Flexibility Training

Flexibility is an important attribute for a body to have and helps us make the most of our abilities. Ignore stretches and warm ups at your peril.

By learning how to stretch your muscles, helps improve your posture and as you get older keeps you mobile.

• Pilates
• Yoga
• Stretching
• Tai Chi
  

Pilates is a complex form of exercise that is all about stretching and strengthening your body. This style of exercise provides a great workout for your core muscles, keeping you looking toned.

This exercise was originally created for injured people and the movements teach you correct body posture so that your movement is both graceful and works out core muscle groups, such as, abs, back, thighs etc.

The positive points of this exercise (and what makes it great for women) is that it improves posture without building big muscles. The only real downside is that it takes a lot of time to learn and to go to lessons can be expensive.

The practice of Yoga was created around 5000 years ago in India, this exercise is to promote the coming together of mind, body and spirit. This exercise requires a mix of strength, flexibility but mostly body awareness. There are many different styles of yoga, Hatha is the most common, Astanga is a more challenging workout.

The upside to yoga just like pilates is that it gives you a core body workout without causing any real strain. If you aren't flexible then yoga is the thing for you. The downside to Yoga is that its tricky to achieve some of the positions at first.

Stretching is something that should be done before any sort of exercise, strenuous or not, however most people tend to ditch it and get straight into a workout.

Stretching is done by slowly moving into a stretch position and holding it until the tingling sensation dies away and by breathing in and out increases the stretch further.

The upside to this exercise is that it can be done anywhere and it helps you to become more supple. There isn't really a downside to stretching at all, so make sure you do it.

Very much like Yoga and Pilates, Tai Chi is about soft and slow movements, but unlike Pilates and Yoga they are based on Martial Arts movements. Its about improving flexibility through slow precise movements that require strength.

The positive points to this exercise are that it is very relaxing and the risk of injury is very low. The downside to this exercise is that it requires knowledge to do it correctly.