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Lecture Notes

The soft tissues in our body also influence our flexibility or range of motion, and these tissues can include muscles, tendons, fat, among many others. Our muscles are a very key part to flexibility and our range of motion. Simply moving our muscles through their range of motion by being physically active generally enhances flexibility. The temperature of our muscle also affects flexibility, so if you think about when people tell you not to stretch cold muscles or not to stretch immediately, to warm up maybe before you stretch, this is why, because warm muscles are more elastic and thus more flexible and easier to stretch as well, and we'll talk about that later. The elasticity and the compliance of our muscles decreases with age, and so this is part of the reason that we see people become less flexible as they age, but as I said earlier, remember that some of those age-related declines can be attenuated with being physically active, so you can lessen some of those age-related declines of flexibility by maintaining a physical activity routine throughout your lifetime.