KIN122 Chapter6

Lecture Notes

There are multiple different ways to assess flexibility, but regardless of the measure that we use or the method that we use to assess flexibility, all of these tests are specific to the joint of interest. So just like flexibility is joint-specific, as we talked about throughout the lecture, obviously if something is joint-specific we want to measure it by a particular joint. And so you could be really flexible, let's say, in your hip joint, but not very flexible in your shoulder joint, and so it's entirely joint-specific. And there are really two main ways that we can assess flexibility. The first are established tests, and one example of this might be the sit and reach test, a pretty common test, and you can see the young girl in the top picture here sitting on the ground, legs extended straight out in front of her, and she's reaching forward onto a box that's measuring how far she can reach towards her toes or past her toes in this case. The second way we can measure flexibility is through a goniometer, and here you can see on the bottom, a goniometer is a very simple ruler, protractor-type device that is anchored on a fulcrum, and it can really just measure the joint angle of any joint that you want to measure. So this can be used across the body in all your different joints to assess your flexibility.