Flexibility is not an added benefit, it is something of a necessity for dancers. In fact, it’s something that footballers, martial artists, soldiers and anyone who wants a strong, healthy body is investing in.

It’s time you found out why. What purpose does it solve? For dancers, is flexibility just for doing fancy dance tricks? It’s obvious that it gives you a wider range of movement, but can you do without it? Let’s face it, not everybody is blessed with a naturally flexible body and many of us have a mental block about it being too painful.

1. Optimize your classes and performance. A slow warm-up and stretching routine daily prepares you mentally and physically for movement. Flexible joints need less energy to allow movement and hence you can practice for longer and perform better. Stretching daily despite soreness and pain teaches you discipline and work ethic, which will take you a long way in life.

2. It increases your speed in movement because joints allow movement with ease in a body that is more flexible.

3. It improves blood circulation in the body and the flow of life energies. Red blood cells carry oxygen that muscles and joints need during activity. This allows for more flow in your dance technique and transitions are more smooth.

4. Flexibility increases mindfulness and staying in some stretches demands you to be focused in a small area of our body. This has several benefits for our brain and it increases oxygen supply to the brain and our overall well-being. It will even help you remember choreography.

5. Flexibility stretches reduce stress. Stretching relieves stress in the whole body and if you aren’t stretching daily, try it especially on the days when you feel stressed. If you’re sitting down, start by slowly massaging your toes and move up patiently going through every part of your body, right upto your face or vice versa.

6. Healthy joints. Stretching and flexibility drills keep the fluid material around the joints in good supply and hence the joints remain healthy for more years. It allows for more range of motion and prevents diseases like Arthritis.

7. It helps in avoiding injuries. This is because a flexible body experiences less stress while moving. It is one of the biggest benefits of flexibility for dancers, martial artists, sportsmen and the like. These people work long and hard, throughout their life to master their chosen art form(s) or sport and injuries can cause a major setback.

8. It relieves pain from injuries. Injury and fatigue are common in the world of performing arts. Stretching will relieve muscle pain, tenderness and soreness after a heavy workout or a long day of classes and rehearsals.

To sum up, I’d say that investing your time and effort in stretching is akin to investing in a long fulfilling career and your well-being. It will serve you in multiple ways, but it will need you to be extra patient with yourself on the bad days. It will demand you to be okay with a certain kind of pain, usually called ”good pain” by dancers. It will show you how much you’ve grown in technique. It will teach you to quieten the brain chatter, while in the stretch, the one which tells you to quit. It will teach you compassion for self and others. Now, go stretch already!

Write to us if this helps and changes anything for you. Also, all feedback is welcome.