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How to be Flexible
How to be More Flexible
By Adam Sinicki
Around this site we look at how to improve your body and mind in any number of ways in order to become a more ultimate version of yourself and knowing how to be flexible falls right into this category. There are many reasons it's important to know how to be flexible, but basically if you can improve flexibility then you will find that you are able to perform in any number of categories. For instance if you know how to be flexible then you will be better at running and jumping and you will be less likely to injure yourself when doing so, you will be better at martial arts and throwing out high kicks, you will be able to impress people by pulling positions like the splits, and you will be even more of an animal in the bedroom (I bet you're already somewhat an animal in the bedroom...).
The question is, how to be flexible if you currently don't have a particularly high level? Here we will look at how to improve flexibility and will look at exercises for flexibility that can help you to improve your ability to bend to unusual degrees but without injuring yourself in the process.
Tips on How to be Flexible
When you're training to improve flexibility this is something that you are going to train just like anything else. In other words, you are going to try and come up with a flexibility routine, a stretching routine, that is just like any bodybuilding in muscle building routine (you should be used to those if you read this site enough). You are then going to perform it every day or every other day for ten to twenty minutes and you should start to see improvements.
Like building muscle though it is also important to make sure that you take breaks and that you let your muscle recover and likewise eating lots of protein to give your body the materials to rebuild damage is important in this capacity again also.
Finally whenever you are training for flexibility, always make sure to warm up first. This will help to make your body more supple and prevent injury. Before you start then, five to ten minutes of jogging or exercise can be beneficial.
How do I train flexibility? Oh I'm glad you asked. Well actually I improve flexibility by training at the end of a workout session and this then means I'm already warmed up and don't have to make time in my very busy schedule (I have sandwiches to eat don't you know?) to fit in stretching too.
How Flexibility Works
To learn how to be flexible though you really should understand a little more about it. The question is then, what is it that you are actually training when you increase flexibility? What is actually changing in your body?
Well actually it's not one change that's taking place, but several that contribute to better overall flexibility. These include the muscles surrounding the joints and by increasing their elasticity you can increase your range of motion. You can also improve the flexibility of your ligaments and specifically the yellow ligaments (as opposed to the white ligaments you also find there). The yellow tissue is what can be stretched considerably and return to its normal place, whereas the white tissue is designed to aid in the rigid structure of the bones and musculature and to hold the joints in place even in the scenario that you should damage the bone. Tendons likewise are not flexible.
There's also another element and this is the 'stretch receptors'. These send messages to the muscle about contracting and relaxing (spindle cells and golgi tendons respectively). The signal is sent for the muscle to relax then as it is stretched toward its end. Over time though this can be trained to make pulling off stretches easier – so it's not all about improving elasticity. Putting pain to the back of your mind is also a way to improve this.
How to Improve Flexibility
And now to the good stuff. After all this is an article on how to be flexible. Basically to train in flexibility you will use stretches that are designed to move within the range of motion that your muscle, joints and ligaments are capable of.
When using the stretches it is important then to make sure that you perform them in reps and sets. In other words, have more than one go at each stretch and hold. So go into the position, make a note of how far you've gone, hold for fifteen seconds or thereabouts, and then release. That's one 'set' so now return to the same position after a short break and hold it again – but see if you can't go a tad further. Doing 3-5 of these attempts is a good idea.
One thing to note when you improve flexibility is not to try and 'bounce' or 'bob' into the movement using momentum. Doing so is a surefire way to pull a muscle and that ain't pretty. Some other moves will require you to gradually push further into the move but listen to what your body is telling you and make it uncomfortable but not painfully so. Less haste more speed. Monitoring your progress can help you with how to be flexible, so use a tape measure, or a mark on the floor or wall to help encourage yourself over time. It should be a few weeks before you start noticing improvements.
Exercises for Flexibility
Here then are some stretches that are perfect for training flexibility. These are good flexibility exercises because they will hit all of the major muscle groups that you may want to try and train. Use the tips above and go through these movements and that's very simply how to be flexible.
Quad Stretch: This is the one where you stand on one leg and pull your other leg up behind you by the foot so that it bends at the knee and so that you feel tightness across the top/front of your leg.
Hamstring Stretch: Put one leg slightly infront of the other by keep it straight while you squat down slightly on the supporting leg. You should feel this in the backs of your legs.
Lunge: A good one for how to be flexible for the front splits. Simply lunge forward (carefully) as far as you can and go as deep into it as possible. To make it tougher you can put your back leg up on a chair or something, or have a partner lift it up behind you.
Splits: Gradually shuffle your legs wider and wider apart keeping them straight. You can also touch your toes on either side if you get a kick out of it...
