Do your bones crackle every time you try to bend? Your flexibility is in a bad state, and you need to do something about. Here’s how to improve your flexibility
The prevalence of obesity is extremely high in America, particularly throughout Middle-America and in the South. At last count by the CDC, almost half of the American population was considered obese.
One of the primary contributors to obesity is the discomfort that exercising brings to people that are not used to being in motion. A lot of that discomfort is related to a lack of flexibility that our team is going to address in this story.
Learning how to improve your flexibility allows you to feel better during workouts, enjoy better workout results, and a higher quality of life in general. Below, we share a handful of tips that you can implement into various activities that will help you surpass your flexibility barriers over time.
1. Try a More Active Stretching Routine
Stretching is a go-to means of improving flexibility and for good reason, it works. When you stretch, chances are your routine looks something like finding a position, holding for 30-seconds, reversing the position, holding for 30-seconds, then repeating the process with another muscle group.
There’s nothing wrong with that legacy means of engaging your muscles. It isn’t, however, the most effective way to gain flexibility.
Researchers and health gurus alike are starting to congregate around “dynamic stretching” routines that ask people to shorten their holds and switch between stretches more rapidly. This faster, more active means of stretching can better engage muscles and make flexibility come more easily.
2. Lean Into Your Holds a Little More Each Week
If you don’t push your muscles when stretching, you’re not going to get them to exceed their current limits which means that increasing your flexibility is going to take much longer. With that in mind, try to lean into your stretches a little more each week.
Over time, you’ll blow past points in your range of motion where your muscles used to stop you.
3. Don’t Cheat Your Range of Motion While Exercising
Speaking of range of motion, the concept of pushing to complete a full movement is pivotal when working out. You see it all the time where somebody is doing an arm curl and doesn’t drop their arm all the way down or lift it all the way up to complete a repetition.
Don’t be that person.
When you do get to the gym, always move through your movement’s full range and you’ll find that boosted flexibility within those engaged muscle groups will follow.
4. Get Your Stress Under Control
Stress and flexibility aren’t usually connected but believe us when we say that their relationship is undeniable. When you’re stressed out, your muscles tense up and tensed muscles are not muscles that want to move.
Partaking in activities like meditating, getting adequate sleep, or seeking psychological help can all dramatically reduce your stress. That stress reduction will then pay dividends as you continue to learn how to improve your flexibility.
5. Treat Yourself to Massages
Massages are a two-fold helper when it comes to increasing your flexibility. First off, they reduce stress which we’ve already shared can positively affect your range of motion. Second, working out knots in your muscles will inherently make them more flexible.
All of that to say that if you’ve ever needed to justify treating yourself to a massage, doing so by telling yourself that massages will help you move better is reasonable.
6. Audit Your Diet
As with most physical pursuits, regulating what you put into your body can make getting to your goals easier.
When it comes to stretching, boosting your water intake is always a good idea. Hydrated muscles are muscles that are going to be more inclined to move.
Furthermore, cutting out excess fat and sugar intake will help you feel more energized which in turn will stoke movement that will positively impact your flexibility.
Finally, adding vitamins or targeted peptides from respectable manufacturers like Umbrella Labs to your meal plan can give you an additional boost.
7. Breathe with Intention
Deep breathing can crush stress. It also can oxygenate muscles which will help you access a fuller range of motion.
A general breathing exercise that’s worth visiting at least once per day is breathing in for 10 seconds, holding for 5 and then breathing out for 20 seconds. You can modify the counts per your lung capacity.
Interestingly, as you go through this exercise, you’ll find your lung’s “flexibility” increases as you’ll be able to breathe in, hold and breathe out for longer periods.
8. Don’t Push Yourself to Injury
Nothing hampers your how to improve your flexibility journey quite like injuries. That’s why it’s important to know your body’s limits as you push towards your fitness goals and listen to them.
A doctor can help you find a balance between making your body push towards reasonable discomfort versus pushing your body to the point of injury. Also, they can assist with finding a healthy balance to your diet that can ensure any preexisting conditions you may have won’t be exacerbated by sudden changes in food/supplement intake.
Now That You Know How to Improve Your Flexibility, Take Action
The how to improve flexibility question is answered by taking small actions each day to move towards your goals. You reading this post was your first action. Now it’s time to get out and get active.
We challenge you to implement at least one of the tips we’ve just shared into your routine this week. Then, increase your efforts from there.
If you do that, with time, you’ll be blown away by how far your body can go!
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