How to Increase Flexibility and the Benefits of Flexibility

How to increase flexibility ? Before flexibility training, it is critical to warm up the muscles and joints. Stretching cold, tight muscles can result in injury, so perform some gentle joint rotation exercises and an easy aerobic exercise first. Joint rotations are done by working head to toe using small, slow circles (clockwise and counterclockwise) at every joint until they all move smoothly and easily. You can also do some marching or even jumping jacks to raise your core temperature and increase your circulation before start your stretching exercises.


As a sports athlete, remember that all round flexibility workouts is less important than having the right flexibility exercises for your sport. Studies have shown that the relationship between flexibility and injury risk is misunderstood. Having more flexibility does not necessarily mean fewer wounds and an athlete with poor flexibility is not more likely to get injured. The main factor is to have the right flexibility for your sport, so you can easily move through the range of motion without straining muscles.


In fact, research also supports the opinion that performing a correct warm up before exercise is far more likely to help reduce injuries. Warm up by lightly exercising the major muscle groups to be used in your sport. You can also warm up with marching, arm circles, jumping jacks, or starting your sport at a very slow pace. If you lift weights, it's important to stretch and the best time is right after a workout. Static stretching a tired muscles can increase flexibility and improve muscle tissue building. Static stretching helps loosen muscles, removes lactic acid and avoid the muscle tissues from healing at a shorter length after a heavy exercise.


In General, for a stretching routine exercise to improve flexibility, it needs target the specific joint and provide enough stretch to the muscles and ligaments over time to allow an adaptation to a new, increased, range of motion. Basically, what this means is that when you stretch, you need to feel the tightness and slight burning sensation that proceeds from going slightly beyond your normal range of motion. By doing so, you will develop a new span of motion over time. It is important to avoid over-stretching the muscles and causing an injury or muscle strain. The recommendation is to stretch to the point of mild discomfort but not to the point of pain.To develop long-term improvements in flexibility, stretch every other day for at least 6 weeks to enhance the benefits of flexibility. Don't forget that when you stop using or stretching this new flexibility, you are likely to lose the improvement you made.


Will be able to too flexible? Possibly for the muscles and ligaments around a joint to become too flexible. Overwhelming flexibility may be due to loose ligaments and muscles which may provide less joint support and may even increase the risk of injuries such as joint dislocations. Excessive flexibility training can be just as bad as not enough.