The Missing Link Between Flexibility And Pain

The link between flexibility and pain has been none for decades, but, Do you know what flexibility is? How is it measured? Do you know what to do to improve your flexibility? And what to do if you have full flexibility and still have pain? 

These are all questions we will be discussing today. 

First of all, what is flexibility, what is normal, and how do we measure it?

Flexibility is the ability for a muscle to stretch and allow a joint to move through a full range of motion, preferably pain free. For this to happen you need two keys aspects. A muscle needs to be able to relax, lengthen and stretch enough while the opposing muscle shortens, and the joint needs to be in good enough health to move through its full range. 

If for simplicity's sake we look at the elbow. To be able to bend the elbow fully so your forearm and your upper arm touch together you need: your tricep to stretch, your bicep to shorten and your elbow to hinge to roughly 135’. If any one of these abilities is compromised then the overall flexibility will be reduced. 

Normal flexibility refers to the scientific normal or often referred to as standard that everybody should be able to achieve. Thanks to scientific research we now know, without any hesitation, what flexibility should be achieved at any given joint. Yes this means we do not subscribe to the misbelief that somebody who its taller finds it harder to touch their toes, or because no one in your family can touch theirs toes neither will do. One is science and the other pseudoscience, we believe the science. 

For example, your lower back flexibility is commonly assessed as the following; with your feet together, your legs straight, you should be able to bend forwards and touch the ground. If you can touch the ground while maintaining your feet touch and legs straight at all times you have full lower flexibility. The same process can be repeated for any joint.

Why is this important? Our bodies have been designed through trial and error and evolution over 300,000 years. We are built and designed the way we are for very particular reasons. If for any reason you are lacking 20cm in your finger to floor distance that will have a negative impact on the overall function of the body. It must, if it didn't we wouldn't have the ability to do it in the first instance. 

Please notice how I said “negative impact on the overall function of the body”. The negative impact is not limited to that specific joint, because we are a tensegrity structure. Our form is generated through compressions of structures throughout the entire body. 

Therefore a loss in ankle flexibility can affect shoulder function and therefore pain. A loss in elbow flexibility will affect lower back function and therefore pain. If you would like convincing please see the works of Tom Myers- Anatomy Trains. For those of you still with me, this means in order to be pain free you may need the full unrestricted flexibility of every joint in the body, not just the joint that has pain. 

This should then go a considerable way to answer the question, why do I have back pain if I can still touch my toes? For these people, which is more common than you think, I would urge you to look elsewhere in the body. Firstly start with areas of previous injury, fracture, stress or pain, and see what your flexibility is like there. If restricted this area may be the cause for your pain. 

Finally, how do you improve your flexibility? Firstly I would like to say this process is 1000x easier with the help of an expert. Similarly, like anything, anyone is capable of MOTing a car or building a computer, however if your expertise lies elsewhere i recommend employing the help of those who do have the expertise. 

To improve your flexibility you must assess which of the three key aspects is causing the loss of flexibility. Is it a muscle inability to stretch, the opposing muscles inability to shorten, or is the joints ability to move. 

Once through rigorous testing the area/s have been identified then they can be resolved in order of most importance. Unfortunately I wish it were true however I and the thousands of clients we see have found, it is very unlikely doing some youtube stretches will resolve it. It is not impossible, however very unlikely. 

My advice would be the same to anyone who’s seriously seeking optimal change, seek the advice of an expert in that field. If you  have a toothache, go to a dentist. If you want to buy a house, go to a mortgage advisor. If you want to resolve your back pain and become more flexible, go to.. Team Peak.