Benefits of Yoga Flexibility Training

The core benefit of yoga flexibility training is never the "unique skills" that can be displayed, such as lowering the waist and doing a one-line horse. It is a gentle expansion of muscles, fascia, and joint mobility, which can "relax" the body that has been in a tight state for a long time from the physiological to psychological levels. It is an active health intervention method with extremely low threshold and suitable for the vast majority of people.

Last week I met a 32-year-old girl who works as a product manager for an Internet company. Her shoulders and neck were so stiff that when she turned her head to look at the bag behind her shoulders, her whole upper body had to turn. She went for a massage and felt comfortable for three days, then turned around and went back. She even had migraines two or three times a week. She used to think that yoga was "something only for weak girls", but then she took a six-week yin yoga flexibility class with the mentality of giving it a try. She did not practice any difficult movements, but spent 40 minutes each time doing static stretches on the rotator cuff and upper trapezius muscles. Now her head no longer snaps, and her migraines have not come to her door for half a month.

Don’t underestimate this change. Guidelines released by the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) in 2023 also mentioned that low-intensity flexibility training for 30 minutes 2-3 times a week can reduce the risk of chronic shoulder, neck, and back pain by 38%. For sedentary people, the benefits are higher than running a half-marathon occasionally. After all, we sit in front of the computer for 8 hours a day, and the hamstrings, hip flexors, and upper trapezius muscles are in a shortened state for a long time. Over time, it will not only hurt, but also affect joint compensation. Many people suffer from knee pain and lumbar protrusion at a young age. The root cause is actually insufficient muscle elasticity and the inability to hold the bones.

Oh, by the way, there has always been controversy about flexibility training. I have talked with several teachers who practice Ashtanga before. They think that flexibility training does not need to be done separately. The extension included in the series flow is enough. If practiced alone, it will easily cause the joints to lose core support and make them more susceptible to injury. ； But a friend who does restorative yoga completely disagrees. She feels that the muscles of people who sit for a long time are already in a "stiff" state, and you can't find a sense of force if you directly use the power flow. You must first do targeted flexibility and opening to avoid compensation. In fact, there is nothing wrong with both statements, but they are suitable for different people. People who have exercise habits and sufficient muscle mass do not need to spend too much time on flexibility training alone, but people who sit in an office from 9 to 5 and feel that their legs feel heavy even after walking for half an hour, it is more efficient to start with flexibility training.

I have a friend who has been running marathons for five years. He used to think that stretching was a waste of time. He would only shake his legs twice after each run. How tight were his hamstrings? My legs are straight when I sit on a chair, and my upper body cannot even bend 90 degrees. It is common for my legs to hurt for three days after every run. I have been stuck in PB for a year and have not moved. Later, I was forced to practice flexibility training for hip flexion and hamstring muscles twice a week. Only three months later, I improved my marathon PB by 2 minutes and 17 seconds. The soreness after the game disappeared in half a day, and even the knee pain that I always suffered from before did not reoccur. To put it bluntly, the muscles are elastic enough and will not pull each other when exerting force, and the sports performance will naturally improve.

It's interesting to say that many people have practiced flexibility for a long time, and the first change they feel is emotional. After all, you can't check your phone during practice. You have to focus on your breathing and the stretching of your muscles. If you are distracted even a little bit, your strength will go wrong, which is equivalent to being forced to do mindfulness meditation for more than ten minutes. When I rush to make a plan and am so anxious that I can't sit still, I will lay out a mat and do 15 minutes of sitting angle pose and child's pose. I will bring my attention back to the current breathing and the messy thoughts in my mind will disappear. It is more effective than drinking three cups of coffee.

Of course, I have to mention that the more painful the flexibility training, the better. There was a little girl who came to the gym before. She strained her medial collateral ligament in order to make friends with her, and it took her two months to recover. In traditional Hatha yoga, there is indeed a saying that "soreness is a normal reaction to stretching." However, in the modern yoga system that combines sports rehabilitation, the principle of "painless stretching" has long been clarified: as long as the pain you feel exceeds the level of "soreness and swelling", you are injuring your body, and there is no need to bear it hard.

Anyway, I have taught classes for so many years, and I have never set any KPI for students to do the splits in three months. The ultimate benefit of flexibility training is never about how many difficult poses you can do, but when you turn your head without getting stuck, when you squat on the toilet without straining, when you carry heavy objects without bending your waist, and when you quarrel with your family, you can take two more deep breaths without breaking out - this is the real profit.