Flexibility is one of the five health-related components of physical fitness (along with muscular strength and endurance, cardiorespiratory endurance and body composition). Some of our most common orthopedic injuries can be partially attributed to poor flexibility. Flexibility is an important component of physical fitness that's frequently overlooked.

Approximately 80% of the U.S. population will experience back pain sometime in their lifetime. In the workplace, back injuries are the number one problem, and overuse injuries in the upper extremities such as carpal tunnel syndrome are number two. Among athletes, common complaints include back pain, leg pain and various shoulder problems. In all of these situations, too much or too little flexibility can contribute to poor body mechanics which increase the risk of injury.

Ignoring the flexibility aspect of your exercise program is like not maintaining your car but continuing to regularly drive it. Over time, the chances of your car having problems will increase. It could be as simple as being unable to start your car or getting a flat tire. It could be as bad as having a serious accident because your brakes don't work. If you don't maintain your body by including all five health-related components in your fitness program, your likelihood of having health problems is greatly increased as you get older.

Flexibility looks at the ROM available in a joint. Functional flexibility means you can use this ROM correctly when you need it. In other words, it means having the correct combination of flexibility, strength, endurance and coordination to perform everyday activities with proper body mechanics. Ignoring the flexibility aspect of your exercise program is like not maintaining your car but continuing to regularly drive it. For example, if someone cannot reach overhead, and you only work on increasing their shoulder flexibility, then you haven't worked on all the components of functional flexibility.

Everyday activities that usually require reaching overhead include combing your hair, hanging clothes in a closet and getting a cup out of an overhead cabinet. Most people have the flexibility to reach overhead with both arms. However, most of us do not have the functional flexibility to easily comb our hair, hang our clothes in the closet or get a cup out of an overhead cabinet with our non-dominant arm. This is because most people never practice these activities with their nondominant arm.

The ideal flexibility program includes more than the static stretches typically found in most warm-ups and cooldowns, although they are still important to make sure a person has the necessary ROM available to do their activities. Some form of dynamic stretching generally helps address the combination of flexibility, strength, endurance and coordination. As an example, someone with tight hip flexors will benefit from doing static stretches that isolate the iliopsoas and rectus femoris. For functional flexibility, they could work on getting full hip extension while doing various aerobic activities like walking, running or taking step classes.

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