Unlock Your Body with Flexibility

Why Flexibility Deserves More Attention

Flexibility is often treated as an optional extra in most training routines. Yet it plays a critical role in helping your body move well, reduce injury risk and perform at its best. Whether you are strength training, playing sport or simply trying to move better throughout the day, flexibility can make a measurable difference to how your body feels and functions.

Stretching does more than loosen up tight muscles. It can improve joint mobility, reduce muscular stiffness and enhance your ability to move efficiently. These changes build the foundation for better posture, movement control and long-term joint health.

Dynamic Stretching Before Exercise

Before you start a workout, dynamic stretching helps activate muscles, improve blood flow and prepare your joints for movement. It involves controlled motions that mimic the movements of your activity. Exercises like leg swings, arm circles, walking lunges and hip circles increase body temperature and improve neuromuscular coordination.

Research from the American College of Sports Medicine explains that dynamic stretching before activity can help improve movement efficiency and muscle readiness, especially when paired with specific warmup drills (Bushman 2016). This is especially important before resistance training or high intensity sport where performance and injury prevention are closely linked.

Static Stretching After Exercise

After training, static stretching can help the body return to its resting state, reduce muscular tension and gradually improve range of motion. This type of stretching involves holding a position for 20 to 30 seconds without movement.

Targeting muscles you have just trained such as hamstrings, quadriceps, calves or hip flexors can support recovery and reduce the buildup of post exercise tightness. While static stretching immediately after training might not prevent soreness directly, consistent post session flexibility training helps support long-term gains in mobility and movement quality.

The Science Behind Flexibility Training

Scientific research continues to support the value of flexibility training as part of a balanced fitness program. In a review published in ACSM’s Health & Fitness Journal, Bushman (2016) highlights that flexibility exercises can improve not just joint range of motion but also balance and movement control when performed consistently.

Further analysis from Bouguezzi and colleagues (2023) outlined that regular flexibility training helps reduce injury risk, particularly in the hamstrings and hip flexors, and can even enhance technique in athletic performance by improving biomechanical efficiency. Their review concluded that more flexible individuals tend to recover faster and maintain better functional performance over time, especially when flexibility routines are incorporated two to three times weekly.

They also emphasised that stretching interventions are most effective when targeting multiple joints, and that benefits become clear after at least five to six weeks of consistent practice (Bouguezzi et al. 2023). These findings support flexibility training as a fundamental component of physical fitness rather than an optional extra.

How Often Should You Stretch?

You do not need to stretch every day to improve flexibility. Two to three sessions per week is enough to see changes, especially if stretches are held long enough and performed with proper form. Sessions can be short, around 10 to 15 minutes, focusing on major joints like hips, knees, shoulders and spine.

Beginners should focus on technique rather than pushing range. Stretching should feel like tension, not pain. With consistency, the muscles and connective tissue gradually adapt to new ranges of motion.

Conclusion

Flexibility training is one of the simplest and most underused tools in physical health. It improves how you move, how you recover and how resilient your body becomes over time. Incorporating dynamic stretching before workouts and static stretching afterward will support performance and help your body stay mobile and injury resistant.

By making flexibility a consistent part of your weekly routine, you are giving your body the foundation it needs to move well, train hard and recover faster.

References

• Bushman B A (2016). Flexibility exercises and performance. ACSM’s Health & Fitness Journal, 20(5), 5–9.
• Bouguezzi R, Sammoud S, Markov A, Negra Y, & Chaabene H (2023). Why flexibility deserves to be further considered as a standard component of physical fitness: A narrative review of existing insights from static stretching study interventions. Youth, 3(1), 146–156.