Shoulder/Chest/Traps Stretch: Bring one arm across your chest and then pull it in front of you by pushing against it with the inside of the other arm. One of the most popular exercises for flexibility.
Side Stretch: Put one hand on one hip but don't do the time warp. Instead put the other arm over your head and then lean as far that way as you can pivoting sideways so that your higher arm dangles over your head like an elephant trunk.
Triceps Stretch: Try and scratch your own back with one hand and then use your free arm to push that one further down.
Biceps/Wrists/Fingers Stretch: One of the most popular exercises for flexibility among pianists. Put one arm out in front and grab your finger with the spare hand. Now pull them back as though trying to touch your wrist with your own fingernails.
Remember
Other key points in how to be flexible are to make sure that your weight lifting doesn't retard your progress. This can happen if you don't train within the full range of movement resulting in shorter and tenser muscles. Make sure that when you curl then for instance that you let your arm move all the way down to the bottom. Likewise make sure to train your muscles equally so that your body isn't getting more tension from one side than the other. So don't for instance train your quads a lot if you aren't going to train your hamstrings.
Diet for Flexibility
You can also improve your flexibility further with the right diet and while this won't make a huge difference, if you're serious about this then every bit helps. Here's how to be flexible in your diet:
Protein: Eating lots of protein will be important for building your muscles as well as for your connective tissue helping you to train without injury and letting your body make the necessary changes.
Potassium and Sodium: These are important to prevent cramping. You'll get them from bananas and salty foods (that's what sodium is). Something to bear in mind is that creatine may conversely increase your flexibility so taking lots of creatine may boost your energy but it is not how to be flexible.
Ginger: Ginger is a muscle relaxant. So theoretically eating this could help you to stretch more, and then you could ultimately train harder. In theory anyway.
Calcium: Some of your connective tissues are made from calcium as are your bones. To promote general bone and joint health and thereby improve flexibility and prevent joint pain, eat lots of calcium. Eat magnesium too as it will help your body to take the calcium to the joints, and consume lots of glucosamine too (which can come in supplement form) as it prevents the breakdown of cartilage.
Oils: Consuming oils will help to lubricate your joints. Use essential fatty acids such as omega 3 and you'll benefit from the antioxidant effects too.
Water: Water is one of the most important parts of how to be flexible as well as for your general health. Make sure you get plenty daily.
Copyright 2012 The Biomatrix.Net
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How to be More FlexibleBy Adam Sinicki
Around this site we look at how to improve your body and mind in any number of ways in order to become a more ultimate version of yourself and knowing how to be flexible falls right into this category. There are many reasons it's important to know how to be flexible, but basically if you can improve flexibility then you will find that you are able to perform in any number of categories. For instance if you know how to be flexible then you will be better at running and jumping and you will be less likely to injure yourself when doing so, you will be better at martial arts and throwing out high kicks, you will be able to impress people by pulling positions like the splits, and you will be even more of an animal in the bedroom (I bet you're already somewhat an animal in the bedroom...).
The question is, how to be flexible if you currently don't have a particularly high level? Here we will look at how to improve flexibility and will look at exercises for flexibility that can help you to improve your ability to bend to unusual degrees but without injuring yourself in the process. Tips on How to be FlexibleWhen you're training to improve flexibility this is something that you are going to train just like anything else. In other words, you are going to try and come up with a flexibility routine, a stretching routine, that is just like any bodybuilding in muscle building routine (you should be used to those if you read this site enough). You are then going to perform it every day or every other day for ten to twenty minutes and you should start to see improvements. Like building muscle though it is also important to make sure that you take breaks and that you let your muscle recover and likewise eating lots of protein to give your body the materials to rebuild damage is important in this capacity again also. Finally whenever you are training for flexibility, always make sure to warm up first. This will help to make your body more supple and prevent injury. Before you start then, five to ten minutes of jogging or exercise can be beneficial. How do I train flexibility? Oh I'm glad you asked. Well actually I improve flexibility by training at the end of a workout session and this then means I'm already warmed up and don't have to make time in my very busy schedule (I have sandwiches to eat don't you know?) to fit in stretching too. How Flexibility WorksTo learn how to be flexible though you really should understand a little more about it. The question is then, what is it that you are actually training when you increase flexibility? What is actually changing in your body? Well actually it's not one change that's taking place, but several that contribute to better overall flexibility. These include the muscles surrounding the joints and by increasing their elasticity you can increase your range of motion. You can also improve the flexibility of your ligaments and specifically the yellow ligaments (as opposed to the white ligaments you also find there). The yellow tissue is what can be stretched considerably and return to its normal