The Importance of Flexibility

Flexibility. Sure you know what it is, but what could it possibly have to do with your weight loss program?

The fact of the matter is that it has more to do with your efforts to lose weight than you could imagine.

There is no weight loss program or even weight loss supplement that can replace the benefits of good stretching.

The primary aim of any stretch is to increase your range of motion around a specific joint. Your current level of flexibility in any area of your body is limited by four major factors:

1. Elasticity of your ligaments and tendons
2. Muscle tissue elasticity
3. Your Skin
4. The structure of your bones and joints

Due to such factors as genetics, daily physical activities, and injuries, each individual person has his or her own unique level of flexibility or lack thereof due to what their body has been predisposed to do through their natural makeup or outside circumstances and practices.

In much of the same way that the overload principle is used to both build muscle and increase cardiovascular fitness, it is also used to make your body more flexible.

This has several benefits for you while you are on both your weight loss program and your maintenance phase after you've reached your weight loss goals:

• Greater range of motion and ease of movement
• Decrease the risk fo injuries such as muscle and connective tissue tears due to lack of elasticity
• Better muscular response during weight-bearing exercises

To make sure that you get the most possible benefit out of your flexibility program as you lose weight, make sure that you do it on a regular basis. At a minimum you will want to perform stretching both before and after your workouts to losen the muscles and connective tissues such as tendons and ligaments. Moderate stretching sessions every day, however, would be an even better plan of action.

Lastly, make sure that with each stretch you are practicing the proper breathing exercises and technique. You should NEVER "bounce" while stretching, because such movement predisposes you to injury. Use smooth, natural stretching motions that allow your body to slowly pull on the area being stretched.