What is Flexibility and Why Does it Matter?

Can you touch your toes? Does that mean you're flexible? What is flexibility and why does it matter? It's a key component of physical fitness (and life) and I'll tell you all about why it matters in this episode and how to be functionally flexible.

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Transcript

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Hello and welcome to the bless ful body podcast. I'm your host Chi Autumn Russell. And I'm here to share with you my best fitness and healthy living strategies and tips. And they are so good. Your body, mind and spirit will be thankful that you listened Well, Hey, lovely. How are you? I am so happy that you are here with me today, and I'm really excited to talk to you about flexibility. I just woke up and was thinking about flexibility, What it means. And I thought it would be really fun to just record a quick little podcast about it because I think it gets a little misunderstood sometimes. Okay, So when I ask you, are you flexible? What do you think of what's the first thing that comes to mind? Is it being able to do, Ah, big old back bends? Is it being able to touch your toes? Is it being able to do the splits and those air? Certainly some indicators of flexibility, but they're not necessarily necessary to be flexible. Okay? And so I wanted to chat about that a little bit, and I will also talk about what it means to be physically flexible, but also what it means to be flexible in our mind, our emotions and our spirit. Right, Because flexibility is kind of a good thing to have and a lot of Rome's of life. And the parallel is really similar, right? Because in general, we want to be somewhat flexible, but not necessarily to flexible. Okay. And we'll get there. All right. So I guess the first question I want to ask you is if you think of yourself as being flexible, okay? And you can just have your answer that you can share your answer with me. I'd love to know, Um, but basically, do you think of yourself as a flexible person? And for many of us, we have this pre assumed idea, right? His idea. Oh, I'm flexible or I'm not flexible. And it might be related to our childhood, right and how our bodies felt while we were growing. And it might also be related to some type of sport or activity that you do or did do. And how much flexibility is a component of that. Right? So, dancers, gymnasts, ice skaters have a lot of flexibility. Also, swimmers, they're gonna have a lot of flexibility through certain joints, Right? Um, so everybody can be lots of different activities require different amounts of flexibility in different ranges. Okay, So what is flexibility? Right? Flexibility is basically the ability to move your joints through a full range of motion. Okay. And so just reminder joints are an area where two bones connects. And it's a place where movement is possible. Not all joints move. Some joints are designed not to move like the joints in your skull where your skull bones connect. We don't really want a lot of movement there. There might be a little bit of movement, right, But in general, that is considered a joint that is a non mobile joint. And then we have joints that are in other places of our body and that are designed for different types of movement in different directions. And I'm gonna talk a lot about like your hip joint today because a lot of times when we're talking about flexibility, we really tend to focus in on our legs a lot of times. That's what people's kind of first thought about. Flexibility is, but it's a reminder. I just want to remind you that flexibility occurs and all of your joints. So you know, your finger joints, um, your elbow, your shoulders, your hips, your spine anywhere were 2.2 bones connect that have movement capabilities that is considered an area where one could be flexible. Right? So what that means, though, is what is a full range of motion? Okay, so there's something called a an idea that I want you to think of is this functional range of motion. So there's a range of motion that can occur at every joint that would allow one to participate, and functional activities would allow you to be able to, um, basically bend over and pick up a shoe that was on the ground. Or put your shoes on or sit in a chair, right? Reach something off of a tall shelf. Maybe be ableto scratch your back right thes air things that, um, can be functional ranges and different joints. And then definitely people have the capability. Some people have the capability to really move beyond those functional ranges and go into, uh, just really push the limits of their flexibility. Often, what happens is that the joint structure itself can be changed, particularly in childhood. So I was a ballet dancer and spent a lot of time trying to turn out my legs right, like my goal was to get my toes pointing straight out to the sides of the room. OK, 90 to return out or more. Right? That definitely, um, so 90 degrees for each hip, Which would kind of be that 1 80 like duck foot stance that damn ballet dancers have. And so I spent so much time trying to really get that turnout going that that, you know, my hip joint. And I did this at a young age, right? While bones are still growing so you know, a child bones or developing bones are still growing, bones are still being modeled, so it's very easy. Is it in a youth to really change the structure of a joint through some type of