Today, almost all fitness clubs include stretching, yoga, fitness yoga in the schedule of classes – areas that develop flexibility. But let’s see, do we really need it? What is the importance of flexibility for the body and health in general?
– Nature endows us with flexibility by no means the same: for someone at any age, bridges and splits are easily given, and for someone the simplest movements cause discomfort and painful sensations.
Let’s start by defining exactly what such a familiar and seemingly understandable word means – flexibility. According to the definition of professionals, this is the maximum mobility in the joints. It is she who determines the amplitude of movements that we perform in everyday life and during training.
People who are untrained or have recently started to exercise often have reduced joint mobility. The reason for this is the presence of various muscle blocks and spasms (especially in the back and shoulder girdle), arising as a result of hypodynamia and incorrect postures, which sometimes become not only habitual for us, but even very comfortable. Injuries also leave their mark, limiting our joint mobility.
All this affects our appearance: posture worsens, plasticity of movements is lost, we become “squeezed”, tense and begin to perceive ourselves as nothing more than a clumsy elephant in a china shop.
But this is not so bad – the main danger of limiting articular mobility is
that it leads to negative changes in our internal state. Broken blood – and lymph circulation, which in turn leads to a lack of oxygen and vital nutrients are accumulated in the body of harmful metabolic substances – toxins, deteriorating metabolism.
The problem of reduced flexibility is familiar not only to beginners, but also to professional athletes who ignore exercises for joint mobility. The fact is that resistance training, aimed at increasing muscle mass, significantly increases muscle tone, which leads to shortened ligaments and joint stiffness .
If you don’t regularly practice special stretching exercises, then a moment may come when the strength capabilities of the muscles exceed the elastic capabilities of the ligaments and tendons. This will inevitably lead to an increase in the load on the bone apparatus, and further strength training will take place with a constant risk of injury.
For those who mainly prefer strength training, an additional but important advantage of stretching exercises is that during these exercises the production of the hormone self – tropin is activated , which stimulates muscle growth and accelerates the recovery process after training. Stretching exercises combined with strength training will help you avoid stagnation in your workouts and help you set new records in fitness and sports.
Sports achievements are not the most important thing in our life, and for most people, the development of flexibility is, first of all, health, the ability to freely control your body and maintain excellent physical shape for many years.
Paying due attention to the development and maintenance of functional flexibility decreasing with age,
we eliminate overstrain and spasms in the muscles, keep the latter elastic and elastic, which serves as an excellent prevention of arthrosis and osteochondrosis and maintains a beautiful, correct posture for a long time.
Introducing exercises for the development of flexibility into your training arsenal, you need to be careful, consistent and be extremely attentive to the signals of your body, because the ligaments and tendons are very difficult to stretch.
Here, the professional advice of a trainer – a specialist who will help you keep on the line of connection of maximum efficiency and safety, which is sometimes so difficult to find on your own – can be very useful.