How to increase flexibility as an adult.
I never thought I'd be able to do a chest-to-floor pancake or hold a gymnastics bridge.
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I've spent most of my adult life training for strength and fitness.
I never dedicated much time to stretching. I always made the excuse that I wasn't a flexible person. As long as I was doing full range of motion in my strength training, I had all the flexibility I needed to be "functional". Right?
What changed?
I got tired of the typical gym program and decided I wanted to improve my gymnastics skills. I wanted to learn to handstand, do strict muscle-ups, play on the rings, and become a bodyweight ninja.
I wanted the freedom to train anywhere with minimal equipment and to feel strong and confident in my body.
In the beginning, I made progress in a lot of the strength-based gymnastics movements. I was strong, so I could muscle through the press to handstand, levers, and muscle-ups. Although I could do the movements, my form could have been better.
I struggled with a lot of gymnastics skills because I lacked flexibility.
Strength can only take you so far in gymnastics. At some point, you're going to need to work on flexibility.
Oh, how I wish I'd started flexibility training sooner!
Increasing flexibility is just like building strength, it takes time, and you need to work on it consistently. If you've been ignoring it for years, like I was, it will take some time to make up for what you've missed. But the sooner you start, the better.
Because my flexibility was holding me back from gymnastic skills, I decided to hire a coach who could help me get flexible.
It's been over a year, and my flexibility has drastically improved. I've still got a long way to go, but it's certainly been a fun and exciting journey.
I've been religiously training flexibility 3-4 times a week. Some of those sessions are combined with Gymnastics Strength Training (GST), and some are pure flexibility sessions.
I've noticed that my body has been feeling better thanks to the flexibility training. Everything is far more mobile, and I see it in my day-to-day activities outside training.
Simple things like sitting in a squat have become so much easier.
I used to struggle to sit in a squat for 10 minutes, but now it's easy.
No more aches and pain.
Even when I was lifting weights, I always had a few niggling aches and pains. Sore hips, shoulders, lower back, knees or elbows.
I just accepted it as part of the training.
These days, I don't have any of that.
On the odd occasion when a niggle arises, I do some stretching and pre-hab training, and the pain goes away in a week or two.
I put it down to the flexibility work.
I've lost some strength in certain areas of my training. But I've also gained a lot of strength in other aspects of my training.
My current flexibility goals are:
chest-to-floor gymnastics pancake
front splits
gymnastics bridge
gymnastics pike
I'm not there yet, but I'm making good progress.
A lot of people send me DM'r or comment on my flexibility progress, saying things like "I wish I were as flexible as you" or "I wish I were as dedicated as you."
As an adult, prioritising our training goals can take a lot of work. We all want to be strong, fit, flexible, and to look good naked. How can we fit it all in?
There are only so many hours in a week, and we don't have enough time to train everything.
We often sacrifice flexibility training because we believe that strength and fitness are more valuable.
I get it. I ignored flexibility for years.
But what if flexibility training can help you increase your strength and fitness?
News flash. It can, and it will.
I could talk about the biomechanics of force production and how efficient movement improves sports performance and endurance, but you're probably not a fitness geek like me.
All you want to know is that flexibility training will increase your strength and fitness levels.
And it will!
Now, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but at some point in your adult life, you're going to hit a wall with your strength potential.
"Back in my day, I could deadlift over 200kg".
You will not be setting personal bests in your 50s and 60s.
So, how strong do you need to be? Do you want to continue chasing weight on the bar as you age? What's the risk-to-reward ratio of lifting more weight?
I didn't care about setting new PBs in terms of weight, and I wanted to learn new gymnastics skills and become more flexible.
Strength is still essential to me as I want to maintain it for as long as humanly possible. But what's the point of being strong if you don't have the flexibility to play with your kids and pick yourself up off the floor?
As I age, I want to have both strength and flexibility.
Like I said earlier, strength will only get you so far. At some point, you're going to wish you had more flexibility.
If you're an adult serious about increasing your flexibility, I'd suggest starting with two-to-three 30-minute flexibility sessions per week. These can be dedicated flexibility sessions or combined with strength and fitness training.
90mins per week is enough to start seeing flexibility progress.
You'll also notice improvements in your movement efficiency, joint health, and resilience to niggles and pain.
You might even see your strength and fitness levels increase as your movement efficiency improves due to flexibility training.
This possibly means you will need to make some sacrifices in other parts of your training.
When I started doing more flexibility, I dropped Olympic lifting and HIIT from my training plan. Honestly, I wanted to work on my gymnastics skills, and I knew that Olympic lifting and HITT wouldn't help me here.
My weakness was my flexibility.
So, I stopped wasting time and energy on training methods that didn't serve my goals.
And I'm glad I did.
People make the mistake of thinking that I'm so dedicated to getting flexible. But I'm only as dedicated as anyone following their health and fitness goals. I've just chosen to dedicate my training to flexibility and not to other training methods that aren't aligned with my goals.
A lot of people aren't staying true to their health and fitness goals as they get swept up by group classes and mainstream fitness trends.
If you're an adult who wants to increase your flexibility, what are you doing about it?
What sacrifices are you willing to make to see results?
Are you sticking to your goals or just trying to fit in with everyone else?
It comes down to what's more important to you.
You may love the community aspect of training and need to find a gym that offers group flexibility classes.
If you want to get flexible, you'll find a way to prioritise it and make it part of your weekly training plan.
Happy training.
