Latest / Wits & Weights | Strength & Fat Loss Over 40 / Strength Training Over 40 Builds Flexibility Better Than Stretching | Ep 459

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Strength Training Over 40 Builds Flexibility Better Than Stretching | Ep 459 · Wits & Weights | Strength & Fat Loss Over 40

• 0:00
  Philip Pape: If you've ever spent 15 minutes foam rolling and stretching before a workout because you think lifting weights makes you tight, I have some news.
• 0:08
  Philip Pape: Three separate meta-analyses, the most recent from 2025, all found the same thing.
• 0:13
  Philip Pape: Full range of motion strength training produces the same flexibility gains as dedicated stretching.
• 0:20
  Philip Pape: And one type of training, the eccentric or the lowering phase, actually produced bigger improvements than stretching alone.
• 0:27
  Philip Pape: Today I'm covering exactly why the lifting makes you stiff myth exists, what the research says about how your muscles get more flexible under load, and the specific exercises and training approach that build strength and flexibility at the same time.
• 0:42
  Philip Pape: Plus, stick around to the end because I'm going to walk you through a 60-second squat test that tells you exactly where your flexibility stands and how to start building full-depth squats from wherever you are right now.
• 0:59
  Philip Pape: Welcome to Wits and Weights, the show that puts a popular piece of fitness advice under the microscope, finds the hidden reason it doesn't work, and gives you the deceptively simple fix that does.
• 1:09
  Philip Pape: I'm your host, Philip Pape, and this episode is for anyone who's ever avoided lifting weights because they're worried about getting stiff or having more flexibility first, or who spends a chunk of their training time on dedicated mobility work because they assume their strength training maybe is working against their flexibility, or they can't even do it until they're flexible enough.
• 1:31
  Philip Pape: All of those things apply.
• 1:33
  Philip Pape: Maybe you're a little bit on the older side.
• 1:35
  Philip Pape: By older, I mean over 40, and that's me.
• 1:37
  Philip Pape: And you've noticed that your range of motion isn't what it used to be.
• 1:40
  Philip Pape: And someone said, hey, you got to do yoga or you've got to do Pilates or some elaborate stretching machine.
• 1:46
  Philip Pape: And, you know, no judgment.
• 1:47
  Philip Pape: Those things are fine.
• 1:48
  Philip Pape: I have nothing against them.
• 1:50
  Philip Pape: Maybe some things against them, depending on the claim.
• 1:52
  Philip Pape: But the research on this topic has actually gotten more clear in the last few years.
• 1:57
  Philip Pape: And it tells a really good story that I've been talking about for a while, but it's nice to have the evidence to back it up.
• 2:03
  Philip Pape: So you're gonna learn three things today.
• 2:05
  Philip Pape: First, why the belief that lifting weights makes you stiff is based on a specific training mistake, not on what lifting does to your muscles.
• 2:16
  Philip Pape: Second, what three separate meta-analysis have found when they compared strength training to stretching for flexibility, and why the numbers they found are actually quite convincing.
• 2:26
  Philip Pape: And third, the specific way to program your lifts so your training sessions build flexibility and strength simultaneously, and you don't have to do any extra stretching.
• 2:37
  Philip Pape: Now, isn't that nice?
• 2:39
  Philip Pape: And remember, at the very end, I'm sharing that 60-second squat test I mentioned in the teaser.
• 2:44
  Philip Pape: A simple weight that you can figure out where your flexibility is right now and how to progress to build it, even if you can barely get to parallel right now.
• 2:53
  Philip Pape: All right, let's get into it and talk about this myth, which you may or may not hold, but it's gonna lead to the other topics we're covering today.
• 3:00
  Philip Pape: And it goes like this lifting weights makes you tight and bulky.
• 3:03
  Philip Pape: If you want to stay flexible, you need insert method here yoga, stretching, dedicated mobility work.
• 3:10
  Philip Pape: Or in some cases, you know, you can't even lift weights until you get flexible enough.
• 3:15
  Philip Pape: And this is one of those beliefs that it feels like it has a lot of truth because, you know, you see these, if you see ever seen a very muscled bodybuilder who can like who has trouble scratching their own back, you know, somebody who's jacked in the gym, can bench multiple plates, but can't touch your toes or get into a deep squat or whatever, which I don't even, I don't even think that archetype exists as much as we say it does.
• 3:38
  Philip Pape: But if it did, you know, the conclusion is, oh, lifting did this to him, right?
