Flexibility... I don't have it. >.<

[sir2you]

Hello one and all.

I'm Sir2you. I enjoy sports and exercise, but since I left my old gymnastics team I haven't worked on flexibility at all. I'd like to get more flexible just because it would help me stay uninjured and stuff. Recently I've started stretching along with my very sporadic fitness program (it doesn't deserve that title), but have gotten very little progress. Any tips? When do you think I might expect to see progress? Any exercises that work on both core and flexibility? Yoga I suppose, but I'm too lazy to research what would be best? Any knowledgeable people out there who can save me the trouble?

Thanks in advance.

[duckshirt]

Do you stretch before or after you exercise? Before probably won't do you much good, but stretching after is where it helps you cool down and improve flexibility. In fact, if you exercise and then don't stretch, you'll lose flexibility even faster than if you do nothing at all.

[Hobgoblin]

Google 'Sunrise salutation yoga' or something along the lines of that. That's a little yoga routine people do every morning. Stretches you out fairly well, I'd say.

Not to mention, after working out, stretch a lot. It's more important after than before, but before is recommended too.

[crowey]

"stretching scientifically" by thomas kurz is a very good guide to getting more bendy (with the bonus of some hilarious cheezy photos). I don't know how scientific it actually is, but the routines do work.

as a general guide there are 3 types of stretching, static, dynamic and isometric.
static stretching is what you see a lot of people doing before excersise (touch toes and hold for 10 etc) and is generally not the best for improving flexability, and IIRC stretching like that before excersise increases the risk of pulled muscles.
Dynamic stretching is, as the name suggests, dynamic. swinging kicks to stretch hamstrings, swinging arms etc. this is best done when you are warmed up and your pulse is raised, but before your main body of excersise. do 10-15 mins of running, dynamic stretching, then the rest of your workout. I bet you can find a few instructional videos on youtube. be careful not to over stretch though.
Isometric stretching is like static stretching, but you tense your muscles against the stretch, best done at the end of a workout when your muscles are tired. This is really good for improving flexability, but it's really easy to damage yourself so it's best done under guidance from someone IRL or not at all.

Sun salutations* are a nice morning reigeme to increase hamstring and spinal flexability, if you do it every morning you should see a fairly rapid improvement.

sun salutations, the definiteion varies, here's what we do at my kung fu club:
1-stand feet shoulder width apart, toes pointing forwards, head up, shoulders relaxed.
2-lift your arms sideways to above your head.
3-bend at the waist and put your hands flat on the floor about 1.5 feet (up to 2.5 depending on comfort) infront of your feet, also shoulder width apart with your fingers pointing forwards. relax your neck, keep your back straight and push your arse up in the air to make an inverted V shape (like this, downward facing dog) You should feel the stretch on your hamstrings, if you don't move your hands closer to your feet. Hold this for 10ish seconds.
4-jump your feet out backwards and lower yourself into a pushup position, lower yourself to the floor then keep your hips down, straighten your arms to arch your spine upwards (like this, the cobra) you should feel the stretch on your abs. hold for another 10.
5-relax to the floor, do the up part of a push up, then hop your feet in to meet your hands. Straighten your legs to a "touch your toes" position hold for 5 then keeping your hands on the floor, hop your feet out to the position for step 3.
repeat steps 3 to 5 between 3 and 5 times
6-when you get to the end of the final step 5, sraighten up, lift your hands sideways up to the ceiling, look up and relax.

as you improve shorten the distance between your hands and your feet for downward facing dog, and push your body towards your knees a bit more to stretch your shoulders more. And hold all the stretches for a bit longer.

I hope that makes sense and is in some way helpful. good luck!

[akashra]

When I was in early high school, as an example measurement I was around +8cm on a sit+reach. Then I got through uni having not done sport for a few years, and within ~6 months of cycling I was at -12cm or more.

Stretching 8 times a day for just a few minutes got me back to +8cm in the space of about 3 months, so can now get my palms flat on the ground.

[TobiasF]

Stretching is something you need to do every day if you want to improve at it.
I had been stretching about 3 times per week (pre and post workout) for 2 years and still couldn't reach my toes.
Then I did stretching once pre day for 2 weeks. Now I can reach my toes with no Problem.

One usual wisdom is to do dynamic stretches between warm-up and workout, and static stretching after workout.

[Polycronopolis]

In fact, if you exercise and then don't stretch, you'll lose flexibility even faster than if you do nothing at all.

If that is true, that would explain why I have always been in decent shape but one of the least flexible people I know.

I tried that downward facing dog stretch and it was stretching my calves to the point it was painfull and not getting my hamstrings at all. :/ Am I doing it wrong?

[crowey]

not necessarily, it depends a bit on how flexible your various parts are. If your hamstrings have more give in them than your calves, then you'll feel it there more. You can try lifting your heels off the floor and pusing your bum back a bit more, it shifts the stretch a bit higher up your legs.

[Polycronopolis]

I've had to do that with the regular toe touch hamstring stretch. It is a fairly recent problem(noticed it happening around 2 years ago) and I just thought it was weird that a hamstring stretch would stretch the calves more. I guess I need to focus on stretching calves more. Anyways thanks for the tip.

Also, is that a sloth in your avatar? It's a cool picture.

[crowey]

no worries, hopefully it's helpful.
and yes it is a sloth, gotta love the sloths

[Ivora]

I can make the S shape with my body!

LOL! Sorry if that sounded random. I used to be able to do a lot more letters when I was younger.