Male Flexibility

Cully

Men a famous for having bad flexibility when compared to women. Is it because girls always do their flexibility and aerobics classes and guys do their sports (quite often without warming up properly)

Personally, I've been trying to increase my flexibility over the past 2 years and I'm making very small gains.... I'm 31, and I'm wondering if anyone else is doing this and how they are getting on or their techniques..

I've ended up with bad flexibility because of not warming up before training and years of going to the Gym and lifting weights without any ounce of stretching.

There's a number of things I'm trying and have had variable results. I warm up before each exercise by moving, swinging, kicking or whatever limb in whatever direction for a while in order to warm it up.

1. Shoulders..... On way to get shoulder flexibility is to get a sweeping brush and put your hands very wide on it and then lift the brush over and behind your head.... bring back to the front, move your fingers a little closer together and do again.... I know someone who can grab both of his hands straight back because of this exercise, but I've had virtually no gains in flexibility, but my back muscles got very defined because of it

2. Legs..... splits first.. Basically stand as normal with feet facing FRONT and widen stance... keep widening until it becomes tight. Make sure feet point forward, knees point forward, and lower back is bent forward (not straight up). After my legs relax, I increase the stretch, and again try to let everying relax... This method has gotten me about half a foot increase in width in the past 3 months, so I would consider that a good gain.

3. Shoulders #2.... basically one arm up and behind your back, the other around the back and up to catch the first arm... I find it very difficult to do this and as a result have gotten virtually no gains.

4. Touch Toes.... Basically keep legs straight and touch toes or as close as you can get... I've gotten a little bit of a gain in this one, but it's one of the hardest stretches to stay in 'cos of the burn.

5. Legs #2.... Basically... trying to get more leg flexibility by sitting down with the bottoms of my feet together and rest the knees down as far as possible... I feel like I've gotten somewhere with this, but hard to check.

Anyway... What I would like to know is everyone elses experiences... I know different people get different gains, and I know it's harder the older you get (eg, after mid twenties)... It just seems like I'm not getting the gains I would expect and I really have spent a lot of time each day for many many months now.

LegacyUser

im anywehre between16-18 stone and i usedto beableto put my feet behind my head when i was 20st!

c - 13

Yeah my flexability is absolutely terrible, very inflexible altogether. I considered taking yoga or something for a while as it would certainly help my surfing if I was a bit more flexible/nimble but its not something I really have any interest in so it never materialised.

brianthebard

Is there any sites that give you an idea of what's considered flexible and what's not? I do the shoulder dislocates (the first one) with a towel, find it easier to rotate around. I can touch my toes, touch my hands behind my back...I was at a physio a while ago who said I was quite flexible, but I think maybe she meant that in relation to her usual clients.

trout

The last time I attended a physio ... she declared me as flexible as a crisp

Cully

brianthebard wrote: »

Is there any sites that give you an idea of what's considered flexible and what's not? I do the shoulder dislocates (the first one) with a towel, find it easier to rotate around. I can touch my toes, touch my hands behind my back...I was at a physio a while ago who said I was quite flexible, but I think maybe she meant that in relation to her usual clients.

I would say then that for a man, that you are "quite flexible". Some lucky men are born and stay flexible all their lives without any stretching, but that can be a bad thing as it means that their joints are more stretchy, and generally weaker. There's a condition where people can bend all wierd ways and I know it's not good to have that because it means weaker joints.

*average* is variable like the "average penis size" question... but as far as I know, average is about the following...

Legs #1: Being able to go into the splits so that your legs make about 80 degrees when fully stretched out. Mine currently can go about 95 ish, but I've been stretching a lot in that regard.

Arms: Average is about where you can hold a broom nearly at the ends.. keeping your arms straight and bringing them up and over your head around the back... I think it's about 120 degrees or so....

Legs #2: "average" is about where you can *nearly* touch your toes when bending forward. With feet together and legs straight.

