Question: How come that when you are young, you are flexible and when you are old you are less flexible? Has it got something to do with your bones fusing together?
Keywords: flexibility, ligament, muscle, stretch, tendon
Comments
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Doesn’t your flexibility level also relate to the process of ageing (oxidation in the body)?
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Thanks guys! I knew flexibility had to do with muscles but I didn’t know it had anything to do with ligaments, tendons and cartilage. Oh, and by the way, I’m not very flexible.
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Hey ver0007 Youre welcome! Do you know what the best thing is for flexibility? Practice! If you do lots of stretching every day and exercise, you will get more flexible with time… just like you get fitter if you exercise! Gymnastics is also super good for getting better flexibility!
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Ver0007 most people can get more flexible but some of us just can’t! But don’t worry! I have been doing yoga for a long time now and I still don’t stretch like spaghetti! lol maybe that is a good thing! 😛
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Potplant3, most certainly does! you are right! It is also very much dependent on ageing and oxidation in the body. Well done 😀
potplant3
ver0007
Hello ver0007,
You can remain flexible your entire life if you continue to practice your stretching and flexibility 🙂 Flexibility is really the total range of movement in a joint (for example your knee joint). As we get older some people don’t use their joints like kids do, we aren’t as active! We don’t stretch as much as you guys do! Some people like me use our joints so much that we damage them through things like marathon running.
When we wear out the the ligaments or a tendon which are really import of muscle stability and joint stability you can never really go back to being super flexible. So as kids, make sure you never really injure yourself too much 😛
Another thing about adults is that we have a lot more muscle mass, when we have muscles we become very stiff like boards!!!! Kids don’t have muscle mass like adults so that helps you with your flexibility also.
So in my opinion, flexibility isn’t about bones fusing, its about how relaxed your muscles are, and the conditions of your joints 🙂
How flexible are you? I can’t do the splits 🙁
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Hey ver0007 I love your questions, they are really interesting ones!
Bones fusing is one of the things that happens. About the time that we hit out 20’s we sort of reach a peak in our development. Our body stops getting bigger ans stronger, and all of the flexibility and developments slows. Then it’s downhill! Without that development, things slow down and we eventually degrade to the point where we die! Part of this degredation is that your muscles very slowly deteriorate, and so do your ligaments, tendons and cartilage (the bits holding your bones and muscles together and giving a lot of flexibility). When these break down you can no longer manage all of the crazy flexible things you did as a kid! Sometimes it can get so bad your bones can partly fuse. Sometimes you lose all the cartilage, like in arthritis!
The best thing to do for this is to keep healthy and exercise (but not over-exercise) to keep telling your body it needs to keep itself in the best shape possible, and then it will stay more flexible for longer!
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