All types of exercise have their benefits. For example, high intensity interval training, or HIIT, helps to build muscle strength and burn fat, whilst running helps to also burn fat as well as build stamina and endurance. But there’s another type of physical activity that’s beneficial in a different way, and that’s exercise that builds flexibility.

So, what is flexibility, what are the benefits of being flexible and what are the best exercises for building flexibility? Let’s find out…

What is flexibility and what are the benefits of being more flexible?

Being flexible is what allows us to do things such as touch our toes or look behind us over our shoulders. But not only that, flexibility allows us to perform everyday movements and activities by moving our joints without stiffness and discomfort. 

There are many benefits to improving our flexibility including:

• Better posture - performing exercise that improves flexibility means that our body alignment will also improve, in turn improving our posture as well as our ability to sit in a certain way - such as cross legged or on the floor. (Ideal if we have young children in the family!) 
• Improved balance - better posture also means that we’ll have better balance and we’ll be less likely to experience trips and falls which is especially important as we age (it’s never too late to start thinking about our bodies as we grow older!). 
• Fewer injuries - reducing our risk of tripping and falling by improving our posture and balance will also mean that we experience fewer injuries. But not only that, we’re less likely to injure ourselves through exercise if our muscles and joints are more supple with more freedom of movement. 
• Less joint and muscle pain - with looser, longer muscles, we’re far less likely to experience muscle aches and joint pain brought on from every day jobs and activities. 
• Improved physical performance - flexibility exercise helps to correct imbalances in the body that might be leading to immobility or stiffness. Improving our flexibility through exercise means strengthening under active muscles and stretching tight, over active ones, which leads to an overall better ability to perform exercise. Which also means we’ll get more from it, bringing us closer to owning our goals! 

What exercises are good for increasing flexibility?

Any kind of stretching exercise is great for improving flexibility - that’s why it’s so important to perform warm ups before any strenuous exercise, to get the muscles flexing! 

Flexibility exercise helps to elongate and lengthen the muscles over time, helping to improve posture, balance, stability and flexibility, in turn helping to reduce trips, falls, muscle stiffness and joint pain. 

Specific flexibility exercises include yoga and pilates. The Own Your Goals Yoga classes are suitable for anyone from beginner to advanced, and include useful tutorials on getting the basics right. 

Our pilates classes are also ideal for all abilities and help to strengthen the body as well as elongating the large muscle groups and improving flexibility. 

Aim for two sessions of flexibility exercise each week, alongside your other Own Your Goals workouts, and you’ll be reaping the benefits of flexibility in no time!