Benefits of Flexibility at a Later Age

Featuring Dr. David Matheson, MD, FRCPC, Retired Physician


Duration: 2 minutes

One of the things that I need to improve is my flexibility.

I really feel that I could do a lot better with respect to that. But even if I get a little bit of flexibility from the exercises that I do, I try to always stretch out after I work out. I try and do that quite very carefully.

I've noticed that as I get older, things are harder to reach. It's harder to bend down to the floor. It's harder to turn my neck to look for traffic coming if it's a sharp intersection.  Things like that that are starting to be noticeable. So, there is really a reason to look at flexibility from  the perspective of even your normal life. 

When you are doing exercising, of course flexibility is important because if you're not flexible, you're going to have greater risk of injury. Flexibility as you get older is a challenge. It becomes more and more difficult to be flexible and to maintain your flexibility.

You probably do need to have somebody to help - an exercise trainer, somebody like that who will give you some good exercises to do and try to make sure that you stretched. A tight muscle is not good for you. Not good for safety, you are going to have injuries, it's probably weaker than it should be.

So, I am a strong believer that you have got to try to increase the flexibility more so, more so, more so as you get older. And when I look at those that aren't exercising, it reminds me of what I was like and what I was doing many years ago, not exercising.

I did have to develop that regimen, that willpower to keep on going. It took time, it took effort, a lot of effort. I'm really glad that I did it. I feel better, I have more energy and I would hope that others might be able to do the same.

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Presenter: Dr. David Matheson, Pediatrician, Vancouver, BC

Local Practitioners: Pediatrician