At What Average Age Does Flexibility Start to Diminish for Most People?
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As we age, we inevitably face specific physical challenges. One of the most common—and least appreciated—is the gradual loss of flexibility. Perhaps you’ve noticed that you can’t reach your toes as quickly as you could a few years ago. Or maybe your workout regimen is starting to feel stiffer and more rigid. Incorporating flexibility exercises into your routine can help counteract this decline, improving mobility and reducing stiffness. At what average age does flexibility begin to diminish for most people? This article will answer that question and provide valuable insights to help you maintain mobility, prevent stiffness, and stay active for as long as possible.
Pliability’s mobility app can help you achieve these objectives. With Pliability’s app, you can learn when flexibility typically starts to decline so you can take proactive steps to maintain mobility and prevent stiffness.
How Does Age Affect Flexibility?
Flexibility is an important consideration at any age, but its significance grows with the increase in the number of years. Research has consistently shown that flexibility decreases with age. Interestingly, this gradual age-related loss of flexibility occurs with little difference between the sexes. But why does this age-related decline in flexibility happen?
Muscles and tendons exhibit a remarkable capacity for stretch and recovery during our youth. This property allows for a wide range of motion and the swift, graceful movements often taken for granted. However, as we advance in years, these tissues transform, becoming stiffer and less forgiving.
The reason is twofold:
- The natural decrease in physical activity accompanying aging reduces muscle mass and strength, a phenomenon known as sarcopenia.
- The biochemical composition of our muscles and tendons changes with a decrease in elastin, the protein responsible for the elasticity of these tissues.
The Relationship Between Aging, Muscle Stiffness, and the Extracellular Matrix
This combination of reduced physical activity and biochemical alteration impacts our flexibility by increasing passive stiffness, rendering movements that were once effortless now fraught with difficulty.
The increase in passive muscle stiffness is a subject of considerable debate and inquiry. It cannot be divorced from the complex interactions between the mechanical properties inherent within muscle fibres and the extracellular matrix (ECM) that cradles them.
The Extracellular Matrix and Flexibility
The ECM IS a dynamic entity, secreted by the cells themselves, consisting mainly of proteoglycans and fibrous proteins, with collagen taking the lead in abundance. However, understanding the ECM solely in terms of its components would mean missing the forest for the trees.
It's the structural support, yes, but it's also the origin of biochemical and mechanical cues that guide and regulate the behaviours of cells. The ECM experiences tensional, compressive, and shear forces.
The Role of the Extracellular Matrix in Muscle Structure and Function
These physical stresses are translated into biochemical signals through a process known as mechanotransduction. This allows cells to remodel their surrounding matrix, striving to maintain structural integrity, also known as tensional homeostasis.
In skeletal muscle, the ECM is a complex scaffold composed of the endomysium, perimysium, and epimysium. It provides structural support that delicately balances the forces governing our physical form. The endomysium gently enfolds each muscle fibre, the perimysium groups these fibres into bundles or fascicles, and the epimysium encapsulates the entire muscle belly. These components are pivotal in the overall stiffness of muscle.
What Research Says About Flexibility Decline with Age
In the pursuit of empirical clarity, researchers have conducted ex vivo studies of isolated muscles in rodents. These investigations revealed a steeper incline in the length-tension curves of muscles in older animals compared to their younger counterparts. These findings confirm the age-dependent escalation of stiffness in mammals.
The Role of The ECM Assumes Crucial Importance
Its mechanical properties are a tangible facet of our biological reality that directly influences muscle mechanics, both in states of rest and during the dynamic act of contraction. This fact is particularly evident when we consider the lateral transmission of fibre forces to the tendons, a phenomenon that is as fascinating as it is essential.
The degradation of this ability, a subtle yet significant shift, may illuminate why muscle force wanes more precipitously than muscle mass as we age. Here:
- Multi-scale finite elements modelling: a computational tool that breaks down a large, often complex problem into smaller
- More manageable sub-problems: becomes an indispensable tool for biomechanics researchers.
How Age Affects Muscle Properties and Flexibility
The methodology of examining skinned muscle fibres strips away the mechanical influence of extracellular connective tissue, offering a purer glimpse into the muscle's inherent properties.
This approach reveals a striking contrast:
“When researchers liberate muscle fibres from the ECM, the elastic modulus of a single fibre pales in comparison to that of a fibre bundle ensconced in the ECM, with the latter being four times as stiff, assuming the ECM occupies just 5% of the bundle's cross-sectional area.”
Research into ageing tibialis anterior fibres found that the passage of time does not alter their passive mechanical attributes. Instead, alterations in the ECM's properties solely caused the increased stiffness. This narrative finds its counterpoint in comparing single muscle fibres of the vastus lateralis in elderly subjects to those of their younger counterparts.
Findings from this research painted a different picture:
“The elderly fibres not only bore a greater passive force but also unveiled a shift towards more pronounced viscoelastic properties, suggesting that the very mechanics of the muscle fibres themselves transform with age, becoming the primary architects of increased muscle stiffness.”
What Can Be Done to Maintain Flexibility?
