He advocated limited mobility, which may be great for very narrow focused high level sport performance, but is terrible for anyone else.

Seriously, I’m sure there’s a happy medium here. You need enough flexibility for what you do but is loads more always better?

How many people do you know personally who have changed their flexibility dramatically once they became middle aged adults? In my experience most people seem to have a sort of set point beyond which they can only make fairly small changes.

How many people do you know personally who have changed their flexibility dramatically once they became middle aged adults? In my experience most people seem to have a sort of set point beyond which they can only make fairly small changes.

I have found (and this is not to say it applies to everyone nor is it groundbreaking stuff), that due to sitting/inactivity etc we are weak in our anterior chain in a lengthened position eg and weak in our posterior chain in a fully constructed position.

An example of this is hip extension (standing up straight after sitting).

The focus when we have issues like this is to stretch things - an example is stretching the pec/delt tie in b/c we think our pecs are tight. No amount of stretching is really going to improve our posture etc unless we have the strength in the opposing muscles to pull us into good body positions.

Anyway....was that starting to sound rant like?? Apologies.

Richard

No amount of stretching is really going to improve our posture etc unless we have the strength in the opposing muscles to pull us into good body positions.

This idea is something that has persisted for a long time, but if someone is having to "pull" themselves into good posture, they're doing it wrong. The whole point of good posture is that it's efficient, which means it should require minimal muscle activity to maintain.

That's not to say there aren't benefits to balancing oneself out strength-wise, and likely the reciprocal inhibition of strengthening weak muscles will help the antagonists to relax over time. But the whole idea of efforting ourselves into better posture and thinking we have to maintain that effort indefinitely just doesn't work out over time.

And just for Neander - I’ll post this too:
https://youtu.be/qcnnI6HD6DU

The posted articles are just common sense really.

Stretch what's tight, strengthen what's loose and work on getting up off the floor.

• AusDaz Said:

I can't believe how flexible my jaw and lips are when laughing uncontrollably!
Good laugh genetics are a blessing.

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And that in itself is uncommon

• Quoting:

Sometimes it's the real obvious stuff that gets a bit forgotten once older age starts kicking in.
Sauntering in! I'm gonna go with that image, 'cause hey, after all I am Canadian, eh!

Yes but how does one know what's tight and what's loose? Serious question and this is the crux of my original issue with McGill.
I don't need to do splits, but I'd like to be able to do basic staff and more for a couple more decades.

I found that when I started doing OS, my body quickly told me what was tight and what needed work.

Yes but how does one know what's tight and what's loose? Serious question and this is the crux of my original issue with McGill.
I don't need to do splits, but I'd like to be able to do basic staff and more for a couple more decades.

He does spent a lot of time arguing against stretching so I think it could be helpful if he talked a little more about how and when stretching might be helpful for certain conditions.

It seems that much of his avoiding flexion is for those with a history of disc herniations.
My self diagnosis, using his books and resources, is facet joint arthritis which actually seems to be relieved by some gentle spinal flexion or movement. As long as I avoid heavily loaded flexion or the very end range of motion, some gentle flexion/extension cycles make everything feel better.
I think some here may be using OS for Original Strength.