What are the functions of flexibility training?

For the vast majority of people, the core value of regular flexibility training is to reduce the risk of injury in sports and daily activities, and to improve the comfort of physical activities. These two points are also generally verified by academic circles and sports practitioners.

A member of an amateur running group I coached before would only do jumping jacks for two or three minutes before going on the track before each run. He never stretched his hamstrings and hip flexors. Within three months of running, he started to have problems with his side legs stretching after running and his knees becoming tight when squatting to pick things up. The X-ray showed that there was no structural damage, but the long-term tightness of the muscle fascia decreased the elasticity. Later, he was given lower limb flexibility training three times a week for 15 minutes each time. Within two weeks, he said that the pulling pain had basically disappeared, and his strides when running were much more relaxed than before.

Don’t think that only people who exercise need to practice this. Nowadays, eight out of ten people who sit in the office and type on the computer every day have problems with tight shoulders and necks, stuck turning heads, and unable to touch the toes when bending over. The essence is that they maintain the same posture for a long time, and local muscles and fascia are contracted for a long time and lose their elasticity. Last week, a girl who was doing UI design came to me and said that it hurt even when she turned her head. She went to the hospital to check for any disease, but her sternocleidomastoid and upper trapezius muscles were too stiff. I taught her three neck and thoracic spine stretching movements that she could do while sitting at her workstation. She took three to four minutes to do them every day. This week she came over and reported that she no longer had the stuck pain when turning her head. It’s easy to understand. Our muscle fascia is actually like a rubber band tied to hair. A new rubber band can spring back quickly no matter how long it is stretched. If it has been left for a long time, it will be hard and easy to break if you pull it with a little force. Flexibility training is actually to help these "hardened rubber bands" regain their original elasticity.

Of course, there are still some controversial aspects about the role of flexibility training. For example, whether it can improve sports performance, academic circles and training circles now have different opinions. Studies have confirmed that long-term static stretching for more than 30 seconds before exercise will temporarily reduce the explosive power of muscles, which will have a negative effect on events such as sprinting and weightlifting that require instantaneous extreme force exertion. Therefore, many physical fitness coaches of professional teams will require athletes to only do dynamic stretching before games and not long-term static stretching. ； However, many practitioners who have been doing strength training for a long time believe that long-term regular flexibility training combined with strength exercises can expand the effective range of motion of the joints. On the contrary, it can help strength enthusiasts squat deeper and move the joints more smoothly when bench pressing. In the long run, it can improve the upper limit of strength performance. Both statements are supported by actual data and cases, and there is currently no completely unified conclusion.

In fact, for ordinary people, there is no need to worry about these controversies, and there is no need to pursue extreme flexibility that can do the splits or bend the legs behind the head. As long as your flexibility is enough to support your daily activities and sports needs - those who love to play ball will not twist their feet due to insufficient joint mobility, and those who sit in the office will not get pain when turning their heads or stretching. This has maximized the role of flexibility training.