# How Flexible Are You? (physically) **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 3, 2011, 7:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-flexible-are-you-physically/566208 "2011-01-03T07:32:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Scubaqueen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c0e974/32.png) [@Scubaqueen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scubaqueen)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2011, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-flexible-are-you-physically/566208/21 "2011-01-04T11:52:00Z")
at 54 i can still put my palms flat on the floor cold, altho i’m not what i would call physically fit because of degenerative disc issues in my lower back. yeah, being able to hit the floor like that puzzled my physical therapists to no end. they said i shouldn’t be able to do that. straddle sits require a good deal more stretching out, and if i was consistent about it for a week, i could still probably get my nose to the floor. ---
**Author:** ![BetsQ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/fbc32d/32.png) [@BetsQ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BetsQ)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2011, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-flexible-are-you-physically/566208/22 "2011-01-04T16:25:12Z")
I choose the marionette option. I spent years doing and coaching gymnastics, although it’s been awhile, and have since taken yoga. In both contexts, I’m substantially more flexible than average. However, I can no longer prop my front foot up on an 18" mat when I do the splits, like I could when I was 16. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2011, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-flexible-are-you-physically/566208/23 "2011-01-04T17:18:23Z")
You dont really have a category for me. I have some sets of joints that are quite flexible, and some that are stiff. I have almost always sat cross legged on the bed or sofa, so parts of me are flexible in that direction, but they don’t flex well the other way, and I have some bone spurs in my hip sockets, which makes me able to bend in some directions better than other directions. I am actually NOT comfortable sitting upright in a chair with my feet on the floor at all, and because of the [apparent] ban from sitting cross legged after hip joint replacement, I will be refusing to get the procedure done as that is about the only position I am actually comfortable sitting in. ---
**Author:** ![rhubarbarin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eb9ed0/32.png) [@rhubarbarin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rhubarbarin)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2011, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-flexible-are-you-physically/566208/24 "2011-01-04T20:31:16Z")
I am naturally much like the Tin Man, inflexibility (and good muscle tone without any effort) runs in my family. But more recently, through yoga and perseverance, I’m gotten more flexible than most people I know… except for my hips and wrists, which remain stubbornly limited in their range of motion and painful when I push them. I don’t know if I will ever be able to do either form of a full split or get into the lotus position (and I practice for both on the regular) but I can do [this](http://www.yogajournal.com/media/originals/MC_206_Kapotasana_248.jpg) almost effortlessly (except I hold my knees instead of my ankles) and I can do better than touch my toes, I can get my palms flat on the floor with straight legs. ---
**Author:** ![monkeykelly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f0a364/32.png) [@monkeykelly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monkeykelly)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2011, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-flexible-are-you-physically/566208/25 "2011-01-05T04:35:09Z")
Hey stoid. I found this thread from a google search and I think I know why your flexible. And why it hurts. It’s called Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome Type 3. It’s listed as a rare disease and that’s why you probably never heard of it. I was diagnoised when I was 16 and I had to go to Mayo Clinic to find a doctor that actually knew what it was. Look up the Beighton scale… it’s a flexibility test and if you get 5/9 or better and have pain in your joints then you probably have EDS. (I already know you got 2 points for bending your knees backwards lol). Oh and here’s some of my party tricks… 🙂 oversplits, touching my elbows to the ground–with my knees straight, dislocating joints, and a lot more. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2011, 7:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-flexible-are-you-physically/566208/26 "2011-01-05T07:46:33Z")
Aw. I was hoping you’d mention touching your toes, which I can’t do. Everything else is pretty much normal, except I cannot move my hips separately from the rest of my body, and that seems to be why I can’t do any non-ballroom dances. ---
**Author:** ![umop\_ap\_sdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/dbc845/32.png) [@umop\_ap\_sdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/umop_ap_sdn)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2011, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-flexible-are-you-physically/566208/27 "2011-01-11T17:02:33Z")
How depressing that a half-lotus-posing, ring-finger-touching-wrist, shoulder-dislocating person can score a zero on the Beighton scale. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2011, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-flexible-are-you-physically/566208/28 "2011-01-11T17:07:59Z")
I’m not very flexible, though it’s getting better, as I’m now stretching every day. When I took up running early last year, after a few weeks, I developed pain in both of my knees. I suspected it was arthritis, and I went to see a sports-medicine doctor, to see if there was anything that could be done about it (and if running was even something I could do). After a lengthy examination, she told me that I didn’t have any signs of arthritis in my knees whatsoever…but that I had the tightest muscles she’d ever seen. As I ran, the muscles were tightening even more, and I was giving myself patellar tendinitis in both knees. 😛 So, I had to undertake a regimen of serious stretching, on a daily basis, in order to get my leg muscles sufficiently loose that I could run without doing that again. After a few weeks of stretching, I started running again, and have been able to do so for months now, with no recurrence of the knee pain. ---
**Author:** ![Autolycus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/22d042/32.png) [@Autolycus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Autolycus)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2011, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-flexible-are-you-physically/566208/29 "2011-01-12T00:43:01Z")
I’m of average flexibility for a dude, but I really wish I could sit in seiza for more than 5 minutes without losing all blood flow in my legs. > **[Seiza](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seiza)** > > Seiza (正座 or 正坐; せいざ SAY-(ee)-zah; lit. 'proper sitting') is the formal, traditional way of sitting in Japan. It involves a specific positioning and posture in a kneeled position so as to convey respect, particularly toward elders. It developed among samurai during the Edo period and was later widely adopted by the public. > Seiza is associated with straw tatami flooring or zabuton pillows that allow for comfortable sitting, and it is commonly used in several Japanese practices, including Japan... [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-flexible-are-you-physically/566208.md?page=1)