activity that is really repetitive and very much, um, working towards that? That's an episode that's another episode talking about what's appropriate for youth and what is it? But definitely, you know, my hips changed eso that I could accommodate or achieve the amount of turnout that I wanted and, you know, also I'm sure that I was predisposed to that right. So there's a little bit of chicken or egg. Was it that I already had a good amount of turnout? And so that's what kind of helped me begin to excel early on in ballet, or was it something that I also helped to kind of mold and create? But what happens when you do that is you're going to be changing the shape of the joint itself. So the bones, right? So your bones are constantly growing. They're constantly remodeling, and so you can change the shape of your bones over time, right? It's It's a slow process, but it does happen, and bones change in shape to the amount of force and the direction of forces that are placed upon them. Okay, that's important to him. We're talking about bone building and osteoporosis and things like that, but back to flexibilities. So if you're, you know, going through those functional range of motions, the idea would be that the, you know, say, in the hip socket that you have your, um, the ball and socket joint right. And most of us have a clear image of what our hip looks like. So there's like the little half circle of the asset tabula mom, where the head of the femur is going to sit into right. And so it's a ball and socket and there's connective tissue in there, right? There's a labor, um, which is this kind of thick end cartilaginous structure that surrounds the head of the femur, the ball so that it cushions it right. And then there's also going to be connective to shoot. There's cartilage inside your joint. All of these things make motion painless breaks. If it was just bone on bone. Um, when we get to bone on bone, that can be a very painful situation. So when you're going through that functional range of flexibility, what's happening is you are basically moving in a full range of motion. So for our hip joint, um, you know, reflection where you would like lift your knee up in front of you. That is about up to 125 degrees. Okay, so you would think of 90 degrees with being your would be with your legs straight out in front of you, and so then taking it a little bit above that would be considered functional. Um, with your knee bent for most people, right? So having a straight leg and doing that is a very different experience than bending your knee right. And if you have questions about this, you can try that. Okay. But basically, and part of that comes into our hip flexibility right are really the flexibility of our hamstrings. Is what would limit having less range of motion with a straight knee inflection, then having a bet. Me So basically, um, having that full range of motion through our joints, particularly that functional range, is a really beneficial thing. And it's one of the indicators of physical fitness, right that we are able to do that through Oliver joints. So not necessarily just focusing on our hip joints. Also thinking about our spine. Um, you know, there's a quote that Joseph Pallotti's said that you're on Lee as young as your spine is flexible, right? Um and I do adhere to that. I've seen a lot of really young people who were quite old, but really still very mobile. And one of the things about being flexible is that it enables you to move more so as we age. There is a natural tendency to decrease our flexibility toe, lose some of our flexibility. And you don't have Teoh, obviously, right? If it's it's just like any other. Any other thing, right? If you keep practicing, what you practice grow stronger, you don't necessarily have Teoh. I know that I am much likes flexible than I used to be, but I actually consider that a good thing, OK? And I'll talk about that in a minute, but basically being able to move through the full range of motion. And so, you know, thinking about that flexion. If you can sit in a car, right, that that often is gonna take us packed into a pretty deep range of hip collection, a lot of cars could be kind of low or a low seat. And these are things that impact our lives, right? Being able to step up on a step or being able to bend over and pick something up. So there's a lot of ways that this impacts us. Okay, so that is what flexibility is Now what it isn't is being able to do, you know, splits or over splits. Necessarily. Okay, that doesn't Yes, that is an indicator that one is very flexible. But often the term that we use when we're describing somebody who is so incredibly flexible is that they're hyper Mobil. And so what that means is yes, they are gonna have the muscles surrounding the joint Is gonna be very flexible and mobile by what happens. There is often that connective tissue that supports a joint can be very loose. And many people in this convey because, you know, that is just the way that your your body is basically designed. People have different amounts of mobility through their connective tissue. Some people have much more dense connective tissue. Some people have kind of looser connective tissue. And basically, there's also ah, women at different times of our cycle, right? We can be more flexible as our hormones change. And then through pregnancy, we are very hyper mobil or can be hyper mobile. There is a hormone release called