• 3:42
  Philip Pape: Lifting made him stiff.
• 3:44
  Philip Pape: The solution has to be something other than lifting.
• 3:46
  Philip Pape: Because if you lift weights, if you're just a bodybuilder, if you just do single plane of motion lifting, if you just focus on strength or powerlifting, whatever, you're not gonna have the flexibility.
• 3:55
  Philip Pape: But that concluding that is a leap of logic.
• 3:59
  Philip Pape: It is skipping the question, hey, how was that person lifting?
• 4:04
  Philip Pape: Because here's what I have noticed in that the people that look or act like that, they might have they might have some muscles like show muscles, but they might also they're probably training partial ranges of motion, like quarter squats, like half half-rep benches, you know, curls where they're just cheating and the elbow never extends, or leg presses that never break, you know, past 90 degrees, and and loading muscles to the shortened positions and never working under tension or under long lengths, you know, under full range of motion.
• 4:35
  Philip Pape: And this actually matters because the stimulus that improves flexibility, the thing that actually makes a muscle a little bit longer, more extensible over time is tension at long muscle lengths.
• 4:45
  Philip Pape: Now, I'm not saying just go out and do long length partials.
• 4:48
  Philip Pape: There's plenty of research that backs up that you, you know, having full range of motion, so you cover the short and long length is probably the best move here.
• 4:55
  Philip Pape: But the stretched position, the bottom of a squat, the bottom of a Romanian deadlift where your hamstrings are loaded at their longest, or the overhead position of like a tricep extension, when you train through a full range of motion, you are stretching the muscle under load on every single rep.
• 5:13
  Philip Pape: And that's really important.
• 5:14
  Philip Pape: So people who, for example, get stiff from lifting are probably getting stiff from not going through the full range of motion and avoiding the positions that would maintain or improve their flexibility.
• 5:26
  Philip Pape: And the whole stiff thing, that's just one stand-in for any number of lack of flexibility issues that you might see in someone who otherwise maybe looks a little bit healthier fit.
• 5:37
  Philip Pape: So if you like analogies, I want you to think of it this way: if you get like a door hinge and it never opens past 45 degrees, it just kind of opens part way, partway, partway, partway.
• 5:48
  Philip Pape: It often will get stuck or it'll rust in place and it'll never get past that point.
• 5:54
  Philip Pape: Not because the hinge itself is broken, but because it hasn't been using used through its full range.
• 5:58
  Philip Pape: I don't know if that analogy is helpful.
• 6:00
  Philip Pape: It's what came to mind, but your joints kind of work like that.
• 6:02
  Philip Pape: If you use the range, you keep it.
• 6:05
  Philip Pape: If you don't use the range, you lose it.
• 6:06
  Philip Pape: It's an adaptation.
• 6:07
  Philip Pape: It's an adaptation.
• 6:08
  Philip Pape: So I don't want to just make this me going off on a diatribe.
• 6:12
  Philip Pape: I want to look at the research.
• 6:13
  Philip Pape: Okay.
• 6:14
  Philip Pape: So I mentioned three separate meta-analyses that have compared resistance training to stretching specifically for flexibility outcomes.
• 6:24
  Philip Pape: And I want to walk through each one just real quickly because I think they build on each other and together paint a really clear picture of what we're talking about.
• 6:31
  Philip Pape: The first is Afonso and colleagues.
• 6:34
  Philip Pape: This is 2021.
• 6:36
  Philip Pape: This is 11 randomized controlled trials with 452 participants comparing strength training to stretching for range of motion improvements.
• 6:46
  Philip Pape: And the result was there was no difference, no statistically significant difference.
• 6:50
  Philip Pape: The effect size was negative, 0.22, which slightly favored stretching, but it wasn't significant.
• 6:56
  Philip Pape: The p-value was 0.206.
• 6:59
  Philip Pape: And there was a subgroup analysis that showed no differences whether they measured active or passive range of motion, whether they looked at hip flexion or knee extension, whether the studies were high or low risk of bias.
• 7:12
  Philip Pape: They all came back the same.
• 7:14
  Philip Pape: Basically, the two were equivalent for flexibility.
• 7:17
  Philip Pape: Now that was a small study, again, 11 studies, 452 people.
• 7:21
  Philip Pape: So we have a bigger study published in sports medicine in 2023 by Aliziday and colleagues.
• 7:29
  Philip Pape: And this is a larger one.
