Yoga, Health, and Wellness Articles + Recipes

Flexibility is not just about achieving impressive yoga poses; it’s a crucial component of overall health and well-being. This week, we’re exploring why gaining and maintaining flexibility is essential, the health implications of being stiff and lacking range of motion, and how yoga is the perfect practice for improving flexibility. Flexibility is the ability of your joints and muscles to move through their full range of motion. It is a key factor in maintaining overall mobility, reducing the risk of injuries, and enhancing physical performance. According to the American Council on Exercise (ACE), flexible muscles are less prone to injuries because they can move freely and efficiently.

You may have heard the terms flexibility and mobility used interchangeably but although they are complementary, there are distinctions. Think of flexibility as the muscle’s ability to stretch passively. Mobility incorporates flexibility but also requires strength to actively move a joint through its full range of motion. It’s important to work on both flexibility and mobility and guess what? Yoga provides a way to improve and maintain both. Mobility and flexibility provide a myriad of benefits to help you feel your best. The combination of both helps you move your body through your full range of motion, whether you’re swinging a golf club, picking up a heavy box, or flowing through chatarangua dandasana. When your muscles are tight or inflexible, they can create restriction of the joints and restrict range of motion.

Flexibility is the capability of your body to achieve its full range of motion. It’s needed in most day-to-day activities, even the simplest ones such as bending and walking. If you’re flexible, your muscles remain mobile. We take flexibility for granted when we’re we’re younger, but as we age, our muscles will naturally lose strength, and we might notice ourselves become less supple and more stiff. This can affect our range of movement, especially around the joints. This can have the effect of stiffness in the muscles and joints. This loss of tissue elasticity causes our bodies to tighten and we lose that flexibility. The key reason that we lose flexibility, and we become more at risk of aches and pains is from not being active. This can lead to more permanent issues such as bad posture and lack of muscle function. Keeping flexible is important to avoid this and to keep us in good health and fitness.

Ask any yoga teacher what the most common excuse they hear from people who don’t practice yoga is and you’ll probably receive the same answer: “I can’t do yoga because I’m not flexible.” We’re not sure where the myth started that naturally flexible and bendy people were the only ones who could practice yoga. In fact, it’s really the opposite. Flexibility looks very different depending on if you are a twenty-year-old former dancer, a thirty-year-old professional athlete, a fifty-year-old desk jockey, or an eighty-years-young retiree. No matter your age, anatomy, or physical abilities, yoga can help you become more flexible. The beauty of yoga is there are several styles and levels of classes and at least one is suited for you. How wonderful is that?