The benefits of flexibility in athletic performance

Hi all,

I'm doing an assignment for a sports massage therapy course and the question of benefits of flexibility in athletic performance came up.  I've been a capoeirista for a long time now and flexibility has always been super important for me in increased range of movement and stability.  I'd love to hear your reasons as to why this is important too if you have time to share your opinion.

Cheers,

Martyn.

I think probably the main thing I missed above is the benefit of protection from injury that flexibility provides.

Hi Martin,

Put simply, you can't be strong in or safely move through a range of motion you don't have. 

Your performance is at the best when the muscles and joints can work in the full range of motion. Safely. 

Some movements for me were difficult because I was stiff in that movement. I can slightly extend my ROM when I get to the end of my limited range but it is very slow and stiff. The more I can open up a ROM the easier it is for me to move theough what I already have. SLS is exactly like this for me

The greater the ROM is you can safely move through,  the more room for error you have.

There's the injury protection aspect of it of course, but for athletic performance one often overlooked aspect is that flexibility and mobility make some exercises easier and possible. 

Look at a straddle press to handstand, the better your compression the less you have to planche so the movement is made much more efficient. A ring muscle up, the better your shoulder extension strength the more the transition is like a dip and less like a triceps pressdown of your bodyweight (because your elbows can get behind you to get your shoulders over your hands).

Basic handstand, you want the straight handstand because it's more efficient, hard to do it without shoulder extension. The list goes on and on.

GST , weightlifting, movement, life, it is all about moving something in a certain range of motion. the more your brain knows the range of motion the more it can manage the weight through it. expose yourself over a unexplored range motion means higher risk of injury not only of physical activities but also in normal life. think about people lifting a bag with rounded back and always they hurt the back, then think about someone who explored actively the rounded back forward bending movement with a JF. first one will fail, second one it is alive.

Thanks for all the replies, really good stuff

9 hours ago, Christian Nogueira said:

Basic handstand, you want the straight handstand because it's more efficient, hard to do it without shoulder extension. The list goes on and on.

9 hours ago, Christian Nogueira said:

 

I never understood why shoulder extension is needed for handstands. It's obviously critical for stuff like Korean and Russian dips but on the surface handstands require just flexion and elevation from the shoulders. I'm pretty sure I'm wrong but I'd like to understand. Can you explain?

It's not needed for handstands, but since HS is so flexion heavy, it's very helpful to balance that out by also working extension.

1 hour ago, Petri Widsten said:

 

I never understood why shoulder extension is needed for handstands. It's obviously critical for stuff like Korean and Russian dips but on the surface handstands require just flexion and elevation from the shoulders. I'm pretty sure I'm wrong but I'd like to understand. Can you explain?

I made a mistake. I meant "shoulder flexion" for the handstand.

Since were talking about athletics and flexibility, I have a question. When you look at elite level athletes such as sprinters, hurdlers, 1500m runners, long jumpers etc.

If you were to complete all 3 stretch videos and achieve all the positions would you be in there ballpark or quite a bit more flexible? I realize certain sports such as diving seem to require a pike to perform, So that's a bit different.

Definitely more flexible.

19 hours ago, Trevor Somerville said:

Since were talking about athletics and flexibility, I have a question. When you look at elite level athletes such as sprinters, hurdlers, 1500m runners, long jumpers etc.

If you were to complete all 3 stretch videos and achieve all the positions would you be in there ballpark or quite a bit more flexible? I realize certain sports such as diving seem to require a pike to perform, So that's a bit different.

I've always read that those types of athletes don't want to be too flexible (sprinters) because it's a bit harder to transfer power if you can go into extreme ranges of motion.

I'm sure they're still more flexible than 95% of the population, just not elite flexibility. I could be wrong.

2 hours ago, Patrick Rentz said:

I've always read that those types of athletes don't want to be too flexible (sprinters) because it's a bit harder to transfer power if you can go into extreme ranges of motion.

I'm sure they're still more flexible than 95% of the population, just not elite flexibility. I could be wrong.

That's a good point and I have heard some similar things. I think it would be cool to have something on a world class athlete, even if it's just flexibility.

for me beside sport and martial art and injury prevention i see flexibility as a beautiful way of movement and posture and an artistic way of human body  especially in capoeira  

There's a lot that you gain in flexibility by simply your job being trying to excel at some sport instead of being a desk jockey :). Or rather perhaps more correctly, a lot of flexibility that you haven't simply lost.