By Tracy Moran, CYT

“I’m not flexible enough to do yoga!”

It’s a typical lament of the would-be yogi, and quite a catch-22: Because of inflexibility, people avoid practicing hatha yoga, yet this ancient practice is the very thing that can allow muscles and joints to move through their full range.

A regular asana practice has many physical benefits, including strength, balance and flexibility. Yet I’ve never heard anyone say, “I have such terrible balance I could never do yoga.” Why the fascination with flexibility?

Muscle and joint tightness and limited range of motion can affect any one at any age – even young people.

“The average individual can no longer touch the floor with his fingertips when his knees are straight, even at the age of twenty,” writes Swami Vishnu-devananda in his book The Complete Illustrated Book of Yoga. “This type of ligamentous stiffening can be kept at a minimum through yogic exercises, and the body will be as pliable as a child’s, even at the age of eighty.”

That’s quite a claim, and may be something of an exaggeration. While there are some octogenarians with the flexibility of a youngster, they stand out because of their rarity.

Yet such hype doesn’t diminish the fact that the practice of hatha yoga is valuable in creating and maintaining flexibility – both of body and mind.

“A well-trained body,” Swami Vishnu-devananda reminds us, “helps a great deal to train the mind, which is the main purpose of all yoga, in order to attain complete freedom and immortality…”

Flexibility, strength, balance – yogis come to the mat seeking these traits for their physical body, and eventually, dedicated yogis may find these same qualities reflected in their mental and emotional outlook. Like all components of good health, flexibility is something we tend to take for granted until we don’t have it. But through a regular asana practice, we can free up the body and mind, which helps explain why flexibility is so important.

According to Michael J. Alter’s Sport Stretch, “Flexibility is developed when connective tissues and muscles are elongated through regular, proper stretching.”

The ligaments are a form of connective tissue that holds bone to bone at every articulation. Although we don’t want to focus primarily on stretching the ligaments, as an overstretched ligament will compromise a joint’s integrity, the ligaments do serve an important function in flexibility. When they’ve become compressed, pain and tightness will follow, as Swami Vishnu-devananda explains.

When posture and balance are good, he writes, “the ligaments have a long and elastic life.” But, he points out, faulty alignment and poor balance cause ligament shortening. For example, Swami Vishnu-devananda explains that those who sit much of the time will find that ligaments of the vertebral column will shorten. Working at a computer, the head and neck are thrust forward. This sets up a situation where shortened ligaments in the cervical spine irritate the nerves that pass through the facial attachment. The irritation travels throughout the head, neck and shoulders. Yoga postures that stretch the head and neck, such as fish and shoulder stand, help stretch those ligaments and alleviate the compression.

Another factor that contributes to inflexibility is age. With age, the spine stiffens and the ligaments become tighter. Gaining flexibility is not impossible as we age, but it will likely take longer to achieve. Patience and persistence in practicing asana eventually will pay off in greater mobility. It’s well worth the effort.

“The ligamentous structures are continuous,” writes Swami Vishnu-devananda, “and if mobility is restricted in any area, the entire attachment is affected; this brings general immobility of the body.” So inflexibility in one area of the body can impact the whole structure. Moreover, Alter cites research that shows that flexibility is not a general characteristic, but is specific to a particular joint; people can be open in their hips, but tight in their shoulders. And flexibility is not necessarily symmetrical: one hip can be more flexible than the other, one shoulder more open, for example.

But it’s not just age and lifestyle that contribute to inflexibility, according to renowned yoga teacher, physical therapist and author Judith Hanson Lasater.

“After injury, the fascia can become adhered to surrounding tissues and interfere with pure muscle function and locomotion,” she writes in her newest book, Yoga Body. “During asana practice, you may have noticed areas or specific muscles of your body that never seem to stretch out. The sensation of stretching that part of your body seems to be the same year after year. This could be an area where your fascia is adhered to surrounding tissue.”

Fascia, she explains is another form of connective tissue that “holds each muscle and can hold muscle groups … It is thin, white and has a strong cobweb-like look.” If fascial adhesion is the cause of inflexibility, Lasater suggests deep tissue work or massage to free those areas when asana practice cannot.

