How do you fight the old?

[dazlittle]

If this were true you would expect lifters to have excellent flexibility compared to other athletes. It's the opposite, the average gym bro is an absolute mess. It also flies in the face of a vast body of anecdotal evidence that people move and perform better when they add flexibility and mobility work to their regimens.

I agree that using full ROM is great for flexibility too like in your rdl example but I'm skeptical of what you are saying about stretching not permanently improving flexibility. The other point is that you would perform stretches in ROMs that lifting would never hit.

I found this interesting on the subject of stretching and flexibility

Muscle tissue

During a stretch, the muscle fibers and tendons (which attach the muscles to the bones) elongate, said Markus Tilp, a sports scientist and a biomechanist at the University of Graz, in Austria.

However, making a habit of stretching will not create a sustained lengthening of the muscle or fibers. Muscle tissue attaches at fixed points in the bone, so the entire muscle complex can't get permanently longer. And if one likens muscle tissue to a rubber band, it would not be a good thing for the muscle to get permanently stretched out, as that would mean a decrease in its elasticity, said Mitchell, who wrote her master's thesis on the science of stretch.

When animals are placed in casts that keep their muscles extended for a long time, their bodies do add additional sarcomeres, or the basic subunits of muscle fibers, but their muscles return to their original shape soon after the animal is removed from those constraints. And in those studies, it's not clear that the lengthened muscles improved the animal's flexibility.

In a June 2014 study in the journal Clinical Biomechanics, Tilp and colleague Andreas Konrad found no differences in people's muscles and tendons after six weeks of a static-stretching regimen.

So, if muscle fiber doesn't get longer as a result of stretching, why does stretching seem to increase people's flexibility?

Nervous system in control

The nervous system is the master conductor determining how far a person can stretch, said Brooke Thomas, a yoga instructor who discussed the science of stretching in a blog post on Breakingmuscle.com.

Nerve endings are dispersed throughout the muscle and tendon, and if a stretch doesn't feel safe for the muscle, those nerves will fire, registering pain and resistance, Thomas told Live Science.

These nerves "will say 'you better stop stretching, because if you stretch further, the muscle will maybe get damaged,'" Tilp told Live Science.

That's why a person under anesthesia, whose nerves are quieted, can be stretched through a full range of motion with no resistance. And healthy babies are born able to do the splits, because they haven't developed a blueprint for ranges of motion that feel unsafe, Mitchell said.

There's no doubt that Yoga practitioners who do triangle poses or splits for years will gradually be able to deepen their stretch. But that's because those repeated poses are retraining the nervous system to be quiet at deeper levels of stretch, a process known as stretch tolerance, Tilp said.

"You're not feeling this pain anymore, and that makes it possible for you to get into a deeper position with an even more flexed joint," TIlp said.

[TheResistance]

I think a lot of that is down to imbalanced training - the usual bro habit of way more benching than pulling, lots of leg press, no posterior chain work.

The devil is in the detail - it has to be properly targetted to improve flexibility which can involve some isolation exercises which are not commonly seen in gyms. Also, athletic performance is very specific to the task in question so if we are talking about general performance improvements (as distinct from pure flexibility) then clearly they will be best seen from doing something specific to what you want to improve at.

First paragraph is pure speculation.

Second paragraph is largely incomprehensible. Tell us more about proper targetting via isolation exercises not commonly seen in gyms.

Stop reading garbage articles on useless studies. Your article questions whether stretching or mobility work is necessary at all. It also says stretching and strengthening has little effect on posture. Also says don't warm up for more than 5 minutes.

Why are you against fascia work? Did you read a study?

Stop making pronouncements on things you no nothing about eg Yoga.

[SuffolkPunch]

First paragraph is pure speculation.

Second paragraph is largely incomprehensible. Tell us more about proper targetting via isolation exercises not commonly seen in gyms.

Stop reading garbage articles on useless studies. Your article questions whether stretching or mobility work is necessary at all. It also says stretching and strengthening has little effect on posture. Also says don't warm up for more than 5 minutes.

Why are you against fascia work? Did you read a study?

Stop making pronouncements on things you no nothing about eg Yoga.

You didn't even read the article so how do you know it's garbage? There is a long list of references at the bottom - all peer reviewed articles which support the point of view. Are you going to refute all of them?

Another member asked me for my opinion and experience, I gave it which is the point of this forum rather than name calling and contradiction which is all you seem to specialise in.

I never said I was against stretching and gave good reasons why you might do it - again an opinion based on the views of multiple experts.

[Alexftmuk]

count your age backwards ?

[TheResistance]

You:

I don't think there is any need for stretching or any other type of special old person exercise. I just do resistance training.
.

[SuffolkPunch]

Me:

There are benefits of stretching - but these are usually not what people think they are....

You've got to read the stuff your objecting to otherwise nobody will take you seriously.

Please say something that would cast doubt on my methods to achieve a healthy mobile body without anything other resistance training because nothing you've said so far has done that.

[Aznav48]

I need to work in some agility or plyometrics or something on off days to loosen my 50yo body up.

Any suggestions? Anyone doing anything fun?

Truthfully? I started hanging out here. I started hanging out two years ago with FB's "Runner's World Streakers". No, not that kind. One of the best forum's for major encouragement no matter where you are on the scale (no pun intended). Last, depending on the workout, three Aleve.

[air2fakie]

I need to work in some agility or plyometrics or something on off days to loosen my 50yo body up.

Any suggestions? Anyone doing anything fun?

Snowboarding.

Pick something you find fun that moves your body in ways that complement your lifting, loosens up your joints, relieves some stress, and keeps your body and mind feeling a bit younger.

[Aznav48]

Started to take notes, then realized I'm 72...

[DustinTheHuss]

Just start exercising and take it one day at a time. Once you get in a habit, then you'll get back on track.