• 7:30
  Philip Pape: 55 studies, over 2,700 participants, and they asked three questions for the study.
• 7:37
  Philip Pape: First, does resistance training improve range of motion compared to doing nothing?
• 7:42
  Philip Pape: Yes, no surprise.
• 7:44
  Philip Pape: There was actually a pretty highly significant moderate effect size, 0.73.
• 7:48
  Philip Pape: Second, does resistance training match stretching?
• 7:51
  Philip Pape: Essentially, yes.
• 7:52
  Philip Pape: The effect size of 0.08 compared the two, p-value of 0.79, no meaningful difference.
• 7:58
  Philip Pape: So in other words, they were about the same stretching and resistance training.
• 8:02
  Philip Pape: Third, does adding stretching on top of resistance training improve flexibility further?
• 8:07
  Philip Pape: No.
• 8:08
  Philip Pape: Effect size was negative 0.001.
• 8:11
  Philip Pape: So if you're already training through full range of motion, adding a stretching program on top of that gives you exactly or approximately zero additional flexibility benefit.
• 8:40
  Philip Pape: There was a very big effect size, it was 1.042.
• 8:44
  Philip Pape: Trained individuals or active individuals still improved a little bit, but it was smaller, around 0.43.
• 8:50
  Philip Pape: So if you've been sedentary, if you start lifting through full ranges of motion, you're gonna have huge gains in flexibility.
• 8:57
  Philip Pape: And if you already train, you're gonna have some moderate gains in flexibility.
• 9:00
  Philip Pape: They also found that bodyweight exercises did not significantly improve range of motion.
• 9:06
  Philip Pape: Only exercises with external load, free weights, machines, resistance bands produced significant improvements, which tells us that yes, load does matter.
• 9:17
  Philip Pape: You need actual resistance pushing you into those end range positions.
• 9:23
  Philip Pape: So that's the second study.
• 9:25
  Philip Pape: The third one, the most recent meta-analysis, was by Favreau and colleagues.
• 9:28
  Philip Pape: It was in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research just last year, 2025.
• 9:33
  Philip Pape: 36 studies, nearly 1,500 participants, and they confirmed the overall finding we've been talking about that resistance training significantly improves flexibility, and they had a medium to large effect size of 0.63 compared to the control group.
• 9:47
  Philip Pape: But they also found something new, and that is related to intensity.
• 9:51
  Philip Pape: That intensity is important.
• 9:53
  Philip Pape: High intensity resistance training produced a significant effect size of 0.75.
• 9:59
  Philip Pape: Low intensity training was only 0.28 and not statistically significant.
• 10:04
  Philip Pape: So that tells us it's not just about going through the range of motion.
• 10:09
  Philip Pape: You also need meaningful load through that range of motion.
• 10:14
  Philip Pape: And by the way, when we talk about intensity, we're talking about load.
• 10:16
  Philip Pape: We're not talking about like sweating or endurance or something like that.
• 10:20
  Philip Pape: All right, now let's get a little bit more specific because there is a separate body of research on eccentric training.
• 10:29
  Philip Pape: That is the lowering phase of a lift.
• 10:31
  Philip Pape: And when you look at that compared to flexibility, okay, so there's a study by Kay and colleagues, or not a study, but a meta-analysis.
• 10:39
  Philip Pape: I love meta-analysis because they take, they take many, many studies and look at them to give even higher quality findings.
• 10:45
  Philip Pape: And this was in medicine and science and sports and exercise from 2023, and it was 17 studies, 376 participants.
• 10:52
  Philip Pape: They looked at eccentric resistance training and lower limb range of motion, lower limb meaning your legs.
• 10:59
  Philip Pape: The overall effect size was large at 0.86, 86.
• 11:03
  Philip Pape: For ankle dorsiflexion specifically, the effect size was really large, 1.12.
• 11:10
  Philip Pape: Okay, and again, that's compared to that's showing that they improve flexibility.
• 11:14
  Philip Pape: Then there was a systematic review by Vetter and colleagues in 2022 that also found a centric eccentric training improved range of motion by 9% on average.
• 11:24
  Philip Pape: But concentric only training, which is just the lifting phase without controlling the lowering phase, produced no measurable change in range of motion.
• 11:34
  Philip Pape: So the eccentric phase, which is the controlled lowering, where the muscle is lengthened under tension, is the primary driver of the flexibility improvements from resistance training.
