Should We All Be Able To Touch Our Toes?
HuffPost
We asked physical therapists to share their thoughts on the importance of flexibility when it comes to your overall health.
If you’re of a certain age, you may remember the Presidential Fitness Test, a now-defunct physical fitness capability test in schools across the country. It was made up of multiple exercise challenges, and one of the factors it assessed was flexibility via a sit-and-reach test.
Flexibility has been a long-standing measure of physical health. Touching your toes is another marker. And for some people, touching your toes without bending your legs is simple. For others, though, it’s impossible. Does this matter? And does it say anything about your actual health?
Simply put: Should we all be able to touch our toes without bending our legs? Here’s what physical therapists say.
Being able to touch your toes is related to more than just flexibility.
“I’d say there’s a lot of factors that go into touching your toes, and it’s not just flexibility or hamstring length,” said Amanda Sachdeva, a physical therapist at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York.
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