Muscular Flexibility

What is Flexibility?
The ability of a joint to move through its range of motion

Flexibility involves your bones, joints, surrounding tissue, nervous system, but most importantly your
muscles

BASIC PHYSIOLOGICAL INFORMATION

What are muscles?
Are organs composed of specialized cells that use the chemical energy stored in nutrients to contract.

Functions of Muscles
• Produce movement
• Maintain posture
• Stabilize joints
• Generate heat

Benefits of Good Flexibility

• Decrease the risk of injury
When tight muscles restrict the natural range of motion of a joint, the slightest unusual twist
can cause a strain or pull, such as a strained hamstring. Inflexibility also is a precipitating factor
in overuse injuries such as tendinitis, because inelastic muscles transfer excessive stress to
even less pliable connective tissue.

• Counters age-related declines in flexibility

due to improves coordination and balance which helps maintain an independent & active
lifestyle in the elderly.

• Decreases aches and pains (lower back problems)

Tight, inflexible muscles pull unevenly across joints, causing skeletal misalignment, poor
posture, unnecessary fatigue, and muscle and joint pain. Stretching can alleviate these
problems.

• Increases joint mobility.

It increases the ability to move freely and easily and to perform activities such as bending
down to tie the shoes, scratching your back, and turning to look back.

• Enhances athletic performance

In racquetball, golf, tennis, volleyball, and swimming, greater range of motion and ability to
apply force through that range of motion can confer a winning edge.

• Helps reduces excess stress by lowering anxiety and boosting feelings of self-confidence

• Feels good
Stretching reduces muscular tension, promoting relaxation.
Factors Affecting Flexibility
1. Genetic
2. Joint structure (shape of the bones)
3. Muscle temperature
Warm muscles stretch more easily than cold muscles.
4. Physical activity
Sedentary individuals are less flexible because muscles lose elasticity and tendons & ligaments
tighten and shorten; active individuals tend to maintain or even increase flexibility.
5. Body Composition
Adipose tissue increases with inactivity, which decreases a joint’s range of motion.
Most muscular individuals have good flexibility because they have trained their muscles
through a full range of motion. Overly bulky muscles may limit movement. Fat can also
maintained by doing stretching activities regularly.
6. Age
As a person age, flexibility declines due more to inactivity than to the aging process itself.
Flexibility can be maintained by doing stretching activities regularly.
7. Disease
Diseases such as arthritis can make it uncomfortable or even painful to move joints. Arthritic
individuals can improve their joint mobility through exercise.
8. Gender
Females tend to have a slightly greater range of motion in most joints
9. Injury
 Injury to muscle tissue and tight skin from extensive scar tissue negatively affect range of
motion
 Injury can limit range of motion, but a good rehabilitation program can help regain all or
part of a joint’s flexibility.

Flexibility Program Using Static Stretching Method

Threshold of Training Target Zones

Frequency 3 days/week for all methods 3 days/week for all methods

Intensity • Stretch as far as you can • Add assist

without pain; with slow
movement, hold at the end of
the range of motion.
Time • Hold 15 seconds
• 3 reps
• Rest 30 seconds between reps.
• Avoid overstretch and pain for all methods
• Hold15–60 seconds.
• 3–5 reps
• Rest 30 seconds between reps.
• Rest 1 minute between sets.
Methods of Stretching
1. Static Stretching
 Exercises in which the muscles are lengthen gradually through a joint’s complete range of
motion or to the point of tightness and the final position is held for a few seconds.
 Relaxes muscles, achieving greater length
 Low risk of injury
 Most frequently used and recommended
2. Ballistic Stretching
 Exercises done with jerky, rapid, bouncy movements to force a stretch past the normal
range of motion
 May cause muscle soreness and injury from small tears to the soft tissue

3. Propioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation (PNF) Stretching

 Stretching technique that uses reflexes and neuromuscular principles to relax the muscles
being stretch
 Involves tightening a muscle as hard as you can, followed by a static stretching of the same
muscle. The theory behind PNF is that the act of tightening or squeezing results in the
muscle becoming relaxed and more receptive to the stretch
 Partner assisted
 Based on a “contract- and-relax” method
 Takes more time
 Can cause more muscle soreness