The right supplements to improve your flexibility
When you were a child, you probably never thought about flexibility because your body was naturally pliant. By the time you hit your 20’s, however, you begin to experience a loss in how flexible your joints and muscles feel. “As you age, joint movement becomes stiffer and less flexible because the amount of lubricating fluid inside your joints decreases and the cartilage becomes thinner.”
The school of thought used to be that becoming stiff and immobile in the senior years was inevitable due to these physical changes. But the more inflexible you get, the more prone you become to falls and other injuries.
Fortunately, there are a number of ways to fight back, from participating in a regular stretching routine to eating a healthy diet to taking supplements to improve flexibility. Some examples of the latter include glucosamine and chondroitin, vitamin C, zinc, and silica supplements.
Dangers of muscle tightness
As you age and your flexibility decreases, the results can be inconvenient. Not being able to bend over and put things in the dishwasher or squat down to pick up something you’ve dropped are a few of the ways that inflexibility can get in the way of your everyday life. However, inflexibility can cause much bigger problems in the form of chronic pain and injury.
When inflexible, muscles tire more quickly and can cause opposing muscle groups to work harder. “For example, the hamstrings play a role in stabilizing the knee and preventing ACL tears.”In addition, hamstring muscles are attached to the pelvis, and when they’re overly tight, they can cause poor posture as your body compensates by rounding out your lower back. The result? Chronic pain in your lower back can be mistaken for a “bad back” when the real cause is muscle tightness elsewhere.
Perhaps the biggest culprit when it comes to causing pain in other areas of the body is the group of muscles along the abdomen and upper thigh known as the hip flexor. Many adults have issues with these muscles because they spend much of the day sitting at a desk. “And when we sit, our hip flexors tighten and shorten, which causes a whole lot of trouble for our body — lower back pain, knee joint discomfort, imbalance of muscle strength, posture problems, and even a difference in leg length.”
Why a flexibility supplement may be your best bet
It’s important to make flexibility a lifelong goal in order to avoid unnecessary pain and stiffness as you grow older. Don’t love the idea of scented candles and New Age music? Not to worry. Yoga is not the only way to achieve better muscle flexibility. The point is to work on flexibility through whatever means you are most comfortable. And flexibility supplements can help.
As discussed earlier, aging causes your body to lose the lubrication that helps all of the moving parts to stay fluid. Silica, an essential mineral, helps keep the connective tissues in your body strong and supple. An excellent supplement option is Silica Plus, which is easily absorbed and contains a daily supply of this important element.