relax, and that really contributes to the ability of joints too. Um, kind of open up. And that is designed so that the joints and our pelvis can open for child birth. Right, because your where your pubic bones connect is a joint and normally offers very little movement. But during childbirth it has toe open up quite a bit and move. And so there's actually hormones that are released through the entire body throughout pregnancy and even well into a period of breastfeeding where one is can be much more flexible and hyper mobile. But often what is happening? And this is what's happening to a lot of times when people are doing these activities that are gonna, you know, things like over splits is that you're not. Yes, you are working on the muscle tissue, but you're not Onley affecting the muscle tissue. Often you're affecting the connective tissue as well. Okay. And so, um, you can And you know the thing about connective tissue, particularly ligaments, which is what connects bones to bones is that they non elastic, so muscular tissue is elastic. That means it's contracts and returns. And that is a contract. I'll property and connective tissue has none or much less of that capability. Okay. And so once it kind of gets stretched out, it definitely can lose some of its ability to kind of return toe a functional state. So a lot of times people who kind of do, um, you know, picture write a baseball pitcher is a really good example of this. So if you slow down and watch a baseball pitcher there, throw their shoulder joint is going through incredibly, um, just an incredible range of motion there to be able to pull back to do that pitch. And so that would be considered hyper mobility, right? And so definitely, we know that if you follow baseball that, you know, tryingto preserve a pitcher's arm throughout a game is a really important thing. That's for strength and also for milk mobility. Because when you get hyper mobile, when you have a joint that is overly flexible, it's not actually a good thing for the joint and four kind of healthy functioning right. It might be a great thing for whatever sport or activity your undertaking. And certainly I wouldn't say that, you know, that's a choice that people make. It's good to make an informed choice about that, but that is definitely a choice, okay, And so, um, and that's a choice that many people choose and enjoy and don't have problems with. So I'm not saying that you should never choose that. But just to understand that if you're gonna kind of remodel that connective tissue you are sacrificing a little bit of or a lot sometimes of joint stability for mobility. And Oliver joints want to be mobile and stable at the same time because they wanted the joints that move right, So and every joint has a little bit more mobility versus stability, and basically, that is a trade off. And so if you choose to kind of really train and change the shape of a particular joint or change that connective tissue, then you're kind of committing at least until, you know, hormonal changes come and that tissue can kind of change on its own again, which could take quite a long time. You're really choosing to then need to really work on the muscular tissue surrounding a joint to give you some of that extra stability. Okay, so flexibility isn't necessarily any extreme range of motion. That was a little bit of an aside there. So it doesn't so, you know, being flexible. Yeah, doing the splits. Sure, you are definitely flexible. If you could do the splits. Your hip joints are flexible specifically, but, um that isn't necessarily what we all need to be striking for. Okay? And then why does this matter? Well, I think I've kind of told you a little bit about why it matters, because basically, we can be overly flexible to the point where we can sacrifice some stability and function. And often people who are hyper mobile can be in quite a bit of pain. Okay, I've worked with a lot of, um clients over the years. That really did. They were so flexible and had so hyper Mobil. And oftentimes when you're hyper mobile to the muscles, respond by really trying to tighten up and becoming overly tight around that joint, because the really desperately kind of trying to, um provides support, which they definitely can do. So it's not something that is inherently bad. It's just a thing, OK, and then or inherently good, it's just the thing. And then we also have on the other side of the spectrum, right? We have people who are not able to move through those full ranges of motion in particular joints or their whole body. And this is also not an ideal state, okay, because they are limited in what? In what one can do, right? Being able to scratch your back is a wonderful thing, right? That's a shoulder joint range of motion that you, um, can have not everybody necessarily. But a lot of people being able to grab something off of a shelf, being able to bend down and put on your shoes. Being able to I have a full range of motion when you're hiking or walking. All of these things are connected to flexibility and mobility, okay? And so I encourage you. If flexibility is something that you're not currently thinking about as part of your physical fitness regime, particularly as we kind of get into our forties and beyond, it is something that is really easy to lose and one day wake up and be confused as to why a particular range of motion is no longer available to you. It's not that it went away