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The Integrative Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) Prevention Program
Published in Mark C Houston, The Truth About Heart Disease, 2023
The ABCT exercise program emphasizes interval aerobic and anaerobic resistance movements. Proper warm-up and stretching before beginning every exercise session and cooling down and stretching again when finished are mandatory to avoid muscle, tendon, and ligament injuries while promoting the flexibility that is necessary for exercising.
Lifestyle and Diet
Published in Chuong Pham-Huy, Bruno Pham Huy, Food and Lifestyle in Health and Disease, 2022
Chuong Pham-Huy, Bruno Pham Huy
Stretching helps maintain flexibility. Flexibility exercises stretch the muscles and can help the body stay limber (73). When you are young, your muscles are stronger and more flexible than when you are old. Aging leads to a loss of flexibility in the muscles and tendons because muscles shorten and no longer function properly. That increases the risk for muscle cramps and pain, muscle damage, strains, joint pain, falling, and it also makes it tough to get through daily activities (73). Likewise, stretching the muscles routinely makes them longer and more flexible, which increases your range of motion and reduces pain and risk of injury. Aim for a program of stretching every day, or at least three or four times per week (73). Warm up your muscles first, with a few minutes of dynamic stretches such as marching in place or arm circles. Then perform static stretches (holding a stretch position for up to 60 seconds) for the calves, the hamstrings, hip flexors, quadriceps, and the muscles of the shoulders, neck, and lower back. However, do not practice these exercises excessively into the painful range – that tightens the muscle and is counterproductive (73). Consult a physical therapist to explain various excercises.
Physical Activity and Health
Published in James M. Rippe, Manual of Lifestyle Medicine, 2021
Flexibility is the ability of a joint to move through its whole range of motion. This is an important component of an overall comprehensive program for physical activity. Flexibility is particularly important in the aging population since lack of use and the aging process itself can lower this parameter. We at RLI typically recommend flexibility programs for all individuals who we see either in our clinic or in research trials.
Using an external focus of attention for gait retraining in runners: A case report
Published in Physiotherapy Theory and Practice, 2023
Sara Skammer, Justin Halvorson, James Becker
The initial examination revealed that all flexibility measures were within normative ranges and the only major difference between limbs was less hip internal rotation and more hip external rotation range of motion on the previously injured left leg (Table 1). The Thomas and Ely’s tests were both negative bilaterally, while Ober’s test was positive bilaterally. Muscle strength values were all within 1 standard deviation of the mean values from our laboratory’s database of 200 runners (Table 1). When evaluating the video of the participant running, it was noted that she displayed substantial hip adduction and medial heel whip during swing (Figure 2a). These were confirmed by biomechanical analysis, which showed abnormally high amounts of hip adduction during the stance phase and hip internal rotation during both the stance and swing phase (Table 2). These values are considered abnormally high and high based on both the laboratory database of runners and reports in the literature, which have targeted these measures in previous gait retraining studies (Noehren, Scholz, and Davis, 2011; Willy and Davis, 2013; Willy, Scholz, and Davis, 2012). Lastly, EMG analysis revealed a delayed onset of the gluteus medius muscle relative to heel strike, an issue that has been targeted for improvement in previous gait retraining studies (Willy and Davis, 2013).
Effects of the COVID-19 confinement period on hip strength, flexibility and muscle injury rate in professional soccer players
Published in The Physician and Sportsmedicine, 2023
Cigdem Demir, Burak Subasi, Gulcan Harput
Posterior chain flexibility is also negatively affected by home confinement. It decreased by 5.5% but reached the pre-confinement value after the players returned to play. There is limited evidence showing detraining effect on flexibility. Although, home exercise program of the players included lower extremity flexibility exercise, the posterior chain flexibility seemed to decrease. A reduced hamstring flexibility can be a risk factor for acute hamstring injuries in professional soccer players [25] and muscle damage after eccentric exercises [26]. Soccer players have reduced hamstring flexibility when compared to recreational athletes which may make them more susceptible to hamstring injuries [27]. Therefore, it is important to measure flexibility regularly especially after a period of detraining such as COVID-19 confinement.
Diagnostic performance of the Strength and Pain Assessment (SPA) score for non-contact muscle injury screening in male soccer players
Published in The Physician and Sportsmedicine, 2021
Luca Semperboni, Chiara Vignati, Maria Giulia Ballatore, Anita Tabacco, Chiara Busso, Marco A. Minetto
Another assessment that would not imply relevant increases of the assessment duration and complexity, but could be useful to improve the SPA score reliability and/or accuracy is represented by the active range of motion assessment. Consistently, several previous studies showed that flexibility is an important physical characteristic in athletes in terms of performance and injury prevention [39] and that active range of motion deficit is an accurate measurement grading the injury severity and predicting injury recovery time [40]. Moreover, normative values of range of motion are available and may assist in better evaluating players presenting with muscle injuries [39]. Future studies are therefore required to assess the accuracy and reliability of a modified version of the SPA score incorporating the range of motion assessment.