Fitness Testing: Flexibility in an Active Lifestyle

If you have had a fitness assessment performed, chances are that one of your tests was for flexibility .  Flexibility, or range of joint motion, is specific to each joint of the body and is influenced by the muscles, ligaments, and tendons affecting that joint.

One of the most popular flexibility tests is the "sit-and-reach."  This test attempts to gauge hamstring and lower-back flexibility. To perform this test, the legs are held straight with the feet flat against a box, while one attempts to reach as far as possible beyond the foot line. It is considered "good" to reach four or more inches beyond the foot line, with seven or more inches rated as "excellent."

Many claims have been made for health-related benefits of flexibility. These include good joint mobility, increased resistance to muscle injury and soreness, lowered risk of low-back pain and other spinal column aches and pains, improved posture, more graceful body movements, improved personal appearance and self-image, enhanced development of sport skills, and reduced tension and stress.

While it has been difficult to prove some of these claims in laboratory settings, flexibility exercises are included in most exercise programs because clinical experience has shown that they appear to help. The American College of Sports Medicine recommends that static stretching exercises be performed at least three times per week to develop flexibility. A static stretch - one where stretched positions are reached slowly and are sustained for 10 to 30 seconds without bouncing - should be repeated three to five times for each major joint of the body.

As a matter of safety and effectiveness, stretching exercises should typically come after an active aerobic warm-up. Muscles that are warm from jogging, cycling, or other aerobic exercise can stretch further and more safely.

Note that flexibility scores in our fitness testing program are scaled for age and that, on average, flexibility decreases as people get older. However, many scientists believe that the observed decrease in flexibility is due more to inactivity than the aging process itself.