Static, Dynamic & Passive Flexibility
Stretching Exercises and Yoga Poses for Flexibility
There isn’t much mystery surrounding the anatomy of flexibility, but when it comes to exactly HOW TO increase your stretching flexibility, there are dozens of theories and seemingly conflicting approaches. For simplicity’s sake, let’s talk about three primary types of flexibility. DYNAMIC FLEXIBILITY
Think of Bruce Lee doing a roundhouse kick! This is an active movement that brings the joints and connective tissues through a full range of motion. Imagine a golfer swinging a 3-iron, a rock climber heaving his leg up onto a high foot hold, or a soccer player doing a flying kick for the ball.Dynamic flexibility movements are usually done at around 80% of maximum flexibility— and any more than this would be unsafe.
STATIC FLEXIBILITY
Ever practiced Tai Chi? This “strong-yet-still” flexibility is the type you also see runners practicing when they stretch before a race. Their muscles are engaged (at least to some degree) while they hold a specific pose for a long period of time. Bikram Yoga, for example, is an entire yoga system based on static flexibility stretches with each pose held for 30-60 seconds or longer.
Static flexibility postures are usually practiced at around 85% of maximum flexibility, and again, more than this will often lead to injury.
PASSIVE FLEXIBILITY
Ask a dancer to touch her toes, and you’ll see passive flexibility in action. This “wet noodle” type of flexibility is also seen in young children or in people who are just “naturally flexible.” Passive flexibility is practiced with little or no muscular energy at all, essentially allowing your body weight and gravity to gently lengthen your muscles and connective tissues. Hence the “wet noodle” effect. Passive flexibility poses are usually practiced at around 90% of maximum flexibility, and as students progress, you can actually practice safely at 100% maximum flexibility every single time.
SO WHICH ONE IS THE BEST?
They are all great, and a balance between all the three types of flexibility practices is ideal. But here, since we’re mainly interested in increasing the mobility of certain areas of the body like the back, hips, or shoulders, passive flexibility exercises tend to be the most effective in rapidly opening the body safely.
Basically, you could stretch your hamstrings by doing sets of round-house kicks, but chances are good that you’d hurt yourself and look pretty stupid in the process! And the truth is, once you use passive flexibility exercises to move past the serious blocks, both static and dynamic flexibility tend to be much easier to learn. So first we create a flexible, open body, and then we try to kick like Bruce Lee!Make sense?
Stretching Exercises and Yoga Poses for Flexibility
