re able to stretch your muscles, the more range of motion you’ll have. Let’s use an example. Say one person can reach down and touch their toes and the other one can’t. If we tell both of them to perform an RDL or even a squat, the one who can touch their toes is going to be able to go down further (aka have more range of motion). Because of this, they’ll stretch the muscle more while controlling the weight which will allow for a better contraction of the muscle on the way up! They’ll strengthen the entire portion of the muscle while the immobile person only strengthens part of their muscle.
So if the more you lengthen the muscle, the better it contracts.
Why else is flexibility important?
We all know as you get older you start to stiffen up a bit. Your muscles naturally get tighter and if you’re not careful, all it takes is one slightly wrong movement for you to be crippled for the next week or so. You are way more prone to injuries as you get older so you better be stretching for a good 15-20 minutes before your workouts and even after! It also warms up your muscles and gets them ready for them to be worked.
You wouldn’t go to pitch in a baseball game without getting loose and throwing a few pitches first right?
Moral of the most.. Start Stretching Consistently ASAP!!!
You Got This!
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