When we delve deeper and examine the passive mechanical properties inherent to single fibres and fibre bundles of both young and elderly subjects at any sarcomere length, the resting passive tension is conspicuously higher in the fibre bundles of older people when compared to younger individuals.
This age-related disparity in passive tension vanishes when the lens narrows to focus on single fibres in isolation. There is no discernible difference, suggesting that the fibres may not be the primary agents of change.
This leads us to a fascinating conclusion:
The divergence between the young and the elderly in mechanical stiffness can largely be attributed to the ECM that interlaces the fibres within a bundle.
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At What Average Age Does Flexibility Start to Diminish for Most People?
There isn’t a certain age when we wake up and realize that our flexibility has “officially declined.” But it is true that as we age, our flexibility declines, which affects our mobility and functional ability. In our 20s, we pop in for a HIIT class and sneak out before the cool down. We sit all day at work with few breaks and never feel any ill effects.
We enter our 30s, and suddenly, these habits leave us with a sore back, neck pain, and muscle tightness.
- Why does it seem like stretching becomes a necessity once you hit 30?
- Is it three decades of wear and tear catching up with us?
- Is something else going on?
“Age-related changes definitely do occur yearly, but more distinctly with different decades,” Karena Wu, physical therapist and owner of ActiveCare Physical Therapy in New York City and India. “When we are younger, we have more collagen and elastin that keeps our bodies firm, more resilient and with a better ability to rebound. With age, comes increased wear and tear.”
Wu says a change occurs physiologically, called sarcopenia, when you age 30 or older. “That means that your muscle tissue starts to diminish due to aging … We inherently get more weak and lose our stamina so our bodies have to work harder to maintain the base level of fitness and to perform exercises and we feel the effects of exercises more.”
This change can result in increased pain and risk of injury. In her private practice, Wu said that she sees a lot of sports injuries among this age group. “Especially in the low back, shoulders and knees and also postural-related issues from being more sedentary or from working out without appropriate stretching or cooling down,” she added.
Why Stretching is so Important as We Age
Are we doomed to a less flexible, more painful existence once we enter our 30s? Thankfully, no. But it means we must incorporate proper stretching and mobility work into our routine. “Mobility exercises and stability exercises are key,” said Wu. “Making sure the bones move appropriately with the support of the deep stabilizer muscles will help alleviate the aches and pain in our 30s when we activate our global muscles to function and move.”
Global muscles are the large muscles responsible for movement, like the rectus abdominis, obliques, and quadriceps.
Why is Stretching So Important?
“Flexibility or stretching is important because it helps maintain homeostasis in the muscle/tendon tissues,” Wu explained. “Muscles have an optimal resting level where the muscle tissue is not too short or not too long. If you work out too much, you can shorten your tissues. If you are too sedentary with poor posture, you can shorten some tissues and lengthen the opposite tissues. In both extreme ends of the spectrum, you make your muscle tissues work too hard and they become less effective for movement. So, if you do not stretch, you can add more compression into the joints and potentially cause injury if you overstretch the muscle during an activity.”
Stretching is an import activity regardless of age, but the type of stretching we need shifts as we age. “Static stretches are important for lengthening the tissue. Dynamic stretches are important for lengthening and warming up the tissue for activity.” said Wu. “Older people can complain of more stiffness and tightness so dynamically moving gets the blood pumping into the area to reduce the discomfort from stretching a muscle 'cold.'”
What are Some Stretches for Flexibility?
Here are a few stretches that Wu recommended. They will help you show a little TLC to areas of the body that tighten up as we age, like:
- Hips
- Calves
- Back
1. Downward Dog to Upward Dog
This is a good example of a dynamic stretch. “I am a huge fan of the downward dog to upward dog stretch as it stretches the entire posterior and then anterior chain,” said Wu. “It also elongates the spine and is a good shoulder and arm strengthening exercise all in one.”
2. Calf Stretch
You may not think the calf is a critical area of the body to focus your efforts on, but “the calf is used daily when we are on our feet walking around and is also the only muscle during quiet standing that is still active (still contracting so we don't fall flat on our face!),” said Wu.
She recommended the runner's stretch, which targets the more superficial calf muscle. Place both hands on the wall, standing in a forward lunge position with toes pointing forward. Shift the weight forward onto the front leg, bending the knee, and keep the back leg straight, heel down. Then, switch sides.
3. Low Lunge
The lunge gives you an additional calf stretch and stretches the hip flexors. “The hip flexor is the muscle on the front of the hip that can get very short and tight from sitting and affect how the low back and hip muscles function,” said Wu.
4. Figure Four
Another stretch for the hips, Wu said the figure four stretch should be felt in the back of the buttock and can be done standing or sitting.
5. Side Bends
“Latissimus dorsi stretches (side-bending the trunk) are excellent as they affect the low back, shoulders, and even ribs for thoracic mobility and breathing!” Wu said. Dynamic stretching (moving through the stretches versus holding them) is a great way to warm up before a workout.
If you don't have any extra time to add stretching to your day, start with just five minutes. Adding a short stretch to your morning routine can help get your blood flowing before you start your day, or you can spend five minutes stretching at night to wind down before bed.
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