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Flexibility

Let’s begin with a question.  If you had started when you were one year old, and worked at it all the time, do you think you could have been one of those Cirque to Soliel acrobats who can put their butt on their head?  I recently asked this question of a large group and about 30% of the people thought that yes, if they had worked at it, they could have been that flexible.

The truth is quite different.  The truth is that every human body is born with a potential range of flexibility.  It has to do with the stretchiness of the collagen and is not negotiable.  The range is set, but not necessarily all that narrow.  If you do nothing, you will be less flexible.  If you work at it, you will be more flexible – within your range.  One of the glories of the human race is that every one of the more than seven billion bodies on the planet is different.  There is actually a category of bodies with collagen so stretchy that their joints don’t hold together very well.  Then comes Cirque du Soliel dudes and dudettes, and then come the rest of us (and then up at the other end of the scale is Eric – you’ll meet him soon.)

Here’s the unfortunate part of this.  I hear people say “I can’t do a class because I’m not flexible”.  They might have tried at one point, but then looked over at someone else in the class, compared themselves and concluded that they were not good enough because they couldn’t touch the floor – or whatever. 

Which is simply the wrong way to look at it.  Any stretch you can think of has about seven billion different ways it could look.  Why seven billion?  Because there are about that many bodies on the planet and each and every one is different. 

Take a look at our Flexibility video and you will see what I mean.  Eric is one amazing dude.  I have never known anyone so tight as him.  The thing is, he works at his flexibility, and it has gotten better, which has helped a great deal in his everyday activities.  I want you to keep this in mind when you watch him because you might not believe me.

Also, I’ll give out a little secret here.  I know Lisa won’t mind.  She can’t really do that.  You’ll see what I mean.  We photoshopped it.