Functional Flexibility

Three Primary Principles of Functional Flexibility:

1. Individual and Task Dependent

2. Three-Dimensional

3. Mobility / Stability System

Functional flexibility is flexibility that allows us to function better. It allows one to perform tasks optimally and efficiently. The exact function is individual and task- dependent.

Therefore, general stretching techniques designed for muscle origin -insertion will not provide us with an optimal functional outcome. Instead, the practitioner must appreciate the function of the muscles during the task. In other words, what a muscle does is task driven not textbook driven. This doesn’t make the textbook authors wrong, their right relative to the position, motion in which they concluded function at that time. When the body changes angles, positions, etc., its function changes; this is why for flexibility to be functional the techniques must look like the intended function. Therefore, we need to understand how the muscles, fascia, tendons, ligaments, nerves, joint capsules, and joints are moving three-dimensionally during the exact task; not only how much motion but also how well. This is the principle of mobility-stability, the right amount of motion with the right amount of stability in all three planes specific to the individual (not textbook) and intended task (all

tasks require different levels of motion-stability).

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