We are in part five of a series called B.COMPLETE, which focuses on all the ways we want to take care of our body as we age. So far we’ve covered balance, core, mini muscles, and pause. If you missed any of those, make sure you go back and listen.

I had grand intentions of planning and recording these ahead of time, but the reality is I am flying by the seat of my pants and doing all my prepping, recording, editing, and everything else the week before these episodes come out. 

It’s ironic, though: I can’t tell you how many conversations I’ve had recently about flexibility. And no, I’m not initiating them. I’m also not the best at focusing on my own flexibility, but I’m working on it. As much as I love strength training and sprints, I can’t do either very well unless my muscles, ligaments, tendons and tissue are pliable. As a doctor once told me and my husband, “the strongest muscles in the world aren’t going to help you if you can’t bend down and pick up your dropped car keys.”

Today’s B.COMPLETE focus is LE in the acronym for “LEngthening.” Let’s dig into what I mean by that..

What is lengthening?

Lengthening refers to creating elastic and responsive muscles, tendons, ligaments and connective tissue. It’s not just your muscle we want to lengthen. Throughout this article I’ll use lengthening, flexibility and stretching somewhat interchangeably. They are different, but you know the purpose of Graced Health is to give you SIMPLE ways to take care of yourself so I don’t want to get hung up on the semantics. 

How does age affect flexibility?

The purpose of this B.COMPLETE series is to discuss the various areas we should focus on as we get older. In each episode I’m giving you some simple and actionable ways to do this, and if you want more, you’ll have the opportunity to purchase an online on-demand class called B.COMPLETE where you can integrate all of these elements. 

With respect to aging and flexibility, it is no surprise to anyone that we lose flexibility as we age. If you need a reminder, head down to your nearest park where you’ll see children doing back walkovers and splits and climbing ropes and moving in ways that are more than likely distant memories of your past. 

I used to be able to lie on the ground and pull one leg over my head and touch my toe to the ground. I used to be able to do back handsprings and splits. My drill team was literally called the Hi-Kickers. I’d be lucky to make the Medium-Kicker drill team now. As much as I move and despite knowing all the ways to stay supple and flexible, I don’t always put that into place.

Sadly, the natural process of aging reduces the body’s ability to remain flexible.

There are five reasons for this:

1. Muscular atrophy
2. Neural atrophy
3. Connective tissue hypertrophy
4. Increased tissue stiffness
5. Tissue dehydration.

Atrophy is the gradual decline in effectiveness or vigor due to underuse or neglect. In the reasons above, it’s your muscles or your neurons slowly wasting away. It varies from person to person, and while you can delay or slow down the process it does happen. 

You may be wondering how a reduction in your neural, or nervous system, cells impacts flexibility. As we age, we may not move as much, which contributes even more to the general decline in motor control skills. Both your muscles and your connective tissue atrophies, but the connective tissue does at a slower rate, creating greater concentrations of fibrous, fatty connective tissues. You have weaker muscles and larger tendons (connective tissues that attach muscle to bones) and ligaments (muscle to muscle). All of this restricts functional mobility.

Again, want proof? Let’s go back to my personal examples of what I used to be able to do and what I now cannot: splits, back handsprings, kicking high. Not so much anymore. 

And before we start to think of all the ways we should have been moving better, know this is a natural process. Tissue studies have shown that the water content in infant tendons is 85%. This decreases to 70% in adults. Atrophy (muscular and neural), soft tissue dehydration, and the other physical changes attributed to aging can be delayed.

Yes, we can certainly increase our flexibility and lengthening as we age. I’m a huge fan of Athleta and am always amazed at some of the poses and movements their more mature models can do. It’s not impossible; it just takes more work.

What happens when we lack flexibility?

When we can’t move our body in an integrated way, meaning everything works together, then things start to fall apart. We increase our chances of injury, we develop muscle imbalances (which can result in injury), our joints don’t move as well, and our posture becomes distorted. All of this can lead to us not moving as much, which creates a snowball effect of immobility and inflexibility. It’s Newton’s First Law of motion in action: “An object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.”

How to improve flexibility and lengthen the tissues

Staying with Newton’s law, we have to create that unbalanced force of staying at rest. 

First, keep moving. Obviously if you are under doctor’s orders to rest or not move, listen to your doctor. But gone are the days of recommending you lay flat on your back for several days if you have an injury. That doesn’t mean go run a marathon, but as much as you can, keep moving.

Second, integrate some different types of stretching into your routine. There are four main types.

Self-myofascial release

SMR, otherwise known as foam rolling, involves moving your muscles along a dense roller to release dense muscle fibers, or knots. This is particularly helpful for those really tight areas, as it helps release any “knots” in your connective tissue and muscles. SMR can also help your connective tissue, also known as fascia. If you have my book Your Worthy Body, you have a tutorial on some of the major areas that need foam rolling attention. In general, fascia is such an emerging field and I am fascinated by it. I’m super excited to have an expert to the experts guest this fall so make sure you tune in later to that. But until then, know that SMR can be used in conjunction with stretching to help warm up your muscles.

