Step 4 – Functional Flexibility
When I speak of functional flexibility, here’s what I mean, functional flexibility is flexibility that allows you to perform better. It is all about your daily life, as it allows you to engage in tasks like walking, sports like tennis or golf, and daily activities like gardening or chasing grandchildren around optimally and without pain or injury. Whether they are training for golf, tennis, swimming or any sport, most athletes realize the benefits from a strength training program, yet often do not recognize the importance of a flexibility program. However, both are imperative to playing a sport injury free.
In fact, functional flexibility is the foundation of everything we do in terms of movement! Without functional flexibility you cannot reach your highest potential in power, strength, cardiovascular fitness, or muscle endurance. Functional flexibility is the key to the ultimate physical performance, while preventing injuries.
I often hear from athletes, “I do a stretching class three days per week, but my hamstrings are still so tight and my back hurts at the end of the day.” Traditional stretching techniques focus more on muscle origin and insertion but do not provide us with an optimal functional performance outcome. This is what Pilates can provide.
A Pilates-based functional flexibility program is based on the individual and is “task driven.” The movements are three-dimensional. The movements are designed to address those movements you use every day in a way to train the body to perform better. During training, you focus on stabilizing the muscles to “hold” them in positions that are in better balance. Without stabilizing, your body will not recognize the new flexibility and will default to old patterns of tightness and dysfunction. Think of it as teaching your body a better way of moving.
(Source: Lenny Parracino PT, FAFS, “Functional Flexibility: Complex Made Simple.” The Gray Institute: News and Articles.)
Pilates Provides Great Posture and Alignment
Great posture is achievable no matter who you are, what your age is, what your fitness level is, or your current flexibility. Achieving great posture requires a balance of strength and flexibility throughout the whole body from the feet through the crown of the head. Good posture means that all of the joints are in alignment with each other with just the right amount of mobility and stability.
When thinking of alignment, think of building a two-story house: The feet are the base of the bottom floor or the foundation, the legs are the framework, the pelvis is the base of the second floor and the ribcage and spine are the framework for that floor. The shoulders are the ceiling, and the head is the roof. If any of the structures are out of alignment, the house will break down and eventually it will fall down. Your body is no different than that house and without proper alignment, balanced mobility and stability to hold the alignment, your “house” will also eventually break down or fall down. Breakdown will occur from overuse syndromes and a bunch of other structural problems resulting in pain and discomfort.
Types of posture
There are many types of posture, and some classic posture types are shown here. Any type of posture comes from either athletic intentional positioning or habitual sedentary body positioning. Which posture do you have? In the next step of the series, we will look more at this.
Step 5 and 6 will publish on Jan 5, 2022
