By Ian Andrew Smith

This is a direct excerpt from a very good book I bought on flexibility entitled “The Genius of Flexibility”, I highly recommend it!

The Physical Benefits of Stretching

Astounding physical and physiological changes result from developing greater flexibility. As your flexibility increases, you’ll experience more fluidity in your movements. Suddenly you are sitting up straighter, walking taller, feeling lighter, and becoming more youthful and childlike in your movements. Your power, strength, and endurance skyrocket. Your diet improves, future injuries don’t have a chance, and your general health is enhanced. You feel stronger, more resilient, and vigorous. You are mystified by your emerging physical prowess.

Flexibility turns your anger and hatred to love
As you engage in conflict with your own body while stretching, you are learning to transfer these skills when engaging in conflict with others and turning problems in relationships into deeper love. As the chronic discomfort in your body leaves, the anger about survival diminishes.

Flexibility wakes you up and shows you how to live in the present
As you remove habitual patterns of discomfort from your body, you find yourself waking up as if from a deep sleep. By focusing your attention on stretching, you find yourself living more in the present. Your physical instincts improve – survival instincts come to the fore, and you find yourself better able to set boundaries and limits with other people

Flexibility determines how well you move and improves your posture
Your flexibility absolutely determines what movements you are able to make and how fast, accurate, and powerful those movements can be. That box on the top shelf suddenly becomes more reachable. Your posture naturally becomes upright without any need for mental reminders to sit up strait or stop slouching. Your biomechanical efficiency has been upgraded.

Flexibility harnesses your strength, power, and endurance
The ability of any muscle to shorten is directly controlled by its ability to lengthen. By increasing your flexibility, your muscles are able to shorten and contract maximally, which translates into increased power, speed, and acceleration.

Flexibility relieves pain, prevents injury, and promotes comfortable living
Many chronic as well as acute myofascial pains are the direct result of muscle shortness. Increase the length of your muscles, watch your back, knee, elbow, and other pains disappear. Increases in flexibility and strength also help prevent future injuries.

Flexibility heals and overhauls your physiological health
A flexibility perk is that your internal health improves – and in very specific and predictable ways. These stretches have helped thousands of people make specific health improvements. With the information presented in this book, you can individualize your own stretching program based on your unique needs.

Flexibility results in an improved diet
No matter what diet you think is best for you, everyone who stretches regularly finds that their eating habits improve. Organic foods find their way onto your plate and suddenly become more attractive than anything else. Nutrient-rich foods replace empty foods.

Flexibility creates athletic prowess
It should be no surprise to you from what you have already read about athletes who have won gold medals at the Olympics (and who credit a big part of their success to resistance flexibility training) that flexibility is the foundation to all physical exercise. Strength, aerobic, and skill performance all depend on flexibility.

Flexibility teaches you to rest and handle stress and distress
When you know how to rest, you can build a better you because your body rebuilds itself during rest. Stretching teaches you how to embrace appropriate amounts of rest to remove undesirable stress and distress.

Flexibility makes you more youthful and solid
Everyone who stretches regularly gets younger and better looking. Not only will you move and feel like a person with a much younger body, but you’ll also have a new tool at your disposal to modify and adjust your body so those aches and pains from aging become less intrusive or even disappear. People who aren’t stretching are aging prematurely.

I typed that all myself, so you better enjoy!