While it is generally true that we lose our flexibility as we age or
become fatter and weaker, measurement of this is difficult and poses unnecessary danger.
Being able to reach further toward your toes with your knees locked — the so-called
sit-and-reach test — does not necessarily prove anything of worth. It may mean that
you are leaner and better fit, but it may also indicate excessive flexibility around some
of your joints with an accompanyingly greater tendency toward injury. Who is to say? And
probably as many injuries are caused as are prevented by gullible subjects who believe and
do everything they read about flexibility programs by so-called fitness experts.
As a normal course of events, subjects become more flexible — and in a structurally
stable way — if they merely concentrate on becoming stronger and leaner. Subjects
using my Linear SpineTM machines increase their flexional/extensional stroke as they
become stronger. This occurs — especially in subjects with back injuries —
although they are encouraged to concentrate on contraction of the involved musculatures,
not stroke distance. If they can be coerced to restrict their calories, yet additional
stroke eventually becomes possible. I mention the Linear Spine machines here to make a
point. These machines specifically address the flexions and extension of the spine, those
movements of apparent obsession with traditional flexibility testing and so affected by
excessive torso body fat.
To be fair, I must admit that the traditional sit-and-reach test does sometime indicate a
subject's degree of functional ability and therefore his ability to efficiently perform
daily tasks. However, I have met stout men who could perform feats in manual labor
activities that few others could approach. Of course, these exceptions could perform yet
better and safer if they would lose body fat. The real issue here, then, is body fat.
Improved flexibility is only a secondary spin-off.
Also, in the progressive pedagogy of gymnastics, certain skills are attempted only once a
minimum flexibility is attained to permit safe learning. As I have explained before, this
is a specific sports skill that is not necessarily indicative of healthy practice for the
general public. It is indeed practical if you have chosen the dangerous sport of
gymnastics. By the way, Gymnastics has gained a bourgeoisie image that serves McDonald'sŪ
and the US Olympic Committee as a powerful marketing tool, although gymnastics is
disastrous for the spines of the youth who aspire to this sport.