How is your flexibility? Need a workshop?

·      What is flexibility?  

It’s the range of motion (ROM) of a joint.  Your muscles are actually long enough to allow for full ROM and it’s the tension that usually stops it from stretching as it should.  Genetics, age, gender and exercise (or more importantly lack of) play a role also.

·       Why is stretching important?

Injuries are seldom caused by a single painful incident, and usually due to a gradual accumulation of poor posture, stress, loss of flexibility, and lack of physical conditioning (strength training).

·       Back pain is one of the most common complaints and here are some of the reasons;

• Weak abdominal muscles create that hunched over curvature of the lower spine.  This creates additional strain and chronic pain.

• Forward bending causes excessive strain when you bend over straight legged (locking your knees) and straight back. 

• Lack of exercise to strengthen the abdominal and back muscles, including training your whole trunk.

·       Sciatic pain occurs when the sciatic nerve is squeezed as it passes through your tight piriformis muscle or if you have other muscle imbalances pulling your spine in a way that pinches the nerve.

·       Muscle tightness is an indicator of other injury patterns.  Here are a few common ones;

Tight quads – jumpers knees

Tight calves – Achilles tendinitis and heel pain

Tight Hamstrings – low back pain and patellar problems

If you are not as flexible as you need to be and are having issues, contact me and we can set up a time to schedule a private workshop for you and up to 3 of your friends or family.  I keep the interactive workshops small to give the attention needed to make sure you are doing the stretching exercises correctly.