• 11:46
  Philip Pape: Right.
• 11:46
  Philip Pape: And this actually makes mechanical sense if you just put a put on your engineering hat.
• 11:51
  Philip Pape: When you lower a weight through a full range of motion, what are you doing?
• 11:55
  Philip Pape: You are stretching that muscle while applying that force, that load.
• 12:00
  Philip Pape: Right.
• 12:00
  Philip Pape: And that is the same stimulus that a static stretch would provide, except you're also getting the strength and hypertrophy benefits under load at the same time.
• 12:10
  Philip Pape: Pretty cool, right?
• 12:11
  Philip Pape: Now the research community issued a consensus statement.
• 12:15
  Philip Pape: This is 2025 Delphi consensus statement.
• 12:18
  Philip Pape: It's from 20 leading stretching researchers across 12 countries.
• 12:24
  Philip Pape: And they said, hey, full range of motion resistance training produces flexibility gains, quote, at least a similar degree, end quote, to stretching, especially when the eccentric phase is emphasized.
• 12:37
  Philip Pape: And they concluded that, okay, if you're a healthy adult, the choice of method for improving range of motion, quote, can be left to individual preference.
• 12:45
  Philip Pape: So that's pretty cool to see a verbalized scientific consensus that resistance training improves flexibility.
• 12:52
  Philip Pape: So I walked you through the research on how eccentric loading, that controlled lowering phase, drives flexibility adaptations.
• 12:59
  Philip Pape: And then those adaptations, like the fascicle lengthening, the tissue remodeling, to get nerdy about it.
• 13:07
  Philip Pape: It all happens when?
• 13:09
  Philip Pape: That those adaptations happen when?
• 13:11
  Philip Pape: Come on, during recovery, right?
• 13:13
  Philip Pape: During recovery, specifically during sleep.
• 13:16
  Philip Pape: Your muscles are not going to rebuild while you're in the gym.
• 13:18
  Philip Pape: They're going to rebuild when you're resting, which means the quality of your sleep directly affects how well your body responds to training.
• 13:25
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• 13:33
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• 13:42
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• 13:43
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• 13:51
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• 13:57
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• 14:02
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• 14:03
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• 14:11
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• 14:12
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• 14:20
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• 14:20
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• 14:26
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• 14:28
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• 14:30
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• 14:33
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• 14:36
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• 14:40
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• 14:42
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• 14:44
  Philip Pape: All right, so let's get into the fix for how to improve flexibility.
• 14:48
  Philip Pape: All right, if you understand the mechanism, you don't have to have a separate flexibility or stretching program.
• 14:53
  Philip Pape: All you have to do is train through full range of motion with meaningful load, emphasize the eccentric phase of your lifts.
• 15:02
  Philip Pape: And some of you are thinking, wait a minute, the eccentric phase, now we're getting into that funky stuff.
• 15:06
  Philip Pape: Does that mean we have to use negatives?
• 15:07
  Philip Pape: Is that no, you're gonna find out that what we're doing here is not different than what I've recommended in the past to begin with, which is great.
• 15:15
  Philip Pape: Great.
• 15:15
  Philip Pape: You don't have to learn anything new, okay?
• 15:17
  Philip Pape: Let me give you the specific principles and then the exercises.
• 15:20
  Philip Pape: So principle one is full range of motion on compound lifts.
• 15:25
  Philip Pape: If you haven't been doing this, do this.
• 15:28
  Philip Pape: If you're an advanced lifter, there's definitely places where you wouldn't use full range of motion.
• 15:33
  Philip Pape: But this is the principle for getting into the full range, both the eccentric and concentric, and also the lengthened and shortened positions.
• 15:40
  Philip Pape: So this means getting your squat below parallel, not a quarter squat, not too parallel, below parallel means the hip crease below the patella, means your butt below your knee.
• 15:49
  Philip Pape: It means if you're doing a Romanian deadlift, you need to have a genuine stretch of your hamstrings at the bottom, which if you're, again, flexible already, could be taking the bar all the way to the ground, or if you're uber flexible, could be standing up on a block or pads so that you can go even further.
• 16:05
  Philip Pape: It means with your overhead press, they're gonna start from your shoulders, not your chin, right?
• 16:09
  Philip Pape: You're gonna come down.
• 16:10
  Philip Pape: It means rows and pull-ups that reach full arm extension at the bottom, right?
• 16:17
  Philip Pape: Not just coming part way.
