WORDS DR MEGHAN HESTER
Flexibility work is seen as an important aspect of rowing, whether as part of a training programme or as an injury prevention strategy. Whether you are an injured or healthy rower, you are sure to have experienced a coach, fellow rower or manual therapist saying something like, “You should stretch your hamstrings,” or “Your lack of flexibility affects your rowing”. To which, in my opinion, the response should be, “Why?” and “How much?”. In the same vein, measuring rowers’ flexibility with the sit-andreach test (a measure of back and hamstring flexibility) or knee-to-wall test (a measure of calf flexibility) begs two questions: firstly how is being flexible an advantage; and secondly is it possible to have too much flexibility?