Being flexible is not just a marker of physical fitness, it might be a key to living longer. Researchers now say that flexibility affects survival in middle-aged adults, with a particularly high risk of death for women with low flexibility.
It is well known that good physical fitness is a strong predictor of improved survival. Recent studies have shown that muscle strength and balance, non aerobic components of fitness can also affect longevity in middle aged adults.
To further explore the link, the researchers conducted a study published in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports testing "Flexindex", a body flexibility score on a group of 3,139 individuals aged 46 to 65. The participants were then followed up for an average of 12.9 years. The team then observed an inverse relationship between body flexibility and mortality, indicating that reduced flexibility was linked to poor survival.
"Being aerobically fit and strong and having good balance have been previously associated with low mortality. We were able to show that reduced body flexibility is also related to poor survival in middle-aged men and women," said corresponding author Dr. Claudio Gil S. Araújo in a news release.
Flexindex measures flexibility through the passive range of motion in 20 movements across seven different joints. The total score ranges from 0 to 80, with each movement scored from 0 to 4. The study noted that women had 35% higher Flexindex than men.
During the follow-up, 302 individuals died, of them 224 were men and 78 were women. The results indicate that Flexindex was nearly 10% higher for survivors, compared with non-survivors, regardless of gender.
"After taking age, body mass index, and health status into account, men and women with a low Flexindex had a 1.87- and 4.78-times higher risk of dying, respectively, than those with a high Flexindex," the news release stated.
The findings suggest that men with low physical flexibility may face nearly double the risk of death compared to those with higher flexibility. For women, the risk of death is about five times greater for those with low flexibility.
As flexibility decreases with age, the findings urge researchers to recommend including flexibility exercises in the routines of middle-aged adults and to include flexibility assessments in all health-related physical fitness evaluations. The study also suggests that future research should explore if improving flexibility through training could enhance survival rates.
