My Biology and Anatomy classes are two of my favorite classes at school. In my Anatomy class, we cover the different systems in the body including the musculoskeletal system, which is of particular interest to me. I sat down with my Anatomy teacher to get her perspective on what athletes should do to stay strong and prevent injury. One of the areas she touched on was the importance of flexibility in athletes. Below is a brief summary of her background and some key points on flexibility and injury prevention.
Background: Ms. Lauer has been teaching for 19 years. She always had a passion for teaching, even as a young child she would play school. As a senior in high school, Ms. Lauer took an Anatomy and Physiology course that she really enjoyed and decided to go into nursing in college. She ended up volunteering in a hospital and realized she wasn’t fond of the hands-on hospital work, however, she still enjoyed the material. Because of this, she decided to become a Biology, and Anatomy and Physiology teacher. Ms. Lauer enjoys the energy and the engagement of students during different labs, dissections and activities and this is what drives her to be a teacher. The most challenging thing about teaching is trying to motivate each individual student because they all come from different backgrounds and learn in different ways. To face this challenge, Ms. Lauer always tries to divaricate what is done in the classroom because some students prefer hands-on work such as modelling while others prefer technical work similar to simulation.
What is flexibility? According to SportsMedToday.com, “Flexibility is the ability to move muscles and joints through a full normal range of motion (ROM). Flexibility helps performance, posture, promotes efficient movement, prevents incorrect body alignment, maintains appropriate muscle length and balance and also decreases injury risk.” In short, flexibility improves performance.
How flexibility is important for athletes: Maintaining flexibility through stretching allows muscles to stay strong, active and healthy, while increasing joint range of motion. When muscles aren’t stretched they become shorter and stiffer making them weaker. This weakness is what causes joint pain and strain muscles which can lead to muscle tears, joint damage, and other injuries. Stretching also improves posture, releases stress, increases blood circulation through stretched muscles, and decreases muscle soreness.
Some factors that affect flexibility: Below are five factors that affect an individual’s flexibility.
Joint Structure. The human body is made of different types of joints, some of which have a wider range of motion (ROM) than others. Example, the hinge joint ROM vs. the shoulder joint ROM.
Age: Flexibility decreases with age because as you get older, the amount of lubricating fluid in joints decrease and cartilage becomes thinner.
Gender. Females tend to be more flexible than males due to structural, hormonal and anatomical factors.
Connective Tissue. Deep connective tissue such as fascia and tendons can affect flexibility. Connective tissues lose water content over time and the collagen in ligaments and tendons can become thicker and less flexible.
Muscle bulk. It is difficult for athletes with very bulky muscles to perform certain stretches as the big muscle mass gets in the way of the exercise.
Improving Flexibility: There are two main types of stretching exercises that help improve flexibility:
Static: This involves holding a single position for at least 15-20 seconds. This should be performed after exercising or after muscles have been warmed up. Examples of static stretches include hamstring stretch, upper back stretch, shoulder stretch.
Dynamic: This type of stretching involves stretching movements during the warmup routine. Examples of dynamic stretching include lunge with a twist, high kicks, knee to chest.
Athletes should contact a sports medicine professional for evaluations and exercise prescriptions if they are unable to stretch or have limited ranges of movement.
Interesting Facts:
Why it is worse to get a cartilage injury than a bone injury: The vascularity of a tissue determines its ability to recover after an injury. Vascularity is the state of being supplied with blood vessels. Bone is extremely vascular, which means it has a great blood supply: because of this bone can efficiently get the nutrients it needs to heal and recover quickly. On the other hand, cartilage is relatively avascular, meaning it must rely on diffusion to get the nutrients it needs to fully recover. The avascularity of cartilage is why many people receive knee replacements, the cartilage of the knee wears out and it cannot effectively repair itself.
The implications of exercising in cold weather: There is a wet, mucous lining created by the epithelial tissue in the esophagus that traps bacteria and sweeps it away from the lungs when we breathe. In the winter, the cold, dry air dries out the wet lining in the esophagus allowing bacteria to more easily enter the airways and making sickness more likely. Therefore, athletes should avoid exercising in cold weather as the cold weather conditions make it more favorable for bacteria to thrive and increase the likelihood of illness.
https://www.stretchzone.com/blog-posts/why-is-flexibility-important-in-sports/
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