• 16:19
  Philip Pape: If you are cutting range short on these movements, then you're just leaving the flexibility on the table.
• 16:23
  Philip Pape: So if you complain about flexibility to me and say, like, I need flexibility because I need a lift, I'm gonna say, are your lifts already in full range of motion?
• 16:31
  Philip Pape: Or you know, yeah, the full range.
• 16:33
  Philip Pape: Principle number two is to include exercises that load your muscles at their longest position.
• 16:40
  Philip Pape: So this is where selection gets a little bit strategic.
• 16:42
  Philip Pape: So for biceps, an incline curl, for example, is fantastic because you're at an incline.
• 16:50
  Philip Pape: So when you open up your arm down to the bottom lower position, you're gonna go even wider in terms of a length, a longer length.
• 16:58
  Philip Pape: So for triceps, an equivalent would be an overhead extension, is one of my favorite moves.
• 17:02
  Philip Pape: If you had to do one thing, I would do an overhead extension.
• 17:05
  Philip Pape: That could be with cable, with an easy curl bar, uh, with dumbbell, it doesn't matter, just do it overhead.
• 17:10
  Philip Pape: Um, hamstrings, we've got the Romanian deadlift or a stiff leg death deadlift, you know, from a deficit that'll put your legs under a much greater stretch than, say, a leg curl.
• 17:20
  Philip Pape: Calves, I mean, even the body, even the show muscles and the bodybuilding stuff, standing calf raises from a step where your heel drops way below platform level, where you could stretch at the bottom and load the what they call the gastrosinemius at the long position, any of these exercises will double as both strength and a loaded stretch.
• 17:38
  Philip Pape: And for much of what you're doing, there's an opportunity to do this anyway.
• 17:41
  Philip Pape: But sometimes you have to pick exercises that really maximize it.
• 17:45
  Philip Pape: Principle number three is to control the eccentric.
• 17:47
  Philip Pape: Now, this is the one where I'm going to, I'm not gonna get weird.
• 17:51
  Philip Pape: Okay.
• 17:51
  Philip Pape: So remember we talked about eccentric training that that helps with the improve, it improves your range of motion, having the eccentric in there.
• 18:00
  Philip Pape: Now, by definition, you're gonna have the eccentric in there, but what you don't want to do is just drop the weight or bounce out of the bottom position.
• 18:06
  Philip Pape: And this is important because you know, when I learned the low bar back squat, I learned to use a stretch reflex at the bottom, which is super helpful.
• 18:13
  Philip Pape: And there are benefits to that for sure.
• 18:15
  Philip Pape: And you don't have to pause.
• 18:16
  Philip Pape: I will say, however, adding in a pause could be beneficial, especially if you're trying to get this extra flexibility stimulus, but even just doing it in a controlled fashion.
• 18:26
  Philip Pape: So if you're gonna squat down, you squat down and you bounce out of the bottom, but it's not like a big shock bounce.
• 18:33
  Philip Pape: It's not like a CrossFit thing.
• 18:34
  Philip Pape: You know, it's not like you're banging out the reps.
• 18:36
  Philip Pape: It's still very controlled.
• 18:38
  Philip Pape: And I would say on the way down, you know, a two-second, up to three second lowering phase is fine.
• 18:42
  Philip Pape: You don't have to actually extend it further.
• 18:44
  Philip Pape: We're not talking about time under tension.
• 18:47
  Philip Pape: We're simply talking about the flexibility piece of loading into the full range of motion.
• 18:52
  Philip Pape: So just doing it under control is really important.
• 18:54
  Philip Pape: And then, of course, as always, explode into the concentric.
• 18:58
  Philip Pape: That's a different topic, but it's an important thing to do.
• 19:01
  Philip Pape: Principle number four is you gotta train with real load.
• 19:06
  Philip Pape: You've gotta train with real load, right?
• 19:09
  Philip Pape: Doing stuff at body weight or high reps and never going up in weight, never having load, especially if you're doing partial ranges to begin with, right?
• 19:17
  Philip Pape: But even if you're doing it full range of motion, you're gonna quickly tap out on the benefits until you increase with load.
• 19:22
  Philip Pape: Well, guess what?
• 19:23
  Philip Pape: If you're applying progressive overload, you're gonna do that anyway.
• 19:26
  Philip Pape: You're gonna have to increase the load anyway, right?
• 19:29
  Philip Pape: We're not talking about maxing out and grinding.
