Have you ever seen someone who did an exercise where they had no control over what they were doing? And have you ever seen a person who did an exercise where they were so stiff and couldn’t move?
People have different levels of flexibility and therefore their training program needs to be customized to find a good balance. People who are very flexible need to do exercises that tighten their muscles so that they won’t hyperextend their joints. And people who are not as flexible need to do exercises that lengthen their muscles.
For example, one of my clients is a stay-at-home mother in her late forties who is very flexible. I do a lot of power movements with her, so she won’t hyperextend her joints and cause any injuries.
One of my clients is a high level executive who used to work out on his own in a commercial facility. He came to my training studio because he injuring his knees during squatting. He was double-jointed; When he started training with me, I immediately saw that every time he came up in the squat he hyperextended the knees. Therefore, we had to shorten his squat motion to retrain his body not to over-extend.