It’s time to let the myth of the muscle-bound bodybuilder die. While there’s certainly an element of truth, you shouldn’t worry about strength training limiting your flexibility. Quite the opposite, in fact.
A systematic review and meta-analysis of nearly a dozen academic papers, totaling over 400 participants, have shown that lifting weights works just as well for improving flexibility as stretching.
We’re going to break down the details of the study and give you some actionable advice for getting swole and flexy — without having to roll around on an exercise mat for an hour a day.
The paper was originally published in 2021 in the journal and is titled “Strength Training vs. Stretching for Improving Range of Motion: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis”, (1) authored by Afonso & colleagues.
Afonso et al. collected existing studies that met the following eligibility criteria:
They collected 11 separate studies observing 452 participants in total. After analyzing the data, the authors concluded, “Strength training and stretching were not different in their effects on range of motion.”
Before we draw our conclusions and suggest how you can action this information, let’s glance at some of the study’s limitations. Per the authors themselves, this meta-analysis suffered from:
Noteworthy: Many studies involve mostly male participants, especially if those experiments concern resistance training protocols. However, on average, women tend to be more flexible than men, which may have colored the collective data. (2)
Exercising a muscle with weights does not necessarily make that tissue “tighter.” Eccentric exercise, or lengthening a muscle against resistance, is physiologically similar to when you hold a long stretch, while the extra load encourages tissue remodeling and long-term adaptations.
In short, performing free weight or machine exercises with weight stretches your musclestoo.
Afonso & colleagues also remarked that strength training “had a few advantages in relation to stretching” — particularly with respect to saving time in the gym. You can kill two birds with one stone by performing certain compound exercises that naturally stretch the tissues around your major joints.
We love exercises that accomplish more than one thing at a time, such as increasing strength while building muscle and increasing flexibility. Here are a handful of our favorite moves that should help improve your mobility:
It’s important to remember that almost any exercise — bodyweight or otherwise — can help you with your flexibility. We like these moves because they’re accessible and well-suited to progressive overload, the driving mechanism behind long-term progress.
All told, don’t sleep on strength training. Hitting the weights has long been the province of muscle-minded bodybuilders, and there’s no better way to get big and strong than working with the barbell.
But the benefits of lifting weights don’t stop there. Don’t be afraid to hit the iron; with proper technique, you should be more flexible in no time.
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