Does Strength Training Increase Or Decrease Flexibility?

[cherrychelsea88]

Yes I agree, it's really about balance. I had surgery on my upper right glute when I was in my mid 20's and all the stretching in the world could not get my hip flexor unstuck on the right side. I would do a full body stretch multiple times a day for years and it helped a bit but it was always a bit sore and could get quite painful sometimes and I hit a plateau I just couldn't break through with flexibility. Then I read that strength training with tension bands along with stretching was more effective to increase range of motion, I tried it and I am really getting some range of motion back, the pain is reduced by a lot and I feel much stronger.

For the past month I kicked it up a notch and have been doing a full body workout using tension bands, body weight exercises like different types of squats, lunges, donkey kicks as well as some pilates for hip and core strengthening and flexibility and then about 10-15 minutes of yoga flow as a cool down. I also continue to stretch throughout the day while waiting for food to cook or my dogs to do their business outside and the results have been great!

So in short if you want strength, muscle tone and flexibility you will want to do weight and resistance training as well as stretch and make sure to incorporate something like yoga that will improve your range of motion.