TThere are two extremes of flexibility: in one camp are the agile devotees of yoga or Pilates, and in the other are those who groan as they bend over to pick something up off the ground. Most of us fall somewhere in between, but we know that if we don’t do something to offset the decline, touching our toes, even our knees, will become a distant memory before long. Stretching seems like the obvious choice to uncoil our tense and tense bodies, and yet scientists say how and when to stretch is more important than previously thought.
“There is a lot of uncertainty and complexity reflected in the academic literature,” says Dr. Brendon Stubbs, Senior Clinical Professor of Physiotherapy at King’s College London. “Now we realize that the traditional stretching of
