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Addressing a Huge Misunderstanding About Flexibility
Being too flexible will hurt you!! Here’s why.
While you may think that deep flexibility is a goal you must endlessly strive for, there comes a point when hyper-focusing on being flexible will hurt you. This may sound crazy, but let me explain. You see, the baseline for flexibility requirements is often sport-specific. Will a ballerina and a runner have the same standard? Likely not…and that’s okay!
Unfortunately, this is an area I see many novices get tripped up on as a kinesiologist and trainer. We’re told that the more flexible we are the better, even when it’s not all that productive or helpful to our main sports or activities. We tirelessly train to touch our toes or master the splits, while neglecting other areas like strength and stability training that would benefit us far greater in the long run.
How To Stretch To Better Support Your Health
To nail this point home, I want to look at a few examples of sport-specific stretches or mobility exercises you can experiment with. While I won’t be able to get to every sport, I want to cover a few of the major ones to help give you an idea of what productive, specific stretching looks like. Please keep in mind that some of these are quite interchangeable. If you have any…
