You squat to build lower body strength and get lean, firm thighs and powerful glutes, right? You might also wonder if you’re getting other benefits when you squat. Don’t worry! You are. For one, squatting is a functional exercise that helps you conduct the day-to-day movements you do safer and more efficiently. But can squatting also increase flexibility? Being flexible has many benefits. When you’re flexible, your joints have a fuller range of motion, and you’ll be more functional both in everyday life and when you play sports.
What is Flexibility?
Flexibility is the range of motion of a joint. A more flexible joint has a less restricted range of motion and is less stiff and more fluid in its movements. Factors like injuries, aging, and genetics affect how flexible you are. Muscles, tendons, and ligaments become less elastic with age, so it’s not surprising that aging is a factor. In addition, if you have arthritis, you might have limited flexibility because your joints are stiff, and you feel pain when you move.
Fortunately, flexibility isn’t like eyesight, which gets worse with age regardless of lifestyle. Flexibility declines because of inactivity and not stretching, so muscles and tendons get shorter and stiffer. When you sit too long, your hip flexors shorten, creating muscle imbalances that increase the risk of back pain. That’s why flexibility training should be part of a well-balanced fitness training program. The good news is that even simple exercises like the squat can make you more flexible.
Doing a Quality Squat Requires Flexibility
You need some flexibility to do a quality squat. Flexibility and lack of ankle and hip mobility are factors that limit how low you can descend into a squat. If your joints aren’t flexible, you’ll have a limited range of motion when you squat and won’t achieve as much depth. So, a certain degree of flexibility is a prerequisite for doing a quality squat. But can squatting help you become more flexible?
Most people do stretching exercises to become more flexible, but squatting can also improve flexibility. When you’re new to the squat exercise, you may be limited in how deep you can go, but as you challenge yourself to descend low into a squat, you also improve your mobility and flexibility. Mobility is a product of strength and flexibility, and excellent mobility is what makes it possible to do a deeper squat. Some people can squat until their glutes touch the floor, but they’ve usually built up the ability to do that over time. It didn’t happen overnight.
Contrary to widely held belief, strength training and squatting do not make your muscles tight and less flexible. Squatting and gradually increasing how low you go will enhance your flexibility and mobility. For the most benefits, take your squat through their full range of motion, as you gradually increase depth, and use proper form. The greater your range of motion, the more you’ll build flexibility.
Using impeccable form is especially important for squats since squats carry a higher risk of injury than many other strength training exercises, and they’re also challenging to do. This doesn’t mean squats should take the place of stretching at the end of a workout, but you’re doing more than building strength when you squat.
One of the best squat variations for increasing flexibility is the Bulgarian split squat since it stretches the hip flexor of your rear leg when you descend. Add this squat to your routine to boost your flexibility.
Other Types of Exercise that Improve Flexibility
Beyond stretches, there are other types of workouts that increase flexibility. Some examples include:
Yoga
The practice of yoga teaches you how to breathe and be more mindful, but also places your body in positions that stretch your muscles beyond their comfort zones. The more often you do this, the more your muscles will tolerate being lengthened or stretched, and the more flexible you’ll become. Yoga has the added benefit of relaxing your mind.
Pilates
Exercises like Pilates improve joint mobility and flexibility by focusing on slow, controlled movements. In addition to isometric poses and controlled breathing exercises, Pilate’s workouts emphasize building core strength. It’s a core-centric strategy that will help you become more flexible.
Tai Chi
Tai Chi is a martial art workout that uses fluid motions that also improve balance and flexibility. Tai Chi is an effective exercise modality for older people, as it improves joint range of motion while improving balance. Studies show Tai Chi lowers the risk of falls in older adults.
Don’t Forget about Stretching
Stretching is also necessary to maintain flexibility. Although stretching doesn’t permanently lengthen a muscle, it makes that muscle more tolerant of stretch. Your nervous system decides how far you can stretch a muscle. If you take the stretch too far, muscle spindles, stretch detectors come into play and tell the muscle to stop lengthening so the muscle doesn’t overstretch.
When you stretch your muscles regularly, your nervous system becomes more tolerant of a muscle lengthening, and you can stretch further without your muscle spindles sounding the alarm. When you stretch regularly, your body becomes more tolerant of greater muscle lengthening, which allows you to be more flexible.
The Bottom Line
Contrary to popular belief, strength training and performing squats don’t increase muscle tightness, quite the contrary. Squatting and gradually increasing the depth to which you squat will increase your flexibility and mobility. But you should still do other exercises to improve flexibility, such as Tai Chi, Pilates, or yoga.
Get back to basics and make sure you’re doing dynamic stretches before a workout, and static stretches once a workout is over. Staying physically active and a combination of stretching and functional movements, like squats, is the best way to stay limber, mobile, and flexible.
References:
- “Flexibility | Sports Medicine | UC Davis Health.” health.ucdavis.edu/sportsmedicine/resources/flexibility_descriprion.html.
- “Benefits of flexibility exercises – Harvard Health.” 16 Apr. 2015, health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/benefits-of-flexibility-exercises.
- “Best exercise for balance: Tai chi – Harvard Health.” 06 Dec. 2014, health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/best-exercise-for-balance-tai-chi.
- “Yoga to Increase Flexibility: 8 Easy Poses for Beginners.” 24 Sept. 2021, sweatguy.com/yoga-to-increase-flexibility-for-beginners/.
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