Improving Your Flexibility To improve Your Health & Wellness

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Flexibility is important as it enables you perform the seven primal movement patterns (squat, lunge, push, pull bend, twist and gait (gait being walk, jog and run)) that the human species were designed to perform.

Unfortunately 21^st century lifestyle choices see the human race unable to perform these simple movements due to inflexibility and as a result, our overall health condition has deteriorated dramatically.

Put in very simple terms, our body is a complex set of systems of systems.  Two particular sets of systems that we have are the Skeletal and the Muscular system.  In common language we are in fact a simple set of pulley and levers, with the skeletal system being the levers and the muscles being the pulleys.  (A pulley shortens and pulls a lever, thus reducing the angle at a particular joint enabling movement)

Almost everyone needs to squat or lower their center of gravity in their daily life.  From picking up a box and putting it on a shelf, to bending down to pick up children, squatting is one of the seven primal movement patterns.  (The others being lunge, push, pull, bend, twist and gait (gait being walk, jog and run)) and in order for this movement pattern to occur, your levers and pulleys need to be able to move in a functional way to permit that movement to occur.  21^st century lifestyle factors have caused a massive imbalance in the way the human body now functions.

In particular, excessive sitting down as a result of a more sedentary lifestyle (both work and play) means that our system of pulleys and levers are NOT being utilised as much as they once were when we were hunter gatherers and as a result, our overall health and wellbeing has deteriorated dramatically.

During your initial assessment with us, you completed an Overhead Squat as it has become a popular dynamic assessment tool for coaches and exercise professionals to assess their client’s integrated functional strength, flexibility and neuromuscular efficiency. In simple terms, the ability to perform nature’s basic movements.

It provided an overall impression of how all joints interact with one another. Any compensations or faulty movement patterns may suggest a weak link. A weak link may mean many different things; however, a simple stretch/strengthening program may overcome any faulty movement patterns that exist.

There are 22 different observations that we looked for during your assessment.  If a particular observation is observed, then this could indicate that a series of muscles may need to be stretched or mobilized.

As well, there may be another series of muscles that may need to be strengthened.  The following table is a guide to understanding how efficiently your body can perform a basic squatting movement pattern

No. of Observations	Category	Frequency of Stretching
Less than 4	Excellent movement	No remedial action required
Between 5-7	Good	Minimal stretching required
Between 8-10	Average	A Flexibility Program may need to be incorporated into you overall health and wellness plan
Greater than 10	Poor	Your Flexibility Program may require urgent attention to mobilise and stabilise any of your hip, knee and shoulder joints before any consideration is given to undergoing any strenuous resistance or cardio progra

If your assessment revealed between 0-7 observations then you may benefit from performing our 1 Day Flexibility Program and you can download of copy of that by clicking here.  Simply complete these stretches every alternate day.

If your assessment revealed between 8-15 observations then you may benefit from performing our  2 Day Flexibility Program and you can download of copy of that by clicking here.  Simply do day 1 on one day and then day 2 on the next and so on.

You should have already received your complimentary copy of our “How To Improve Your Flexibility E-Book” which sets out exactly how to perform all of the stretches in this program, how often, and at what time of the day.

Alternatively, you can simply go to the stretches page to view all of the stretches individually