"A tree that is unbending is easily broken." - LaoTzu
Like most personal trainers, people ask me to train them for a lot of different reasons—run a marathon, climb Machu Picchu, mountain bike through Idaho, prepare for bodybuilding competitions, pass ROTC physical fitness tests, jump higher, bench press more weight, increase bone density, enhance heart rate variability, improve balance—just to name a few. Personal trainers need to have a variety of tools in their toolbox to meet the different needs of their clients. After almost 30 years in the fitness industry, most clients I work with either want to build cardiorespiratory endurance, gain muscle strength, or stay healthy. In all my years in this industry, however, there is one type of training that is rarely requested--developing flexibility.
Of course, I encounter plenty of people wanting to be flexible in my role as a yoga teacher, but it is unusual for someone to hire a trainer to become more bendy. But staying limber should not be the sole domain of a mind-body modality such as yoga; it is just as important in the gym as it is in the yoga studio. Flexibility is essential for all modes of fitness; it improves blood flow to muscles, enhances strength gains, accelerates cardiovascular fitness, reduces the risk of injury, prevents falls, and even reduces arterial stiffness, possibly even lowering blood pressure. Tight, shortened, and immobile muscles are problematic, even if they do not cause pain, creating postural misalignments that can lead to long term dysfunction, injury, and pain. Because our fitness culture favors caloric expenditure and losing weight, flexibility stays in the shadows, treated as an afterthought than an essential part of a workout. We often complain about tight muscles and may even do some stretches, but until inflexibility causes pain or disability, we are slow to tackle it head on.
Flexibility provides the foundation upon which all healthy movement is based. Essentially, you can only be as fit as you are flexible. Physical flexibility is defined as the ability of a joint or a series of joints to move through an unrestricted, pain free range of motion. A joint reaches the limit of how far it can move when one of two things happen: the tissue cannot elongate any further—it has reached its “edge” --or one part of the body comes in contact with another, preventing further movement. We can use the terms tension and compression when describing flexibility as they distinguish between the types of resistance that can restrict movement. Tension describes how far a tissue can elongate, and relates to the fascia, ligaments, tendons, and joint capsules. A common example of tension can be found in the hamstrings. Located along the backside of the upper thigh, the hamstrings play an important role in our ability to squat, lift objects from the floor safely, and ambulate freely and comfortably. When these muscles are tight and locked short, the ability to bend forward from the hips is limited. Depending on the level of tension, tight hamstrings can cause problems in a number of areas up and down the spine, with an increased risk of back pain and vertebral injuries. This tension has downstream effects, impacting our knees, lower back, even our shoulders.
Compression occurs when one part of the body comes in contact with another part, restricting further movement. There are three types of compression. The first is soft compression, occurring when flesh bumps into flesh, such as when a super bendy yogi rests her chest on her thighs in a seated forward fold. This type of compression has a squishy feel to it. The second is medium compression, which arises when bone and flesh connect. An example is when the top of the pelvis presses into the flesh of the thigh in a deep lunge. One may feel a pinching sensation which can be relieved by repositioning a limb. The third type is hard compression and is the most restrictive as it arises when bone hits bone. Frequently this type of compression is painful, and there is nothing that can be done to change it. Bone on bone compression simply needs to be accepted as a limitation.
Any consideration of flexibility seeks to address the question, “What stops me?”. Determining if it is tension or compression is important as each requires a different strategy. It is not always obvious what is stopping us; we need to pay careful attention to recognize what type of force is restricting our movement. Tension always arises in the opposite direction of the movement, creating a sensation of being held back. Imagine you are sitting on the floor with your legs stretched out in front. You reach for your toes with the intention of bringing your chest to your thighs. As soon as you begin to fold forward, you feel strong tension along the back of your legs which causes your lower back to round. No matter how hard you try to reach, the hamstrings resist your ability to fold forward.
Compressive forces are felt in the direction of the movement. These forces create obstacles that impede our movement. Frequently we can create a work around for soft or medium compression, such as repositioning a limb. Hard compression, when bone meets bone, creates an immovable obstacle. The only solution is one of wisdom, with a willingness to accept the limitation. Backbends are a good example of this limitation. Our ability to extend the spine in a backbend is influenced by the size and structure of our vertebrae; the larger the processes on the spine, the less extension we can achieve as the bony protuberances are more likely to touch each other and limit our range of motion. No amount of stretching will change that bone structure. We simply need to accept the limitation.