overnight. It's just that you probably if you're not working on flexibility and mobility, if you're not thinking about it, then what often happens is over. Time will lose some of that, and then it is a lot harder to kind of get it back. It's not impossible and certainly something that I work on. And, you know, I work with my students and my members a lot on flexibility and mobility because it really does matter and being, you know, adequately mobile has so many benefits for our joints, and our body, it gets are synovial fluid flowing. It gets the rest of our fluids and our body flowing. So moving joints, it's a very nourishing thing to do. And movement actually nourishes the cartilage that's in your joints. So spending a long period of time where you're not moving through ah, full range of motion will actually, um, lead to cartilage being kind of malnourished and more likely to, um, not be as juicy as we want it to be. We want our joint stall Be nice and juicy. Right? Um, Okay. So how do we How do we improve this? How do we change this? Okay, so it's actually pretty simple. You just wanna move. That is basically the first step. So if you are moving through a full range of motion If you are, you consort small. Just start by trying to move through your joints and, yes, activities like Pilates and yoga are designed to improve flexibility and mobility through their actual practice, particularly the way that I like to teach them. So you're going through full ranges of motion in a class in joints, multiple joints. So you're kind of just getting that basically. But if that's not your jam, if that's not something that you're really interested in doing, and I do encourage you to really take the time to understand. Okay, well, what is the range of motion that I want through my hip? What is the range of motion that I need through my shoulders and doing movements that support that? Okay, so just moving is going to be really helpful. And I do do mobility exercises or mobility movements throughout the day. And I also do stretches that are more designed for flexibility because of you have muscular limitations. Um, you know, postural e Say you have a tight chest that that's gonna lead to it being challenging toe, open your arm up and extend your arm and horizontal a deduction and taking your arm behind you right so often there's a bit of kind of moving through the joint that needs to happen. And then there's also some stretching that can go along with that and they can often happen at the same time. Okay, And this could be a short daily practice. I kind of encouraged that because, you know, ideally, we are moving a lot throughout our days. And so if we have these short practices built up, then it's a nice way to just get some natural movement in each day. Okay, So I hope that that's giving you a little bit of clarification around physical flexibility. And I ended up talking a lot about mobility, to which they're very important. And, um yeah, but I also just want to throw out there that this analogy, right of what we're trying to achieve with flexibility is very can be very similar to the how flexible we want to be in our lives. Right? So certainly I would imagine that most of us are striving to kind of hit that balance between being ah flexible, accommodating person, able to kind of roll with surprises or changes and not being so set in our ways. That, like, kind of small things that pop up, are a huge problem. And we also don't want to be so flexible and so accommodating that we aren't necessarily advocating for our own needs or those of others. Right? So it's kind of that sweet spot in the middle there where were able to be, you know, a little flexible, have a little movement, um, give and take. But we're also, um, not and we're not rigid rights, but we're not also just so we're not rigid, but we're also not just kind of so flexible that were no longer what, aware of our own needs. Okay. And I have seen that sometimes this is not a universal truth, right? Like, But I have seen that as people begin to become kind of more appropriately flexible in their physical bodies that that can have changes into how they're interacting in the world as well and what, what type of flexibility they have with their scheduling or, um, in their dealings with others. So it's kind of an interesting thing in it, and I encourage you to to just reflect on that and see if you would consider yourself a flexible person in your life and in your body. And if there's any correlation there and, um maybe working on both to get to that kind of whatever sweet spot you're working towards could be an interesting little project. Okay, my friends, if you have any questions, please send me an email or write a comment. I would love to see it. And, um, yeah, if you are enjoying this podcast, please, if you have a chance, I'd love it if you would, um, rate, subscribe, rate and review. Right. So if you subscribe, you'll get all the episodes. When they come out, you don't have to search for them. And then, um, if you would give a little rating in a review, it helps other people find the podcast. And that's my goal is to kind of help people understand all of this wellness and physical fitness information that can be a little overwhelming. And, um, kind of help you sort through the noise. Okay, friends, I hope that you have a beautiful bless. Full day. Thank you so much for joining me today. It is my honor and take care, Theo.