Can flexibility be developed over time?

[Anonymous]

My 12yo recently surprised me by wanting to try cheerleading. She just did an intro class and loved it, but a lot of the other girls seem to have been doing cheer or gymnastics for years already. She’s not naturally super flexible, so she’s feeling a bit behind when it comes to splits, bridges, etc.

I’m signing her up for a tumbling class this winter, but I’m mostly wondering has anyone had a kid who wasn’t naturally flexible but improved a lot over time? How long did it take to start seeing progress, and what worked best for them?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My 12yo recently surprised me by wanting to try cheerleading. She just did an intro class and loved it, but a lot of the other girls seem to have been doing cheer or gymnastics for years already. She’s not naturally super flexible, so she’s feeling a bit behind when it comes to splits, bridges, etc.

I’m signing her up for a tumbling class this winter, but I’m mostly wondering has anyone had a kid who wasn’t naturally flexible but improved a lot over time? How long did it take to start seeing progress, and what worked best for them?

100% she can become much more flexible! The thing with kids in that age range is that their bones are lengthening, but their muscles are not lengthening at the same rate, so they go from being flexible when they are little to inflexible during growth spurts. She will absolutely benefit from stretching and the basic tumbling/ gymnastics classes. Yes, she will be be behind the other kids who transitioned from gymnastics to cheer, but she should be able to catch up quickly when she starts to work on stretching.

[Anonymous]

Yes flexibility can be developed over time. However, some people have more natural flexibility so it's good for her to be realistic about what she can achieve -- if some of the girls are super bendy, a lot of that may be natural flexibility and she might never get to that point.

But even a very inflexible person can get enough flexility to do most cheerleading tricks. Look for a dance or tumbling class that really focuses on flexibility with a substantial portion of the class dedicated to it at the END of class (that's the best time to stretch, when your body is very warm).

And she will also want to work on it between classes, that's how you see the best results. My DD is a dancer and she often stretches after coming home from the playground because her body is warm. There are also Youtube videos that take you through a stretching progression that have warmups built in -- if you did one daily or like 5x a week for a few months, you'd see a noticeable improvement.

Can't emphasize enough how important it is to warm up, though, and also make sure she's not stretching past a point of discomfort. It can feel uncomfortable but you should be able to "breathe into the muscle" and get it to relax on the exhale. If you can't feel that relaxation into the stretch, you may be pushing too hard. A could dance or gymnastics instructor will be able to explain this well.

[Anonymous]

Absolutely. Encourage her to go slow and let her know that stretching each day a little bit for like five minutes, is much better than stretching as far as she can push herself once or twice a week.

[Anonymous]

100% yes. I've been stretching nightly with my daughter, who also does a sport that requires flexibility, and I recently got my splits and am working on oversplits with her.

Classes once or twice a week are not going to cut it. You need a daily routine, and I highly recommend doing it with your daughter. It's fun to share and good for us old moms, too.

Our favorite online content is the Farfalla Stretch Method, but if you want free content, Anna Mcnunlty on YouTube is good. My daughter couldn't touch her toes a year ago and is now doing oversplits, needles, scorpions, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:100% yes. I've been stretching nightly with my daughter, who also does a sport that requires flexibility, and I recently got my splits and am working on oversplits with her.

Classes once or twice a week are not going to cut it. You need a daily routine, and I highly recommend doing it with your daughter. It's fun to share and good for us old moms, too.

Our favorite online content is the Farfalla Stretch Method, but if you want free content, Anna Mcnunlty on YouTube is good. My daughter couldn't touch her toes a year ago and is now doing oversplits, needles, scorpions, etc.

Thank you this is super helpful info! Just the YouTube channel alone has some great instructions!