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Stay Young by Staying Flexible
Fitness | April 04, 2018
When done regularly, working on your flexibility contributes to physical health and mental wellbeing. Some of the benefits of maintaining good flexibility and mobility include:
- Reduced muscle soreness after working out
- Keeping your body loose from the tightness of prolonged sitting
- Improving mobility and range of motion
- Lowering the risk of injury
- Healthy joints
- Preventing arthritis
- Less likely to develop imbalances throughout the body
- Good posture
Check out my article on the Benefits of Flexibility and Stretching if you want to learn more, but there are even more advantages to keeping your flexibility, especially when it comes to aging.
One report I came upon had found that having good flexibility could help to prevent the development of cardiovascular disease and lower blood pressure in hypertensive patients. The study had also found that the opposite- having an inflexible body– increased the risk of developing these problems over time.
Which makes sense. As we get older, our body stops functioning as well as it did when we were younger. That’s where a healthy lifestyle comes in to save the day. We can slow down the physical part of aging by exercising, eating right, and controlling our stress. And part of that involves whether or not we choose to have a stiff, inflexible body, or a loose, flexible one. In the long run, it’s best to improve our flexibility and restore mobility as soon as possible.
For one you don’t want to risk fracturing a hip or breaking your back from doing something as simple as bending down to pick something up off of the floor. Another common problem people run into as they age is joint discomfort, or worse, pain. I’m sure you’ve heard of people even in their 20s hurting themselves because they moved in a way that tweaked their body. They can even have the same types of pain in their joints as their elders! So inflexibility can affect anyone. Part of the problem is not keeping up with our flexibility, as well as remaining sedentary most of the time. Sitting down has too many drawbacks, which include joint pain and lack of mobility.
The secret ingredient for prevention?
Good flexibility and mobility routines!
Stretching regularly and restoring full range of motion in your joints can help to keep these issues at bay by loosening up the muscles and keeping us agile. I have been obsessing with postural therapy, stretching, mobility drills and learning new techniques for the past few weeks after I have experienced a lower back pain myself. I’ve been learning a lot so I’m looking forward to share with you guys the best strategies you can implement into your daily training.
In the mean time, check out my latest Mobility Drills and include some Stretch & Tone workouts into your weekly schedule as an extra bonus!
And because working on our flexibility helps us to maintain a good posture, we won’t look as ‘shrunken’ or ‘stooped’ as we age. It’s inevitable that we’re going to lose a few inches as we grow older, but maintaining good posture can mask the appearance of lost height, protect our lower back, and prevent this natural part of aging from being so severe. This definitely gives us a healthy, vigorous appearance no matter how many candles we may place on our birthday cake!
So if you’re still looking for the Fountain of Youth, why not focus on improving your movement and flexibility? Keep up a regular stretching and mobility routine as part of your active lifestyle, and see for yourself how much better your body feels over time. You never know- maybe the kids will have to keep up with you!
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Private Member |
Thank you Zuzka, very true and very helpful.
Private Member |
I have been doing stretch & tone & power yoga to improve flexibility because I am so behind as far as flexibility goes 🙁 I want to be able to do the splits!
Private Member |
All true!
Private Member |
We definitely need to focus on the inside (food), outside (weights), and middle (mobility) to make it all work!
Zuzka, I really love the ‘fierceness’ of your advanced workouts, so while I strongly agree we need balance, please don’t dial things too far back on us!
Private Member |
lake tahoe, nv, usa
You don’t have to worry about me dialing things down 🙂 I’m counting days till I’m ready to hit it hard again.
Private Member |
The benefits I have seen from your program have been incredible. I have been following you for about a year now and you inspire me every day. I am 53, and for the first time in a long time I can take my shirt off and everything is more or less in the right place : ) Glad you took my comments in the spirit intended. Seeing how determined you are makes all the difference in making me want to do more.
Private Member |
hailey, id
Q on low back pain – I was having some issues, and then realized it’s also about how I sleep! .. Do you ever research about how our sleep posture affects our mobility? What I’ve found is that my tendency is to curl my back and knees toward my chest, but that’s not good when I’m awake, so how can it be good when I’m sleeping? Whenever I feel I’m curling, and it’s affecting my sleep, I straighten out my legs, and even try to keep my body in one line and my feet behind my body.. It helps somewhat. But more often than not, it’s all about being flat on my back, for me. I’m asleep pretty quickly, when on my back. (I just get tired of that..lol)
hahaha 😀 my kids are pretty fit at 24,26 and 28, but momma is keeping a pace for them to keep reaching for.
I really value being an example for my kids, and so far, I am so blessed with this and very thankful I never let down my vigil to take care of myself.
thank you, always, for being such a great example and for taking the time to teach us so patiently!! – and lovingly – you DO do this with love, it’s easy to see. 🙂
Private Member |
switzerland/, france
I questioned 2 osteopaths about the sleeping posture affecting day-posture, they seemed to agree that it should not affect your “day” posture. In some logic I agree that since “active” muscle is what pulls bones into place (or for the matter, out-of-place), I still think though that if you spend 8hrs in “sleeper’s stretch posture” (which I do) it does contribute to extending the back-chain and certainly does not extend/stretch the front shoulder. When I mostly sleep on my back, in the morning I find that my inner front shoulder are less stiff and warming up takes less time.
Private Member |
hailey, id
Thanks for that, Laila (how are you!??) –
I’m thinking we are supposed to just pass out and our body will relax.. but I also feel and know that our body tenses up when we’re dreaming, and we do get kinked up at times from sleeping ‘wrong.’
Nice to see you 🙂
xxo