When the study began 13 years ago, participants were given an overall score for flexibility, then tracked over the intervening years.<\/p>\n
Researchers found that people with greater flexibility had a lower risk of premature death. The study observed the effect in both sexes, but it was stronger in women (who are also more naturally flexible than men).<\/p>\n
Females with lower flexibility scores were nearly five times more likely to die across the study period. Males with lower scores were nearly twice as likely to die early.<\/p>\n
What does it tell us? That it is, as the saying goes, better to bend than to break.<\/p>\n
What is flexibility?<\/p>\n
The team behind the study stress that their work doesn\u2019t show a causative link between flexibility and mortality.<\/p>\n
But the association between the two makes sense, says lead author Dr Claudio Gil S Ara\u00fajo<\/a> of Clinimex, an exercise medicine clinic in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.<\/p>\n \u201cWe know that if you\u2019re aerobically fit and strong, it\u2019ll help you live longer,\u201d he says. \u201cPerhaps the same is true with flexibility.\u201d <\/p>\n Ara\u00fajo is cautious with his words because his study is one of surprisingly few that have looked into flexibility and long-term health outcomes.<\/p>\n In fact, flexibility itself is poorly understood and hard to measure \u2013 despite the fact that the American College of Sports Medicine<\/a> in Indianapolis, Indiana, ranks it as a key tenet of physical fitness.<\/p>\n The other tenets are muscular strength, muscular endurance, cardiorespiratory endurance (the ability for the heart and lungs to deliver oxygen to muscles) and body composition (the proportion of fat, muscle, bone etc).<\/p>\n In terms of a definition, flexibility is usually described as our ability to move pain<\/a>-free through the full range of motion in a particular joint.<\/p>\n That could be raising our arms above our heads, or tilting our heads to our shoulders, or bringing our knees to our chests.<\/p>\n The most common measure of flexibility is something called the \u2018sit and reach<\/a>\u2019 test.<\/p>\n You sit on the floor with your legs stretched straight out in front of you and your feet against a wall. Then, with one hand on top of the other, you reach down and try to touch your toes.<\/p>\n You\u2019ll feel a stretch, but it won\u2019t give you a complete picture of how flexible you are.<\/p>\n \u201c\u2018Sit and reach\u2019 measures flexibility in the back half of your posterior chain: your glutes, your hamstrings, to a lesser extent your lower back,\u201d says Dr Lewis Ingram<\/a>, a physiotherapist and researcher at the University of South Australia in Adelaide.<\/p>\n \u201cBut that doesn\u2019t give me any indication of how flexible I am in the hip flexors, shoulders and other parts of my body. So that\u2019s one problem. We can\u2019t measure flexibility in a single test.\u201d<\/p>\n Read more:<\/p>\n Limits and effects<\/p>\n Another problem, Ingram says, is that we\u2019re not even completely sure how flexibility works anatomically. We know our muscles extend, and the tendons and ligaments stretch.<\/p>\n There\u2019s a network of connective tissue called fascia that encases the muscles and probably has a role.<\/p>\n Genetics are a factor too, because they determine how much collagen and elastin \u2013 proteins that give your tissues strength and structural support \u2013 you have. Even the brain<\/a> and the nervous system could be in play when you try to do the splits.<\/p>\n \u201cThere seems to be a big \u2018software\u2019 component to how flexible we are,\u201d Ingram says. This may control the pain we feel when we stretch to our physical limits.<\/p>\n \u201cIt could be that our central nervous system stem puts on the brakes, not allowing us to go into a full range of motion.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s a common assumption that flexibility is important for sportspeople and gym-goers. Lots of us stretch before or after workouts in the belief that it\u2019ll improve our performance and recovery, or reduce our risk of injury.<\/p>\n But while flexibility undoubtedly increases our range of motion, its effects on performance and injury are complex. Patchy research gives us an incomplete picture of the ways stretching and flexibility affect athletic performance.<\/p>\n Ingram points to distance runners as an example. Having flexible joints and muscles may help a runner\u2019s stride and reduce tightness after a run.<\/p>\n Conversely, being too flexible can reduce the stability of leg muscles and tendons, meaning less power return and, potentially, a greater risk of injury on the road.<\/p>\n Those factors will be different if you\u2019re a gymnast and different again if you\u2019re a weightlifter.<\/p>\n \u201cSo you need to ask if the benefit of the increased range is going to offset any potential reduction in strength or power,\u201d Ingram says. \u201cThat will depend on the event level.\u201d<\/p>\n The benefits of flexibility<\/p>\n For those of us who aren\u2019t competition-level athletes, the benefits of becoming more flexible almost certainly outweigh the costs.