• 19:31
  Philip Pape: I'm talking about getting close to failure like you normally would for mechanical tension.
• 19:34
  Philip Pape: Well, the same principle applies here.
• 19:35
  Philip Pape: So you see how it all naturally works together if you're lifting the right weight anyway.
• 19:39
  Philip Pape: So I want to give you a couple substitutions that might help with flexibility while you're building strength.
• 19:45
  Philip Pape: So let's say you're doing leg presses and for whatever reason you're getting limited depth, you could swap in goblet squats or front squats, where they often make it easier to go super deep and then progressively work deeper and then translate that over to something like a leg press.
• 20:02
  Philip Pape: All right.
• 20:02
  Philip Pape: And I I only say this because I know some people have different hip limitations when they start doing some of these exercises.
• 20:08
  Philip Pape: So it's it's a matter of not having an excuse, but rather building that range of motion in an as natural way as possible.
• 20:15
  Philip Pape: It might be bench, it might be belt squats, might be hack squats, but you get my idea.
• 20:20
  Philip Pape: If you're doing something like leg curls, like these isolation movements, I would go to a compound lift like a Romanian deadlift.
• 20:26
  Philip Pape: RDLs are great for hamstrings, let me tell you.
• 20:28
  Philip Pape: They're so good.
• 20:28
  Philip Pape: Also, good mornings.
• 20:30
  Philip Pape: Good mornings can be a little tricky though on the upper body if you're not used to them.
• 20:33
  Philip Pape: So Romanian deadlifts can be loaded super heavy without, you know, with a pretty good form for most people.
• 20:38
  Philip Pape: If you're doing, say, press downs for your triceps, right?
• 20:41
  Philip Pape: Very popular, fun thing to do is take cable press downs and add in or replace them with overhead dumbbell extensions or overhead cable or easy bar extensions.
• 20:52
  Philip Pape: And then if you're doing regular barbell curls, which I do love barbell curls, and I would say when you get to the bottom, stretch them out and wait a second and come back up.
• 21:00
  Philip Pape: Don't just bounce out of the bottom.
• 21:02
  Philip Pape: But inclined dumbbell curls, let me tell you, are awesome.
• 21:06
  Philip Pape: Kind of related to that would be preacher curls or spider curls, either two-handed or even one-handed on the back of an inclined bench where you can really get that angle of the stretch, that long, like that length of position.
• 21:19
  Philip Pape: And then I mentioned the calf phrases before where you really should be up on a step so you can get a stretch at the bottom.
• 21:24
  Philip Pape: It's not the concentric where you're pushing up that's as important as the bottom stretch.
• 21:29
  Philip Pape: So you don't have to overhaul your entire program, just do a couple swaps.
• 21:32
  Philip Pape: I'm I'm a big fan of swaps no matter what.
• 21:34
  Philip Pape: Even when I follow a program that's somebody else's or my coach's, unless it's fully custom, I'm always going to be making swaps anyway, just for different things.
• 21:43
  Philip Pape: I'll add a slingshot over here, a block over here.
• 21:46
  Philip Pape: Thanks, Tony.
• 21:46
  Philip Pape: Shout out to you.
• 21:47
  Philip Pape: I'll do a, you know, I'll do a what am I trying to say here?
• 21:51
  Philip Pape: A different angle, a different variation, a machine versus a dumbbell, whatever.
• 21:55
  Philip Pape: You know, and and just one quick side tangent.
• 21:57
  Philip Pape: If you think about Olympic weightlifting, the snatch.
• 22:00
  Philip Pape: The clean in jerk, these guys are really strong, but they're also really flexible.
• 22:03
  Philip Pape: And they didn't do it through stretching, they did it through the lifts themselves, right?
• 22:08
  Philip Pape: And they're they're putting themselves under load, full range of motion, all the time.
• 22:12
  Philip Pape: There was actually a study in 2022 of master's weightlifters.
• 22:15
  Philip Pape: So this is age 35 to 76, that found that their shoulder range of motion exceeded the general population and functional capacity was greater than age match people who don't lift, but only 5 to 20% of them supplemented with something like yogurt Pilates.
• 22:32
  Philip Pape: So meaning you lift weights, you get more flexible.
• 22:34
  Philip Pape: All right, as promised, here is a quick test to find out if your squat depth is limited by flexibility, by your motor control, or by something else.
• 22:42
  Philip Pape: I want you to find a box or a bench or a sturdy chair that is about knee height.
