Flexibility

🤷🏻‍♀️ Does flexibility matter?⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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📋 Stretching became known as a fundamental part of fitness in the 1950s with the famous sit-and-reach test. With every following decade, it became reaffirmed that stretching is an integral component, and even now, we have recommended weekly stretching prescriptions. The ACSM (for one) recommends 2-3 days/wk at 2-4 reps of multiple stretches per day.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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❗️ However, interesting enough, there is no correlation between how flexible someone is and sport performance or playing abilities, tactile performance, prevalence of low back or leg pain, blood pressure, resting heart rate, body composition, mortality, or fall risk.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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🤯 High levels of flexibility may even increase injury risk.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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✅ That said, flexibility does correlate with the ability to perform ADLs (activities of daily living), gait parameters (walking velocity), quality of life, and the ability to reach relevant ROM for necessary strength gains. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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🏆 This last point is why I believe flexibility training still matters. Flexibility allows us to achieve optimal strength, and strength does correlate with predicted mortality, reduced fall risk, improved cardiovascular health, better sport performance, etc. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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👉🏼 So is flexibility a primary training focus? Probably not.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
👉🏼 But does it matter? I say yes.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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🤔 What do you think?⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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📰 Reference: Nuzzo JL. Sports Medicine. May 2020. doi: 10.1007/s40279-019-01248-w.⠀