<\/p>\n Desk jobs and sedentary lifestyles place restraints on our mobility and these exacerbate the way our body\u2019s natural flexibility declines as we age.<\/p>\n \u201cYou start to lose flexibility almost from the very beginning of your life,\u201d Ara\u00fajo says. \u201cA three-year-old kid will be more flexible than a 16-year-old. It\u2019s like a biological clock.\u201d<\/p>\n Unfortunately, unless we do something about it, this only gets worse. A study<\/a> on hip and shoulder joints, for example, showed that people lost 6\u00b0 in range of motion per decade after their 50s. In later life, our muscles also shrink and weaken.<\/p>\n Many of us begin to store more fat, which can restrict our movement. \u201cBut mostly it\u2019s in the tendons and the joints,\u201d Ara\u00fajo says. \u201cThe tendons are more flexible when you\u2019re younger.\u201d<\/p>\n He speculates that this could partly explain why people with poor flexibility seem to have greater mortality rates.<\/p>\n Research has shown<\/a> that flexibility can help manage pain, aid weight loss and prevent muscle wastage as we age. It can also help to increase mobility and autonomy in older populations.<\/p>\n These factors may combine in things like falls, which can be lethal in older people.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you get unsteady when you\u2019re walking, you might not have the flexibility to recover,\u201d Ara\u00fajo says. \u201cYou might not have the flexibility to absorb the fall. And you might not have the flexibility to get up again.\u201d<\/p>\n Another factor in long-term health is a surprising link between flexibility and the risk of heart disease.<\/p>\n A growing body of research<\/a> shows that people with poor flexibility have increased arterial stiffness, a measure of how flexible the arteries are and a risk factor in cardiovascular disease.<\/p>\n Some studies have also shown<\/a> that static stretching exercises \u2013 where you hold a muscle in an elongated position for a period of time \u2013 can reduce arterial stiffness, especially in middle-aged men.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is one health area where there\u2019s been consistency,\u201d says Ingram, who is in the middle of a literature review on the links between flexibility and health.<\/p>\n \u201cGiven that coronary heart disease is probably the single biggest killer in most high-income countries in the world, static stretching does seem to have an effect on that.\u201d<\/p>\n Read more:<\/p>\n Increasing your flexibility<\/p>\n Like a lot of things in health and fitness, flexibility is a case of using it or losing it. The good news is that, whatever your age, you can make yourself more flexible, says Ara\u00fajo.<\/p>\n \u201cYou have to train specifically for flexibility and you have to move outside your comfort zone,\u201d he says. \u201cBut even if you [only] do a few minutes a few times a week, it\u2019ll help.\u201d <\/p>\n Studies show that different kinds of exercise can help. Practices like yoga and tai chi involve a lot of stretching and moving the joints in a full range of motion.<\/p>\n Ingram says strength training is effective because it makes your muscles \u201clong and strong\u201d, whereas static stretching doesn\u2019t necessarily strengthen your muscles in an extended position.<\/p>\n A 2023 review even suggested that as long as you move to full extension when you lift weights, you might not need to stretch before and after the workout to reap the benefits.<\/p>\n Static stretching does, however, remain one of the most popular (and obvious) forms of flexibility training.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/flexibility-increase-sitting.jpg\")
\u201c\u2018Sit and reach\u2019 measures flexibility in the back half of your posterior chain: your glutes, your hamstrings, to a lesser extent your lower back\u201d – Image credit: Shutterstock<\/p>\n![\"Side](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/flexibility-increase-gymnast.jpg\")
“Like a lot of things in health and fitness, flexibility is a case of using it or losing it” – Image credit: Getty Images<\/p>\n![\"Photo](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/flexibility-increase-benefits.jpg\")
While flexibility undoubtedly increases our range of motion, its effects on performance and injury are complex – Image credit: Alamy<\/p>\n![\"Photo](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/flexibility-increase-arm-stretch.jpg\")
Whatever technique you opt for, the experts recommend that all of us make time for flexibility training – Image credit: Alamy<\/p>\n
![\"Illustration](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/flexibility-increase-knee-to-wall.jpg\")
Image credit: Acute Graphics<\/p>\n![\"Illustration](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/flexibility-increase-leg-raise.jpg\")
Image credit: Acute Graphics<\/p>\n![\"Illustration](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/flexibility-increase-thomas-test.jpg\")
Image credit: Acute Graphics<\/p>\n![\"Illustration](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/flexibility-increase-overhead-arm-extension.jpg\")
Image credit: Acute Graphics<\/p>\n