place, whereas the white tissue is designed to aid in the rigid structure of the bones and musculature and to hold the joints in place even in the scenario that you should damage the bone. Tendons likewise are not flexible. There's also another element and this is the 'stretch receptors'. These send messages to the muscle about contracting and relaxing (spindle cells and golgi tendons respectively). The signal is sent for the muscle to relax then as it is stretched toward its end. Over time though this can be trained to make pulling off stretches easier – so it's not all about improving elasticity. Putting pain to the back of your mind is also a way to improve this. How to Improve FlexibilityAnd now to the good stuff. After all this is an article on how to be flexible. Basically to train in flexibility you will use stretches that are designed to move within the range of motion that your muscle, joints and ligaments are capable of.When using the stretches it is important then to make sure that you perform them in reps and sets. In other words, have more than one go at each stretch and hold. So go into the position, make a note of how far you've gone, hold for fifteen seconds or thereabouts, and then release. That's one 'set' so now return to the same position after a short break and hold it again – but see if you can't go a tad further. Doing 3-5 of these attempts is a good idea. One thing to note when you improve flexibility is not to try and 'bounce' or 'bob' into the movement using momentum. Doing so is a surefire way to pull a muscle and that ain't pretty. Some other moves will require you to gradually push further into the move but listen to what your body is telling you and make it uncomfortable but not painfully so. Less haste more speed. Monitoring your progress can help you with how to be flexible, so use a tape measure, or a mark on the floor or wall to help encourage yourself over time. It should be a few weeks before you start noticing improvements. Exercises for FlexibilityHere then are some stretches that are perfect for training flexibility. These are good flexibility exercises because they will hit all of the major muscle groups that you may want to try and train. Use the tips above and go through these movements and that's very simply how to be flexible. Quad Stretch: This is the one where you stand on one leg and pull your other leg up behind you by the foot so that it bends at the knee and so that you feel tightness across the top/front of your leg. Hamstring Stretch: Put one leg slightly infront of the other by keep it straight while you squat down slightly on the supporting leg. You should feel this in the backs of your legs. Lunge: A good one for how to be flexible for the front splits. Simply lunge forward (carefully) as far as you can and go as deep into it as possible. To make it tougher you can put your back leg up on a chair or something, or have a partner lift it up behind you. Splits: Gradually shuffle your legs wider and wider apart keeping them straight. You can also touch your toes on either side if you get a kick out of it... Shoulder/Chest/Traps Stretch: Bring one arm across your chest and then pull it in front of you by pushing against it with the inside of the other arm. One of the most popular exercises for flexibility. Side Stretch: Put one hand on one hip but don't do the time warp. Instead put the other arm over your head and then lean as far that way as you can pivoting sideways so that your higher arm dangles over your head like an elephant trunk. Triceps Stretch: Try and scratch your own back with one hand and then use your free arm to push that one further down. Biceps/Wrists/Fingers Stretch: One of the most popular exercises for flexibility among pianists. Put one arm out in front and grab your finger with the spare hand. Now pull them back as though trying to touch your wrist with your own fingernails. RememberOther key points in how to be flexible are to make sure that your weight lifting doesn't retard your progress. This can happen if you don't train within the full range of movement resulting in shorter and tenser muscles. Make sure that when you curl then for instance that you let your arm move all the way down to the bottom. Likewise make sure to train your muscles equally so that your body isn't getting more tension from one side than the other. So don't for instance train your quads a lot if you aren't going to train your hamstrings.Diet for FlexibilityYou can also improve your flexibility further with the right diet and while this won't make a huge difference, if you're serious about this then every bit helps. Here's how to be flexible in your diet: Protein: Eating lots of protein will be important for building your muscles as well as for your connective tissue helping you to train without injury and letting your body make the necessary changes. Potassium and Sodium: These are important to prevent cramping. You'll get them from bananas and salty foods (that's what sodium is). Something to bear in mind is that creatine may conversely increase your flexibility so taking lots of creatine may boost your energy but it is not how to be flexible. Ginger: Ginger is a muscle relaxant. So theoretically eating this could help you to stretch more, and then you could ultimately train harder. In theory anyway. Calcium: Some of your connective tissues are made from calcium as are your bones. To promote general bone and joint health and thereby improve flexibility and prevent joint pain, eat lots of calcium. Eat magnesium too as it will help your body to take the calcium to the joints, and consume lots of glucosamine too (which can come in supplement form) as it prevents the breakdown of cartilage. Oils: Consuming oils will help to lubricate your joints. Use essential fatty acids such as omega 3 and you'll benefit from the antioxidant effects too. Water: Water is one of the most important parts of how to be flexible as well as for your general health. Make sure you get plenty daily. Copyright 2012 The Biomatrix.Net
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