Background Information

Go farther with flexibility    Camille Roberge                                                                                           

The advantages of flexibility :

 

   When you stretch, your tendons and muscles become more elastic, which helps prevent injury. A relaxed muscle contracts more easily so you have more strength and endurance. A supple muscle hurts less because the blood can circulate more easily and efficiently, and it is the blood that takes away the exercise by-products  that cause pain. Stretching makes you more flexible so your joints have a bigger range of motion. It also reduces stress.

 

The joints:

 

   A joint is where two or more bones meet and permit movement in one or more directions. The surfaces of the bones in a joint are covered in a layer of cartilage . There is a fluid in between the cartilage and the bone. Ligaments are fibrous connective tissues that surround your joints, making them more stable. Tendons are fibrous cords that attach the muscles to the bones. The fascia is a layer of connective tissue that sits inside the muscle.

 

Factors influencing flexibility:

 

- A lack of suppleness in the three connective tissues (ligaments, tendons, fascia).

- The length of the tendons.

- A lack of balance between the antagonist muscles, e.g. one muscle too tight or too weak.

 

Limiting factors of flexibility:

 

Illness:

 

   Rheumatoid arthritis is an illness of the immune system. Immune cells attack the joint tissues, which causes inflation and pain in the joints affected. Osteoarthritis is also a type of arthritis, but it is an illness of excessive use and the joint cartilage develops fissures and becomes stiff and painful. Gout is a chemical error when there is too much uric acid in the body and it forms crystals in the joints, which become inflated and very painful.

 

Genetics:

 

   Sex. Generally, females are more flexible than males. This is caused by a difference in the anatomy of the joints, and also because females usually have less muscular mass than males.

   Ehlers-Denlos is a mutation in the collagens and it causes weakness in the connective tissues, which then causes hypermobile joints.

 

Age:

 

   With age, the ligaments, tendons, and muscles become less elastic because there is less water in the connective tissues. This causes calcification and also a biochemical change in the collagen fibers (crosslinking between the collagen molecules) so the joints become more rigid and less extensible. Also, when we age, we do less physical activity, so our muscles have fewer muscle fibers and fewer contractile proteins and so muscular force is diminished.

 

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