Flexibility training has been done for over 2000 years, or even longer, for obvious reasons. Integrated in training programs, it provides massive health benefits. When you are more flexible, you will feel and move better and protect your health. Read through the article to get aware of the diverse health effects of flexibility training.
Goals of flexibility training in a brief overview
- You improve your basis for an optimum execution and adaptation of movement
- You reduce the risk of muscle and joint injury
- You increase the speed of your recovery process
- You improve your self-awareness and wellbeing
- You improve your body posture
- Health effects of flexibility training
- Better Coordination
As we go through our daily professional or sportive activities, it is important that our body can do fluent and well coordinated movements. Even if you’re not a dancer, gymnast, or an athlete, flexibility training can still help you move better. Flexibility training improves the joints range of motion and the elastic capacity of your muscles. Therefore it will get easier for you to do daily movements, such as lifting a bag, or to perform sportive movements more effectively.
Reduction of risk for muscle and joint injuries
Muscle imbalances can have several reasons, such as wrong movement pattern or imbalanced training, a lack of movement or too short recovery. Stretching your muscles helps to release muscle tensions and, supported with a proper strength training program, to decrease muscle imbalances. Imbalanced muscles, which means e.g. your right arm and shoulder region is much stronger or tighter than your left, promote unhealthy and ineffective movement patterns. In the long run this can cause a lot of pain or even injuries in the related muscles and joints.
Speeding up of recovery process
Flexibility training promotes recovery after an intense workout because it relaxes your muscles, decreases the muscle tonus and calms your mind. A combination of exercises, such as integrated in yoga workouts, can also promote blood circulation and therefore help the body to release toxins. Releasing muscle tensions after training calms your mind and improves your mood.
Improvement of posture
Flexibility training can help you to maintain a good body posture or help you to correct a poor posture. For a good posture it is important to keep a balance between strength and flexibility. A disturbance of this balance will result in a poor posture and, if not properly treated or trained, in injuries. Besides, with a good posture you look younger, healthier and more self-conscious.
Improvement of self-awareness
With a regular flexibility routine, such as integrated in yoga workouts, you increase your self-awareness and the awareness for each body part and its different muscles. During a yoga workout you will most probably feel muscles which you never have been aware of before. Self-awareness is very important in everyday life e.g. for a good movement pattern.
Improvement of wellbeing
With well stretched muscles and a good posture you will experience less pain and just feel better. Therefore a regular flexibility routine, integrated into a professional workout, is an important part of your personal wellbeing program.
