Limits to Flexibility

[Christopher Haddock]

Are there genetic/anatomical/age limits on how flexible a person can become?  I've poked around on the Internet and PubMed.gov about this topic and can't find anything compelling.

I've been doing the 3 stretch series videos for 9 months now and have become significantly more flexible. I'm very happy with my results.  However, I wonder whether if an inflexible, older person devoted themselves to a well-thought out flexibility training program for, say, 2 to 5 years could they become as flexible as someone like Kira Nguyen (in the videos)? Or, is there something about her make-up that permits her to attain an extreme (in a good sense) level of flexibility?

[Étienne Lajeunesse]

Hi @Christopher Haddock,

Well, as I know about flexibility and from some people, there could be structural limitations in the hips that restrain the opening in middle split.  For the rest, I could be wrong, but like @Coach Sommer said, everyone is born flexible, we just lose it over the years of none activity.  So, no matter the time, I think we can regain it with efforts.

 

[Alessandro Mainente]

Girls tend to be more flexible than man (exception for contortionist), this is due to the different type of hormones production during the early stage of the fetus development. 

Limitations can be genetical when we talk about different joint conformations, usually, these situations occurred on hip and shoulder, they can be diagnosed by a physio.