Often my life I have pursued strength and cardiovascular ability in my fitness routines. I have recently begun Yoga. I extremely enjoy it. Mostly because I find it to be a very therapeutic exercise for my stress and anxiety.
Flexibility is often ignored in terms of over health. What ways does being extremely flexible benefit a person? For me it is nice to be able to sit on the floor in a comfortable seated pose. I also feel so good after stretching out. Does flexibility have other health advantages…especially for a non-athlete? If you are extremely flexible…where do you notice the benefits in your life?
Better blood circulation. Maybe less likely to pull a muscle.
Easier to scratch that itchy spot on your back.
Actually “extreme” flexibility is not a good thing. Normally your joints have “stops” which prevent you from accidentally overtaxing your tendons in your ordinary day. When you are hyperflexible, you are more prone to tendonitis because the tendons can stretch beyond their mechanical limits without you even noticing. I’m genetically hyperflexible in my wrists and I have to constantly guard against chronic arm injury.
Taking the human body to the extreme of what it is capable of is rarely a beneficial health practice.
For elderly people flexibility might mean the difference between taking a fall and not. That can have a huge benefit for both short and long term health outcomes.
If you happen to stumble and end up in a deeper stance than you would ordinarily, if it’s a stance you can be in without hurting yourself, that’s a good thing. If you’re not limber enough to go there, you probably just hurt something.
On the woo level, various of the poses in yoga are supposed to massage and manipulate your internal organs, causing them to release toxins and free up the flow of energy. Given that they’re all variation on a theme of “bags and sponges filled with liquid,” I don’t know how much massaging them actually helps. Even if it does help to release the toxins, how do you know you’re not squeezing good stuff out of them along with the bad?