• 22:48
  Philip Pape: So not like a tall, what do you call it, stool or something like that, but a short, firm surface about knee height.
• 22:55
  Philip Pape: I want you to stand in front of it with your feet roughly shoulder width apart, knees pointed slightly out.
• 23:00
  Philip Pape: Now sit down to the box slowly, take about three seconds to lower yourself all the way to the box, and then stand back up.
• 23:09
  Philip Pape: If you can do that with your heels flat and your chest up, then your flexibility is not the problem.
• 23:16
  Philip Pape: You have the range of motion.
• 23:18
  Philip Pape: You have it.
• 23:19
  Philip Pape: You just have to start loading it.
• 23:20
  Philip Pape: Okay.
• 23:21
  Philip Pape: And this is problem one that with most people, if I say, can you sit down to a box and get back up?
• 23:25
  Philip Pape: And you can, you're good.
• 23:26
  Philip Pape: You have the range.
• 23:28
  Philip Pape: Now, if your heels pop up or your chest collapses forward or something like that, maybe you have a little bit of an issue with your ankles or hips.
• 23:35
  Philip Pape: You can, you can what you can do is put a rolled towel or a plate, you know, a small like five-pound or 10-pound plate under your heels and try it again.
• 23:42
  Philip Pape: And if you're able to do it, then okay, maybe there's something with your ankles we have to look at, which again is typically resolved just through the squatting itself.
• 23:50
  Philip Pape: But a lot of people have just, you know, poor ankles for a variety of reasons.
• 23:54
  Philip Pape: And and one way to strengthen them is work on calf raises from a deficit or do goblet squats with your heels elevated until you build a range to go flat.
• 24:04
  Philip Pape: You know, I when I started squatting, I was able to squat in, I'll call them normal flat shoes and you know, weightlifter shoes with a heel, but it was a little bit tough for me to do it barefoot, which was an indicator that, you know, I had a little bit of a lack of flexibility, but it very quickly resolved itself just by squatting.
• 24:23
  Philip Pape: Now, once you can sit to the box comfortably, guess what you do?
• 24:27
  Philip Pape: Lower the box height.
• 24:28
  Philip Pape: So this is where if you have a stack of plates or something like that, or if you're lucky enough to you have a plyometric box that's just really low, like 12 inches, but some way to drop it, heck, even if it's big, thick books that you've got to stack up.
• 24:41
  Philip Pape: And you're gonna drop it.
• 24:42
  Philip Pape: And the idea is you want to eventually be able to sit to a low box at about 12 inches, 12 to 14 inches, where you're doing it under control, your feet are flat.
• 24:50
  Philip Pape: That demonstrates you do have the range of motion for a proper deep squat.
• 24:54
  Philip Pape: Again, a lot of you can just already do this.
• 24:56
  Philip Pape: And from there, you have to load it.
• 24:58
  Philip Pape: So you can load it in front with like a dumbbell or kettlebell at your at your chest, like goblet style, and then start building strength of that range.
• 25:06
  Philip Pape: Or you can load it on the back with a dowel or a light barbell or a full-on barbell again, depending on how strong you are, just loading it.
• 25:13
  Philip Pape: I mean, I would prefer the barbell if you're gonna eventually do the barbell squats, but you can do it in really any way you want.
• 25:19
  Philip Pape: So you're gonna control the eccentric, you know, two, three seconds at most, lightly sit on the box, but don't let go of all of your tension.
• 25:28
  Philip Pape: Hold on to that tension and then squat back up with explosiveness.
• 25:32
  Philip Pape: And that's how you get started.
• 25:34
  Philip Pape: Okay, and you're gonna build your strength and flexibility.
• 25:36
  Philip Pape: You're gonna be just fine.
• 25:36
  Philip Pape: You don't have to do anything extra.
• 25:38
  Philip Pape: All right, anyway, if you know someone who is having trouble with their flexibility, send them this episode, let them listen to it.
• 25:44
  Philip Pape: Maybe it will open their eyes and ears to all the new possibilities.
• 25:48
  Philip Pape: Until next time, keep using using your wits, lifting those weights.
• 25:51
  Philip Pape: And remember, lifting is the best stretching tool you already have.
• 25:54
  Philip Pape: You just gotta do it.
• 25:55
  Philip Pape: I'm Philip Pate, and I'll talk to you next time here on the Wits and Weights podcast.