“Up until middle age your body is holding enough water, your muscles are working at the right capacity, we're not as prone to injury and we heal faster,” Rachel explains. “Around age 36 is usually when these things start to decline. With them also goes our natural flexibility.”
It's never too late to become flexible, but it does get more difficult with age. As we get older our tendons become more rigid, and the muscles and joints that allow for easy mobility become stiff.
Essentially, their bones are growing more quickly than their muscles and tendons can stretch to keep up. Most boys get more muscles and lose some body fat, but often lose flexibility. Girls can also become tighter during the rapid growth of puberty if they cannot stretch to keep up with their growth.
As our bodies get older we lose a small amount of flexibility as a result of the normal aging processes. This can happen for several reasons including a loss of water in our tissues and spine, increased stiffness in our joints and a loss of elasticity throughout the muscle tendons and surrounding tissue.
As you age, joint movement becomes stiffer and less flexible because the amount of lubricating fluid inside your joints decreases and the cartilage becomes thinner. Ligaments also tend to shorten and lose some flexibility, making joints feel stiff.
With a regular full-body stretching regimen, you can definitely gain flexibility after 40. The benefits of stretching may even be enhanced as you age — if only because you get stiff enough to really feel the edge a little extra flexibility gives you.
You CAN regain your flexibility at ANY age!
By improving your flexibility, not only will you be improving the range of motion in each of your joints, but you're going to find yourself moving around with greater ease.
How Long Does it Take to Get Flexible. You should begin to notice a difference in how flexible you are within two to four weeks. However, that's only if you practice stretching at least five days every week. You also want to practice an array of stretches so that your whole body feels the burn.
Many variables affect the loss of normal joint flexibility including injury, inactivity or a lack of stretching. The range of motion will be influenced by the mobility of the soft tissues that surround the joint. These soft tissues include: muscles, ligaments, tendons, joint capsules, and skin.
Importance of muscle health: The age-related loss of muscle may decrease mobility. Loss of muscle mass can begin as early as 30 years2 and it can become more prominent from the age of 50 onwards. The rate of muscle loss is influenced by the amount of regular physical activity people do throughout their lives.
Even if you've had trouble before in your flexibility training and it seems that you haven't gained an inch, no matter how stiff you are, you absolutely can improve your flexibility. In most cases, it's just a matter of making the appropriate adjustments for you and practicing consistently.
Limited flexibility can also lead to daily, whole-body discomfort and limit your ability to exercise and complete regular daily tasks. For instance, someone who is very inflexible might feel muscle pain when getting in and out of their car. Inflexibility also leads to muscle imbalances.
Gender surprisingly plays a role in flexibility as well. In general, women are typically more naturally flexible than men, part of this is because of the makeup of their connective tissue.
The good news is that it's possible to learn how to do the splits at any age, whether you're 40 or 50. Flexibility improves with daily practice. Taking hot yoga or pilates classes would help you get into the routine of stretching everyday.
While some people are naturally more flexible than others, it's possible to improve your flexibility—even if you haven't touched your toes in years (or ever). Learn from three experts below how you can improve your flexibility, as well as why it's important for your overall health and well-being.
There are three basic reasons why some people can't reach their toes- weak or tight hamstring, tight hip flexor or poor nerve mobility. Tightness in the back of your legs while trying to reach out to your toes indicates that your hamstring is either tight or too weak.
A daily regimen will deliver the greatest gains, but typically, you can expect lasting improvement in flexibility if you stretch at least two or three times a week.
For a general fitness program, the American College of Sports Medicine1 recommends static stretching for most individuals that is preceded by an active warm-up, at least 2 to 3 days per week. Each stretch should be held 15-30 seconds and repeated 2 to 4 times.
Stretching can be time-consuming. But you can achieve the most benefits by stretching regularly, at least two to three times a week. Even 5 to 10 minutes of stretching at a time can be helpful. Skipping regular stretching means that you risk losing the potential benefits.
Hold for 10 to 30 seconds. Release, switch arms, and repeat. Make it easier: Sit tall in a chair, keeping your hips, knees, and toes forward. For a shallower stretch, don't reach your bottom hand as far.
Healthy adults should do flexibility exercises (stretches, yoga, or tai chi) for all major muscle-tendon groups—neck, shoulders, chest, trunk, lower back, hips, legs, and ankles—at least two to three times a week. For optimal results, you should spend a total of 60 seconds on each stretching exercise.