Flexibility refers to the intrinsic properties of body tissues that determine maximal joint range of motion without causing injury. For many years, flexibility has been classified by the American College of Sports Medicine as a major component of physical fitness. The notion flexibility is important for fitness has also led to the idea static stretching should be prescribed to improve flexibility. The current paper proposes flexibility be retired as a major component of physical fitness, and consequently, stretching be de-emphasized as a standard component of exercise prescriptions for most populations. First, I show flexibility has little predictive or concurrent validity with health and performance outcomes (e.g., mortality, falls, occupational performance) in apparently healthy individuals, particularly when viewed in light of the other major components of fitness (i.e., body composition, cardiovascular endurance, muscle endurance, muscle strength). Second, I explain that if flexibility requires improvement, this does not necessitate a prescription of stretching in most populations. Flexibility can be maintained or improved by exercise modalities that cause more robust health benefits than stretching (e.g., resistance training). Retirement of flexibility as a major component of physical fitness will simplify fitness batteries; save time and resources dedicated to flexibility instruction, measurement, and evaluation; and prevent erroneous conclusions about fitness status when interpreting flexibility scores. De-emphasis of stretching in exercise prescriptions will ensure stretching does not negatively impact other exercise and does not take away from time that could be allocated to training activities that have more robust health and performance benefits.

中文翻译：

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退役作为身体适应性主要组成部分的案例。

柔韧性是指人体组织的固有特性，该特性决定关节的最大运动范围而不会造成伤害。多年以来，灵活性已被美国运动医学学院列为身体健康的主要组成部分。柔韧性这一概念对于健身非常重要，这也导致了应该规定静态拉伸以提高柔韧性的想法。目前的论文提出，应将灵活性作为身体适应性的主要组成部分，因此，对大多数人群而言，不再将伸展性作为运动处方的标准组成部分。首先，我表明，对于显然健康的个体，灵活性与健康和绩效结果（例如，死亡率，跌倒，职业绩效）的预测或并发效度很小，特别是从健身的其他主要方面（即身体成分，心血管耐力，肌肉耐力，肌肉力量）来看。其次，我解释说，如果需要提高灵活性，那么在大多数人群中就不需要增加拉伸的处方。锻炼方式可以保持或改善柔韧性，而锻炼方式比拉伸（例如，阻力训练）带来更强的健康益处。取消灵活性作为身体适应性的主要组成部分，将简化适应性电池；节省用于灵活性指导，测量和评估的时间和资源；并避免在解释灵活性得分时得出有关健身状态的错误结论。