6 Tips For Practicing Safe Stretching In Dance And Gymnastics
Posted on by Paige Gibbens, PT, DPT
Dance and gymnastics are two sports that require an extreme amount of mobility and flexibility, as well as strength, power, and endurance to be successful. Mobility is different from flexibility and flexibility is not an indicator of good mobility. Flexibility is defined as the muscles’ ability to stretch temporarily. An example of flexibility would be a rubber band; it can temporarily lengthen but returns to a normal resting rate. Mobility is a joint’s ability to actively move through a specific range of motion. To simplify this explanation of flexibility versus mobility, flexibility is related to muscle length and mobility is related to a joint’s ability to move.
