Peter Attia

But all of the sort of stability and dynamic stuff I do incorporates movement at end ranges.

So I'll give you an example of why I think the notion of flexibility might be a little bit misunderstood here.

If you ask a person to stand up and with their legs straight touch their toes, most people would say that's a great test of flexibility in the hamstring, right?

And most people can't do that.

What they don't realize is everybody's hamstrings are long enough to allow them to do that.

The reason they can't do it is their central nervous system will not release them to do it.

Does that make sense?

Interesting.

Their central nervous system won't release them to do it.

That's right.

It doesn't feel safe for them to do it.

Now, how do I know this?

Because if you take a person under general anesthesia,

you can put them into almost any position possible.

So if you took a person under general anesthesia, laid them on the operating room table, you could lift their leg up to here.

When they're awake, you couldn't get it past here.

When they wake up from surgery, will they have a torn hamstring?

Not at all.

They won't even know their leg was moved.

The difference is when they're under general anesthesia, their brain is not sending a signal to the leg that says, don't lift.