Compressive forces can’t be changed, we must move around or with them. Tension, however, is within our control and can be released over time with diligent practice. There are many factors that contribute to tension, including the fiber composition of the tissue, the alignment of muscle fibers, the response of specialized cells that initiate or impede a stretch reflex, as well as hydration, hormonal responses--even our body temperature and emotions. Perhaps the most important factor that has recently gained greater scientific understanding is the role of fascia, the integrating mesh of soft collagen fibers that permeates all our body systems. Fascia acts like a three-dimensional body stocking that gives structure and integrates all our body systems, including blood vessels, nerves, organs, muscles, tendons, ligaments, and bones.
More so than with any other area of fitness, flexibility training requires a gentle, gradual approach. Improvements in cardiovascular fitness can be measured in about 6 to 8 weeks, whereas strength improvements from weight training develop more slowly, typically over a period of four to five months. Compared to cardiovascular and strength gains, improvements in flexibility unfold at a glacial pace, requiring months and even years before any significant improvement is realized. It is easy to lose patience with the process.
An even greater challenge with flexibility training is that it is a fussy process. Our approach is quite important, as being too aggressive—the “hurts so good” strategy—runs counter to how our tissues respond to tension. There are a number of proprioceptive sensory cells in muscle, tendons, and fascia that are designed to respond to changes in length and how fast the change happens. For example, specialized cells in the belly of skeletal muscle known as muscle spindles are designed to detect changes in the length of muscle fibers. When a muscle stretches, so does the muscle spindle. If the stretch happens too quickly or aggressively, the spindle sends signals to the spine which causes the muscle to contract, resisting the stretch. The more sudden the change, the stronger the contraction will be. Have you ever stretched out your legs only to get a sudden and powerful cramp in your calf? That is the handiwork of the muscle spindles. They protect the muscle from lengthening too quickly to prevent tearing and injury.
Much more than other forms of exercise, flexibility is a process that is best practiced in a quiet environment with a calm state of mind. Many tissues, including our fascia, are sensitive to the stress response which can be triggered by changes in our breathing rate. Holding your breath--common with aggressive forms of stretching—triggers the stress response, causing certain muscles to tense in preparation to either fight or flee. Improper breathing can make muscles and fascia resistant to stretching. Flexibility gains are more likely when a stretch is held and released slowly and intentionally, coupled with long exhales that calm the nervous system and bring the body to a restful state.
The body evolves organically. Limits to our range of motion and tightness in muscles are a summary of the forces our body has been exposed to and how it attempted to overcome those obstacles. Inflexibility tells the story of our past movement patterns; what we do to address the resulting imbalances will determine our future. And the storyline is not limited to our anatomy; it reflects the larger picture of how we have lived our lives and where we might be headed. Restricted range of motion in the shoulder joint can tell the story of a person who faced long commutes and a sedentary job, or it may reflect the life of a devoted health care worker who spent a lifetime lifting and transferring elderly patients. Pain and dysfunction in the shoulder may be similar for both, but the path they took to get there creates two different narratives.
What stops you? What do you encounter on your path forward that obstructs your progress? Just as compressive forces—flesh against flesh, flesh against bone, bone against bone--limit our range of motion and cannot be resolved by stretching, similar forces can stop us from moving forward in life. These are the forces we think of as headwinds—events that impede us but are not fully in our control, resistance that requires a level of psychological agility to either move around or accept. We must know when to apply a new strategy and when we must simply accept our limitations, as some obstacles can be overcome, others cannot. Wisdom illuminates the difference.
What holds you back? Tension, experienced in either a muscle or in the mind, arises from an unwillingness to let go. Just like trying to touch your toes with tight hamstrings, we might reach as hard as we can for a goal but fail to get any closer. We will never move forward until we face what holds us back. Typically, it is our impatience that gets in the way, as changing habitual patterns, both in our tissues and in our behavior, takes time and diligence, along with a heaping measure of awareness and compassion. Shortcuts to the future are attractive but always ineffective or short lived; they usually result in injury.
Flexibility is not a static goal. One’s level of flexibility should reflect the demands of one’s life. A sprinter will most likely lose speed without some measure of tension in the arch and Achilles tendon—there is an optimum level of tension in the foot, ankle, and calf needed to create the power demanded of that sport. We must always weigh the benefits of being bendy with the needs of our current lifestyle, remembering that what is gained in flexibility is lost in stability. Just as our lives evolve, so do our flexibility needs. What is most important is developing an awareness of what prevents us from following our path. We develop that slowly, over the long haul, with deliberate flexibility training. What obstacles are facing you on your path? What is holding you back?
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