Goal: Touch your toes
How getting stronger helps you touch your toes
Dr Nicola Tik
It can seem strange that strength work would help you reach further. Surely getting stronger makes muscles tighter? Research suggests the opposite. Strength exercises that move through a full range can improve flexibility about as much as stretching does, and they do it partly in a different way.
Your muscles are made of long bundles of fibres. When you lower your body slowly under control, like easing down into a fold, those bundles work while they lengthen. Research suggests that this kind of training can make the bundles slightly longer over time, as the muscle adds tiny units along its length.
Stretching on its own seems to change muscle length only a little. Most of the early gains from stretching come from your body getting more comfortable with the stretch. So strength work offers a second route to more range, alongside the one you’re already using.
There’s a second reason too. Your body tends to let you further into positions it feels strong and steady in. Building strength through your full range gives it that confidence, so the end of a stretch feels less like a limit.
Large reviews of research have found that strength training improves range of motion about as much as stretching. People who were less active at the start often saw the biggest improvements. The slow lowering part of each movement seems to be especially useful for the backs of your legs.
The video includes strength moves that work through a full range. The key detail is to take your time on the way down. Lowering slowly and with control, rather than dropping into position, is where much of the change seems to happen. The same goes for everyday life. Bending slowly to pick something up is a small piece of practice too.