September 23, 2019
Monday Tip: The Importance of Flexibility and Mobility..
Flexibility and mobility are two factors of healthy living that are frequently overlooked. Most people tend to focus on other important pieces of healthy living (such as diet and exercise) and allow flexibility and mobility to fall to the wayside. These two factors of healthy living actually have a much larger role than commonly realized. Being flexible and having full joint mobility can have several beneficial implications on quality of life, including: reducing day-to-day pain and increasing vascular health.
Most people suffer from many forms of day-to-day pain, the most common form being lower back pain. This irritating and lasting pain inhibits many people from performing daily activities and having a normal quality of life. Many forms of lower back pain are actually caused by the immobility and inflexibility of the body.
💙Flexibility can also have effects on mortality. One study published a few years ago found that people who had poor flexibility when examined in a testing environment also had an increased chance at having a certain risk factor for cardiovascular disease (Yamamoto 2009). Studies such as this demonstrate that flexibility is a serious component of overall health, and is nothing to ignore. Increasing flexibility through stretching has shown to have several positive effects, including: lowering blood pressure and reducing chronic joint pain.
💚Mobility is closely linked to flexibility in that both affect the body’s ability to function properly. Mobility refers to the ability of a joint to move freely through its range of motion. Inflexibility of muscles can lead to changes in joint mobility, as reflected in the lower back pain case presented earlier. Tight muscles do not allow joints to reach the full extent of their range of motion, which can lead to pain and injury. Not being able to have full function of a joint can cause injury when performing physical activities.
✴Increasing mobility through flexibility is very important, and should be done proactively instead of reactively. This means that working on mobility should ideally be done to prevent problems, not address current problems. One of the ways to increase mobility is through foam rolling and massages. Combining foam rolling with stretching can help improve mobility and flexibility, and further improve overall health.
✳Here are some links to help get you started!
https://www.healthline.com/…/fitn…/joint-mobility-exercises…
https://www.acefitness.org/…/flexibility-exercises-for-begi…
And you can always ask one of the trainers for advice on what you should do for certain areas:)
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