I often recommend these two stretches for people with hamstring and calf muscle tightness.

These stretches should be held for at least 30 seconds, and you should feel a strong stretch in the muscles in the back of your legs through the duration. No pain should occur with stretching. The stretches should be repeated at least four times, and they should be done daily as part of a balanced exercise program.

Notice the good posture demonstrated in the illustrations. Maintaining normal postural curves when engaging in muscle stretching exercises is essential for effective stretching and for the protection of your spine.

A common problem associated with a sedentary life style is a forward-head posture.

This leads to a stiff middle back and muscle tightness in the back of the legs. Over time these problems can lead to serious spine, shoulder, and knee pain.

A sedentary life style is difficult to change, and for many people, it can’t be avoided. If that’s the case, I’ve found that specific flexibility and stretching exercises targeting joint and muscle stiffness problems can be invaluable to restoring pain-free function and better health.

Next time I’ll describe specific exercises that will target the negative effects of a forward-head posture, as well as exercises to address problems with middle-back stiffness and  tightness in the hips and legs. Stay Tuned.

The good news is you can save yourself from the ravages of prolonged sitting by taking some simple actions, such as standing up periodically during the day. I recommend setting a timer and standing up every 20 minutes. Set up your desk so you’re able to move around more. Do not fall asleep sitting. And when driving, stop often and get out of your car and walk around. Be mindful of what sitting is doing to you and your health and take actions to avoid it.

To learn more about the many other negative health effects of too much sitting, see this article in the Wall Street Journal titled “Watching TV Linked to Higher Risk of Death,” which I linked to in this posting back in January.

Maybe you’ve seen these stretches. Maybe some of them have been recommended to you, and perhaps you even tried them and they hurt so you stopped. Well, I recommend that you don’t do them. These stretches can hurt your joints, screw up your posture, and injure your back and neck.

These are common stretches that many young people grow up learning. This is unfortunate, because these stretches are often bad for people, especially those of us over the age of 40.

What have your experiences been like with these stretches? If you want to discuss specific stretches, feel free to let me know.

People who try to relieve neck and back pain by doing lots of stretching often end up hurting themselves more. Stretching your neck or back a lot after periods of prolonged sitting can contribute to increased neck and back pain. Too much yoga stretching can also be a problem.

Here is an example of a stretching exercise that is often prescribed for back pain. I consider this to be a bad stretch for most people because it can cause disc irritation and loss of spine stability, especially if you already have problems with your lumbar spine discs.

If you are doing or are considering doing joint and muscle stretching, avoid stretching beyond more than a reasonable range of motion. If you are doing lots of stretching and your joints are hurting a lot, the stretching may be causing the joint pain problem.

Joint motion is almost always good. Too much stretching is not. Lots of mobility does not always translate into better health and function. I will illustrate more “bad stretches” and lots of good ones too over the next few weeks.

My opinion is that flexibility and stretching exercises should be a part of a balanced exercise program. You should do less strenuous stretching if your joints and muscles tend to be loose—perhaps 20 minutes three days per week. You should do more if your joints and muscles tend to be tight or stiff. Perhaps 20 to 30 minutes daily.

Most of us know from experience if we are loose or tight. Men tend to be tighter than women, and as we age, we often become tighter. Generally, if stretching is easy for you, you probably have looser joints. If stretching takes a big effort, you probably have tight joints.

To help determine if you are loose or tight, try positioning yourself in these two illustrated positions:

Is maintaining these positions a challenge for you? If so, you may need to do more flexibility exercises.

Knowing how tight you are is a first step in achieving flexibility. There are many possible causes of joint stiffness and loss of mobility, and joint stiffness can vary a lot between different joints and different parts of your body. More on what you need to know about flexibility exercises next time.

Flexibility and stretching exercises improve the quality and quantity of joint motion. They make reaching and bending easier. They make walking and running easier. Joints move much easier and may last longer as a result of doing flexibility exercises. Problems like plantar fasciitis, muscle strains, and frozen shoulder syndrome may be prevented by doing flexibility exercises. Flexibility exercises also play a part in improving balance.

Flexibility exercises don’t improve endurance (aerobic exercises improve endurance) and they don’t improve strength (resistance/strengthening exercises improve strength).

So, if you are weak, don’t expect flexibility exercises to help you. But if your legs are stiff and tight, in all likelihood you would greatly benefit from doing flexibility exercises.

I remember feeling frustrated in my seventh grade gym class when we did group toe touching exercises. As I bent over to touch my feet while keeping my knees straight, my hands would stop 18 inches short, while the guy next to me had his palms flat on the floor. It was hard on my self esteem.

Loss of normal flexibility is something most of us understand but don’t do enough about. Too much flexibility can also be a problem, which is a concept that is poorly understood by most people.

Many patients I see have watched their joints get stiffer with age. Often this increasing stiffness is blamed on getting old or on genetics. The fact is that knowing some basic things about normal flexibility and engaging in simple exercises can result in improved flexibility, less joint pain, and better function.

Our joints are designed to move though a limited range of motion. Joint range of motion varies in different individuals but normal limits of motion exist. A joint that moves too much may be described as loose or hypermobile. A joint that moves too little is tight or hypomobile. Loose or tight joints can cause problems.

A person has normal flexibility when joint range of motion is normal. Our goal with flexibility exercising is to achieve a close-to-normal range of motion in most of our joints.

Next time, I will discuss what I consider to be the eight things you need to know to achieve normal flexibility. I will then describe six exercises that will help you achieve normal flexibility. Finally, I will provide strategies to incorporate these exercises into your exercise program. Stay tuned.

I observed a few 5- or 6-year-olds taking big steps, almost running, to keep up with their parents, and I watched seniors, some walking, some joggings, and some walking with walkers, almost all taking small mini steps as they moved along. The day before, I observed a group of seniors running on the Embarcardo with one thing in common: they were running stiff and taking “baby steps.” It seems the older one gets, the smaller the steps they take. These mini steps are associated with tight joints and stiff muscles. They contribute to poor balance, and they increase the chances of falling. Children have the advantage of natural flexibility associated with their young age, but this does not mean you have to get real stiff as you get older. 

The fact is, engaging in the right exercises can go a long way toward improve flexibility and joint mobility. These exercises are not real hard to do, they are not time consuming, and they do not cause pain. They can do wonders for mobility, and they can improve health too.  

Over the next several weeks, I will discuss how to (and how not to) do flexibility exercises. I will discuss how to know which exercises you need and which ones you do not need. And I will help you incorporate these exercises into your exercise program.

Stay Tuned.

Think about a tennis player serving a tennis ball. One part of his body, the trunk, must be a stabilizing force while the other part of his body, his arm and hand, requires motion. Both stability and motion are required to make a serve. If the tennis player only has arm motion and no stabilizing strength in his trunk, he would fall down if he attempted a serve. You cannot have one without the other. Good goes with bad, hot with cold, and stability with motion.

Check out my sidebar article here about how spine stability is essential for good balance and overall function. And for more information about spine stability, links to a few of those postings I cited above are here, here, here, and here.