In fact, stretching the fascia is a key component of increasing flexibility, according to Alter. “A question of great interest to all athletes is the relative importance of various tissues in joint stiffness,” he explains. “The joint capsule (i.e., the saclike structure that encloses the ends of bones) and ligaments are the most important factors, accounting for 47 percent of the stiffness, followed by the muscle’s fascia (41 percent), the tendons (10 percent), and skin (2 percent). However, most efforts to increase flexibility through stretching should be directed to the muscle fascia. The reasons for this are twofold. First, muscle and its fascia have more elastic tissue, so they are more modifiable in terms of reducing resistance to elongation. Second, because ligaments and tendons have less elasticity than fascia, it is undesirable to produce too much slack in them. Overstretching these structures may weaken the integrity of joints. As a result, an excessive amount of flexibility may destabilize the joints and increase an athlete’s risk of injury.”

There’s yet another factor in what we can perceive as inflexibility: compression. In his DVD Anatomy for Yoga, Paul Grilley says that “if your overlying musculature is tight, you might not know what your range of motion is, because you can’t stretch your muscles enough to get there. But after you’ve done enough yoga, you’re going to be stopped in your postures by compression.” In other words, at some point your skeletal structure will prevent you from going any further in a particular pose. However, for some people with tight musculature, gaining enough flexibility to get to a point where they can even discern range of motion can present a challenge.

For all yoga students, but especially those with limited flexibility, regular reminders during class about safety and non-competition are warranted. The ego may not like it, but the body will appreciate such modifications as keeping the knees bent in forward folds to protect the lumbar spine. There should be an emphasis on using the breath to deepen and lengthen into a pose, (“inhale and lengthen first”) versus muscling into a posture. Using force is counter-productive not only from a yogic perspective but also from a physiological stance, as it triggers the “stretch reflex” in the muscle that’s acting as the prime mover, the agonist. This is a reflex designed to protect the body from injury. When there’s a change in muscle length, as when we’re stretching into a pose, the reflex causes the stretched muscle to contract. The more sudden the change in muscle length, the stronger the contraction.

“For the safest stretching,” according to Alter, “relax the parts of the muscle that perform contraction and employ slow or static stretching to reduce the probability of initiating the stretch reflex.”

Another physiologic principle that can aid yogis in their quest for increased flexibility is reciprocal innervation. When one muscle, the agonist, is contracting, its opposing muscle, the antagonist, is relaxing.

“By taking advantage of this phenomenon,” Alter explains, “you can induce relaxation in the muscles you want to stretch.”

So to increase the stretch in the hamstrings, for instance, contract the quadriceps. Reciprocal innervation will allow your hamstrings to relax and enable you to go deeper into the stretch.

Yet another method for increasing flexibility, in fact, one considered to be the most effective, was explained in a Yoga Journal online article by Fernando Pages Ruiz.

“Among the recent developments in Western flexibility training are neurological techniques that retrain the stretch reflex, promoting quick, dramatic gains in flexibility,” he writes. “One of these techniques is called—take a deep breath—proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation. (Fortunately, it’s usually just called PNF).”

He explains that the PNF method “manipulates the stretch reflex by having you contract a muscle while it’s at near-maximum length.”

A common method of PNF stretching is called “hold/relax” or “contract/relax.” After moving into a passive stretch, for example uttanasana, the muscle being stretched, in this case the hamstrings, would be isometrically contracted for 7 to 15 seconds, then relaxed for 2 to 3 seconds, then immediately passively stretched again, allowing for a deeper passive stretch, which is held for 10 to 15 seconds. PNF isn’t recommended for children or those whose bones are still growing. Because it’s considered very strenuous, it should only be performed on a given muscle group once per day, and no more than once in a 36-hour period.

Regardless of the method used to increase flexibility, yogis should not lose sight of the ultimate purpose of yoga. It’s not for having a stronger, more balanced, flexible body, though those may all come through the practice of hatha yoga. Rather, yoga’s aim is, as Swami Vishnu-devananda reminds us, “to achieve truth wherein the individual soul identifies itself with the Supreme Soul or God.”

Tracy Moran is a certified Yoga teacher. She teaches classes in the Carlsbad, California area.