Active stretching

I’ve been working with a youth client lately to help his flexibility. We ran through a few dynamic stretches and I gave him a few other stretches to do before and after his workouts. Then I introduced him and his sister to active stretching. Active stretching involves contracting one muscle while relaxing the opposing muscle, then taking that stretch further.

For example, lie on your back with straight legs. Elevate one leg as high as you are comfort- able. Grab your calf or hamstring (the back of your leg), and pull it toward your chest while pressing your leg against your hands. Hold a few seconds, and release. Do this five to ten times, and you’ll notice you may be able to draw that straight leg much closer to your chest. This is a great one to have some help with, so if you have a partner you trust, they can help you deepen that press and subsequent stretch. I first did this with each sibling individually, then had them practice on each other. But what I told them, and I will pass on to you, is the number one rule in utilizing a partner in active stretching is the person holding and stretching the leg MUST listen to the person who owns the leg. If they say stop, stop. It’s just not worth the risk of having your leg pulled too far and getting injured. 

When I went through this exercise with my youth client, they were shocked at what a difference this made. 

Static stretching

Chances are when the word “stretch” comes to mind, this type of stretching is what you envision. This is what my dance team groups did. Static stretching involves taking a muscle to the point of ten- sion and holding it for thirty seconds or more. When you hold that stretch (tension) for thirty seconds, it creates release by the Golgi tendon organ. This organ is located at the end of your muscle and exists to protect your muscles from lengthening, or stretching, too far. Basically, holding that point of tension for thirty seconds tells the Golgi tendon organ that your muscles are safe and can be lengthened a little further.

Performing static stretching right before exercising may lead your muscles to falsely assume they can extend farther than they can. In the case of my dance team, I could have kicked too high and strained my muscle. If you’re wanting to in- crease your flexibility, this is the approach to take, but do it after a workout. Current science tells us that static stretching may decrease strength and power, so it’s best you save your static stretches for your postworkout.

Dynamic (functional) stretching

This type of stretch uses continual movement and momentum to move the joint through a full range of motion. For example, if you stand on one foot and begin moving the other foot forward and back like a pendulum, this is dynamic stretching. The key is to start easy and increase that range of motion as the muscles warm up. In the pendulum example, your kick may start just a foot off the ground, but you will slowly increase the height as your muscles get acclimated. When I warm up for my track workouts, I will do some walking lunges with a rotation.

Dynamic stretching is what we do when we squat, lunge, reach, and push our way through the beginning of a workout, which is also why it’s called functional. It’s warming up our muscles in a functional way that we will work it later. If you’re going to focus on one type of flexibility, functional is the most crucial because it uses the body’s muscles to control the speed, direction and intensity.

The other reason functional flexibility should be a focus is because it utilizes all your tissues – your ligaments, muscle’s fascia, tendons, and even skin, which too decreases in elasticity as we age (hello crow’s feet). In fact, the joint capsule and ligaments represent 47% of joint stiffness, and your muscle’s fascia represent 41%. Tendon’s are 10% and skin is 2%. 

If you’re focusing on flexibility, focus on the myofascial system, that muscular fascia. Again, you’ll get a lot of that through the dynamic or functional stretching, as well as that self-myofascial or foam rolling.

You also support your myofascial system by moving in various ways, including doing transverse exercises. Don’t worry, if you’ve never heard of transverse exercises, you’re in luck because next week that’s our focus!

If you feel like you’ve been hit with a water hose and thought “I thought stretching was just being able to touch my toes better,” you’re not alone. It’s surprising how many people tell me how bad their flexibility is and then prove it by how far their hands are from the floor when they reach down. Yes, that’s one element of flexibility, but it’s not the only one.

You know I like to simplify things for you, so what I’ve done is put together a functional warm-up you can do on your own. This is a bonus I’m sending out on Wednesday, July 20, 2022 to everyone who has signed up for the presale to B.COMPLETE.

B.COMPLETE is a 40(ish)-minute class covering all the things we want to be focusing on as we age, including feeling balanced, centered, strong and limber. I’m including two phases, or levels, so you can do the one that works for you. This class is offered at $20, which is quite a deal since you can do it as many times as you want and when you want, but you can receive presale pricing by going here before July 19, 2022 to receive half off the $20 rate. You’ll get an on demand class for $10 to do as many times as you want. AND of course you’ll get this functional warmup as well as a bonus. It’s not available after July 19 so make sure you sign up now.

Join the community!

If you’re not already a member of the Graced Health Community on Facebook (formerly the Podcast Group), consider this your invitation.

My hope is community members receive recipe inspiration, pride in their accomplishments, and more educated in their movement. Come join us!

Have a graced day,

Amy