Here are four ways to improve your flexibility
The poorer the motion, the greater the risk.
It is often frowned upon for a guy to be found performing the “face down dog” in a yoga studio but you need to overcome your fears because yoga teaches you to breathe, improves your range of motion, improves muscle strength and elasticity. The cool part about yoga is that you often find yourself upside down seeing the world from a different perspective, this too has benefits to your system.
The hot topic of the week has definitely been flexibility. When we talk about flexibility we always associate this with the inability to touch one’s toes. The stories either go that you have never been able to touch your toes or once upon a time you were as supple as play dough. But is flexibility really that important for your health and sports performance and is it a myth that you can improve your flexibility? Let’s take the hamstrings for example. There are several factors that could play a role in why you can’t touch those piggy wigglies. Inside your muscles there are fibres that allow for contractions which is the shortening of the muscle and then relaxation which is the lengthening of the muscle. These fibres have a limit as to how far they can contract or extend. Your muscles are attached to tendons which often take the
Yes, I am telling you that you need to book yourself in for a massage at least once every month or every second month. Massage therapists have been trained to get in nice and deep within your muscles and restore them. If you really want something magical, try a sports massage. It can be quite sore at first and you might feel a little sore the next day but 48 hours after that your muscles will love you for it. brunt and strain from movement or exercises that go beyond the range the muscles feel comfortable with.
Let’s say a ball was kicked over the neighbour’s fence and lands at your feet. You step back, take a run up and kick the ball with all your might. The neighbour appreciates you returning his son’s ball but your hamstrings are screaming at you for doing such a stupid thing. You reach for your hamstring and hold it because of the sudden sharp pain that comes from that region. You shake it off and limp back to the braai.
What has happened to you is that by kicking the ball, you added a greater range of motion than your muscles were comfortable with. You then added velocity and impact with the ball. Your muscles have a split-second to deal with all of this and on top of that, they have not been warmed up properly. It also doesn’t help that your flexibility is not as great as it used to be.
It is very important to exercise throughout your life, especially since as you get older, as the elasticity of your muscle fibres deteriorate. Strength training in particular helps the muscle to be stronger so that when you do decide to try kick a ball, the fibres are more forgiving.