HOW SUPPLEMENTATION HELPS YOU WITH YOUR LONG-TERM FLEXIBILITY GOALS

FLEXIBLE has been specifically created to support flexibility, but how does it work?

We know that there are no chemicals, medicine or muscle relaxants in this revolutionary supplement, so what's the secret? While there are no magic pills to improve flexibility, FLEXIBLE can support your path to your flexibility goals, prevent muscle stiffness and joint degeneration.

To maintain or improve flexibility, there are a few components to consider.

1. Health: The elasticity and quality of your soft tissue.
2. Resistance: The absence of inflammation, pain and adherences in your joints.
3. Recovery: Your ability to stretch and train consistently due to a fast recovery process.

To achieve optimal joint function, it is important that joints receive the correct nutrients. Let's see how FLEXIBLE interacts with these three components to give you an optimal mobility.

JOINT HEALTH

First, your overall health will influence your body resilience to stretching as well as the quality of your joints. Being healthy, rested and well-hydrated will help you have a flexible body or at least give you the best chance at improving flexibility.

Collagen is a protein molecule made up of amino acids. It provides structural support to connective tissue. Due to its rigidity and resistance to stretching, it is the perfect matrix for skin, tendons, bones, and ligaments. Collagen protein represents 90% of our body's connective tissue and approximately 30% of the proteins within the whole body. Unfortunately, there is an inevitable decrease in collagen levels as we age. As a result, our connective tissue becomes less supple and resistant to stress and more prone to inflammation and ruptures.

Maintaining high collagen levels is important for the flexibility and integrity of your ligaments, muscles, tendons and skin. You can't expect to stretch a mature body as you'd do with a 'full-collagen' young body. Pulling too much on a joint may create irreversible damage to your tendons and ligaments.

It is no surprise that collagen supplements directly target this issue. However, not every type of collagen has the same effect on joints. Premium grass-fed bovine collagen peptides are the most assimilable by the human body: as much as 90% of FLEXIBLE collagen peptides are absorbed into the blood just a few hours after ingestion! (1) (2).

Additionally, bromelain—a pineapple enzyme added in FLEXIBLE—will help the proper digestion of collagen, improving its benefits. Methylsulfonylmethane ( MSM ) —a natural sulfur compound found in all living organisms—has been proved very effective at restoring damaged collagen structures.

INFLAMMATION

Secondly, a joint in an inflammatory state will not allow complete flexibility. It is a wrong idea to overstretch a painful joint. It will be more resistant to stretching as a self-protecting reaction and oedema might also restrict movement. The slightest discomfort is often enough to keep you from achieving your flexibility goals. Joint pain should not be considered banal; it's a sign that you need to address the problem and heal first. Injuries are closer than they appear, especially when pain is in the picture.

That said, studies have proven that MSM can help reduce joint pain by acting as an anti-inflammatory agent without the negative side effects of analgesics or painkillers (3). The results of these studies show us how important it is for our body's cells to receive proper nutrition like collagen peptides and MSM—necessary for healthy collagen production.

Glucosamine is one of the most potent supplements to prevent cartilage degeneration. It was an obvious choice for the FLEXIBLE formula. Furthermore, glucosamine and bromelain are both medicine-free anti-inflammatories helping you to keep pain and injuries at bay while you keep wisely pushing your body's boundaries. It is crucial to avoid constant inflammatory levels in your joints in order to keep mobility and joints integrity, regardless of your age or level of fitness and flexibility. 

RECOVERY

 Thirdly, If you take your flexibility training seriously, you are no stranger to having to pull on a stiff muscle and joint. However, starting to stretch on a body that hasn't recovered from a previous training can be counter-productive and erase past improvements instead of letting you improve further.

On the other hand, training consistently is one of the keys to improvements, and as we age, recovery times get long-drawn, delaying our improvements. It becomes more and more difficult to juggle with the concept of training versus recovery.

FLEXIBLE components speed up recovery time after exercise by reducing muscle tension, feeding your muscles premium proteins and getting your body back in shape quickly to undertake the next training. By speeding up recovery, you allow yourself to start training again without risks of injury. Don't lose your time and energy working on a body that just hasn't recovered yet—precious time in an athlete's career.

It's no coincidence that quality collagen peptides found in FLEXIBLE have been recognised by the IOC (International Olympic Committee) (4) as one of six supplements that may assist with 'training capacity, recovery, muscle soreness and injury management'. Not only it may help recovery, but it also prevents joints injuries. A study conducted at Penn State University (5) saw a statistically significant improvement in activity-related joint pain among athletes supplementing with 10 g of collagen peptides daily.

CONCLUSION

Overall health, inflammation levels and recovery time must be taken into account and calibrated in order to improve flexibility. LEMAlab carefully designed FLEXIBLE by adding precise amounts and highest quality of grass-fed Collagen Peptides, MSM, Glucosamine and Bromelain in order to boost your flexibility and minimise injuries on your path to a more flexible you.

If you liked this content you might be interested in:

• Overtraining and Injuries
• Science-backed supplements to help tendinopathy
• 13 hacks elite athletes use to enhance their flexibility

REFERENCES 

[1] S. Oesser, et al., “Oral Administration of 14C Labelled Gelatine Hydroslysate Leads to an Accumulation of Radioactivity in Cartilage of Mice (C57/BL),” Journal of Nutrition 129, 1891–1895 (1999).

[2] S. Ichikawa, et al., “Hydroxyproline-Containing Dipeptides and Tripeptides Quantified at High Concentration in Human Blood After Oral Administration of Gelatine Hydrolysate,” International Journal of Food Sciences and Nutrition 61(1), 109 (2010).

[3] Butawan M, Benjamin RL, Bloomer RJ. Methylsulfonylmethane: Applications and Safety of a Novel Dietary Supplement. Nutrients. 2017;9(3):290. Published 2017 Mar 16. doi:10.3390/nu9030290

[4] Maughan RJ, Burke LM, Dvorak J, et al. IOC consensus statement: dietary supplements and the high-performance athlete. Br J Sports Med. 2018;52(7):439-455. doi:10.1136/bjsports-2018-099027

[5] Clark KL, Sebastianelli W, Flechsenhar KR, et al. 24-Week study on the use of collagen hydrolysate as a dietary supplement in athletes with activity-related joint pain. Curr Med Res Opin. 2008;24(5):1485-1496. doi:10.1185/030079908x291967