Nutrition -> Strength -> Flexibility

Having said about Nutrition and Strength, I would like to discuss about Flexibility.
What is Flexibility?
The ability to adjust with the situation.

Why is it important?
Have you ever seen a stick breaking? Yeah, many times perhaps.
Have you ever seen a rope breaking ? Not really, isn't it, unless you specially make some effort to get a scissor and cut the rope. Ropes don't break under pressure because they know how to bend and roll and adjust under pressue. So we say, ropes are flexible , a stick is not. For those who could not understad the analogy, read on and you will understand.

How many types of flexibility are there?
Broadly two types - Mental and physical.

Mental Flexibility :- The ability to bend your mind as per the the circumstantial demands.
This helps us to handle not just tough situations but tough people, tough work and almost everything. A simple example is tackling the generation gap or the aging process which all of us have to face.

A mentally rigid man finds it difficult to survive through the aging. He finds it difficult to understand that his youth is gone and he is slowly becoming dependent on someone for each and everything. His ego is hurt and his life becomes tough. So is the case with a mentally rigid father to see his daughter adapting to the demands of the new generation which he himself can't adapt to.

On the other hand, think of a person with a flexible mindset. He smoothly undergoes all ups and downs of life without getting himself hurt or tensed.

Physical Flexibility :- This is very similar to the mental flexibility. We can say, its the ability to bend your body as per the circumstantial demands. This helps us to handle tough physical conditions. When your body is under pressure ( it may be an accidental trauma, a physical fight with somebody, your bodystuck in a not so comfortable position, general body pain like shoulder or knee or waist due to excess work or sudden bending or any other motion), the flexibility of your body determines how well you can undergo the situation.
A not so flexible person will end up hurting himself more or developing a permanent body pain whereas a flexible person will tackle it without hurting himself or damaging any tissue.

How do we make our body flexible?

The ancient Indian Yogasanas are a very good way of making the body flexibility.
There are some exercises which help stretch your body muscles and in turn relax them.
Some of the easy asanas are Padmasan, matsasan, bhujangasan, dhanurasan, padahastasan etc.
There are various websites that would give details of these asanas but one important thing I would like to mention here is that Yogasan should be done under the vigilance of someone expert in Yoga. They are dangerous if done incorrectly.

There are some simple stretches as well which one can find in one of Jane Fonda's CDs or any physical trainer program. People generally workout hard to lose wait but forget the stretch part. This not only leaves your body more prone to injuries but also is harmful for the strained muscle tissues.

So next time you work out, make sure that the workout is followed by an extensive stretching program to maintain a natural balance of stress and relaxation in the body muscles.