Flexibility training is an important component of any exercise program. Being flexible helps to reduce your chance of injury when performing physical activities when working, doing chores around the house, or participating in sports. Working on your flexibility is so important because without flexibilty your joints will not move properly through their full range of motion, leading to other muscles trying to do the job that the tight or inflexible muscle is trying to do. These muscular imbalances lead your body down the wrong path when they force other muscles to compensate for the tight ones. For example: If your calf muscle is too tight or inflexible, other leg muscles will force the knees to move outward or inward (instead of bending straight over the 2nd toe) when for example you squat down to pick something up off the floor. As the improper or compensated movements occur many times over the course of time, other parts of your body get out of alignment, which eventually causes pain or injury.
So the bottom line is, always include some flexibility training in the warm up and cool down periods of your workout.
Flexibility training is an important component of any exercise
program. Being flexible helps to reduce your chance of injury
when performing physical activities when working, doing chores
around the house, or participating in...
More
Dr. Mehmet Oz answered:Flexibility—that is, lengthening your muscles and giving them the ability to adapt to all kinds of situations—is important in the big bone picture. Stretching won't do anything to the physiology of your bones per se, but it will give you the ability to maneuver yourself during a fall or get yourself up after a fall. Oftentimes, people have the strength to get up after falling, but they don't have the flexibility to twist, turn, and wiggle their bodies when they're under chairs or behind toilets. (Only one-third of people with back fractures know they have them; stretch and strengthen your muscles for this reason as well.)
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Bruce Johnson - NASM Elite Trainer answered:Flexibility training is an important component of any exercise program. Being flexible helps to reduce your chance of injury when performing physical activities when working, doing chores around the house, or participating in sports. Working on your flexibility is so important because without flexibilty your joints will not move properly through their full range of motion, leading to other muscles trying to do the job that the tight or inflexible muscle is trying to do. These muscular imbalances lead your body down the wrong path when they force other muscles to compensate for the tight ones. For example: If your calf muscle is too tight or inflexible, other leg muscles will force the knees to move outward or inward (instead of bending straight over the 2nd toe) when for example you squat down to pick something up off the floor. As the improper or compensated movements occur many times over the course of time, other parts of your body get out of alignment, which eventually causes pain or injury.