I guess those are just guidelines, but most people should know if they are flexible or inflexible... I know someone who's never exercised in his life and when I asked him how far into the splits he can do... he said he didn't know... then tried and went fully into the splits... I hate him :mad:

brianthebard

Doing the splits would be cool, if only cause I can't do them. I don't know how big the angle would be when I try, but I think I can spread my feet at least five and a half feet away from each other-I'm guessing that number based on the cuffs of a barbell which I believe is a distance of five foot (on a seven foot bar) and I can get my feet a bit past them. The only one on that list I find awkward is the shoulder dislocates. Is the second legs one where you try to touch the outside of your legs to the ground with your feet together?

challengemaster

Mine isn't too bad because I've been doing MA for about 8 years now, but it's still nowhere near what I'd like it to be. I just need to stretch more is all tbh..

btw, stretching advice(splits): You really don't need to stretch for anything over 30 seconds at a time. Relax into a stretch, focus on your breathing, get comfortable, then after 20-30 secs, slowly come out of it. Don't want to pull anything. Then loosen up hips again, shake out legs, and go for another stretch, trying to go slightly further. Rinse and repeat. I'd reccomend doing a set of 5 stretches daily if you really want to see gains.. if you stop stretching for a few days, you'll lose what you've gained so far.

Also, best time for stretching is when you wake up, and just get out of bed. It's a pain in the arse to do stretching at that time, but if you allow 5 minutes for stretching as soon as you get out of bed, you'll be flexible for the rest of the day.

Cully wrote: »

4. Touch Toes.... Basically keep legs straight and touch toes or as close as you can get... I've gotten a little bit of a gain in this one, but it's one of the hardest stretches to stay in 'cos of the burn.

I wouldn't reccomend doing this stretch, it's not good for you/your back at all.

Cully

challengemaster wrote: »

Also, best time for stretching is when you wake up, and just get out of bed. It's a pain in the arse to do stretching at that time, but if you allow 5 minutes for stretching as soon as you get out of bed, you'll be flexible for the rest of the day.

<snip>

I wouldn't reccomend doing this stretch, it's not good for you/your back at all.

Stretching First thing isn't necessarily the "best" time... but it is the most effective time to get gains. More importantly... if you want to have *cold* flexibility, then that's when to do it.... What I mean by "cold" is flexibility without having to warm up.

Also.. I actually wouldn't recommend keeping knees straight and bending forward as much as possible... People tend to force into it and the problem is that they force their back rather than the important parts....

The correct way to do this stretch is to keep your feet close together and legs straight... Bend forward at the hip, but keep your back straight. So if you can just barely feel your toes normally, with this one you'll be bent nearly straight out and your hands will be about a foot away from the floor.. except with the same intensity.

wexhurdler

ok i've been doing running for many years and only in the last year has my flexability gone from being worryingly bad to fairly impressive

secret is how you stretch.. the common thought on stretching is stretch for 30 seconds +... i cant stand it and it never worked for me..

hold the stretch for NO more than 6 seconds but crucially reapeat 6 times. to get the most out of your stretching routene get into a hot bath with 2 tablespoons of epsom salts for 10 mins before.

do this 3 or 4 times a week and you'd be surprised how much your flexability will improve in such a short space of time

helpmeplease

I gained flexibility with a combination of strectches and using 'flexibility in context', if you know what I mean.

I read up on proper techniques for cartwheels and forward somersaults. I started practising them a lot. Maybe 20 mins every day for a few months. 20 mins was the max that I could do before tiredness set in and technique faltered.

I also practiced star jumps. I jumped high into the air and kicked my legs out so that I could touch my toes with my hands in the air. Everyday I practiced touching my toes and now I can do it easily.

I can also touch my toes from a standing stretch. All it took was practice.

I also practiced kicking high. I can kick my right foot above my head now. I'm 6ft 3.
I can not do it so well with my left foot.

Be extremely careful with the somersaults and cartwheels, I nearly injured my back and neck when I landed wrong after doing a somersault.

Cartwheels are much easier and look impressive IMO. Less dangerous too.

I did tonnes of stretching though, before I started these exercises. They are achievable by the average guy, but it helps to be young-ish I suppose. And relatively fit.
I'm in my early 20s, my sport is basketball, I had no experience of gymnastics at all. Don't play b-ball anymore, but I think it is a great sport for developing athletic ability, flexibility and co-ordination.