Source notes

Getting less flexible with age does not appear to happen evenly across the body. Researchers examined 6,000 assessments from a Brazilian sample using 20 assisted movements across seven joint regions. Older participants generally had lower flexibility, but shoulders and trunk showed larger relative differences than knees and elbows. In men, the shoulder's share of the standardized overall flexibility score was about 14% in the late twenties and 5% at age 85. Those figures describe the shoulder's contribution to a combined score, not the percentage of shoulder movement lost by an individual.

A relatively preserved joint can account for more of the total even while its own flexibility decreases. The changing shares therefore do not mean older knees became more flexible. Women generally scored higher than men, and joint patterns varied with age. These comparisons describe people measured at different ages; they do not show the same people losing movement over decades or establish why the differences occurred.

How Does This Show Up in Real Life?

The useful question is not simply whether you are flexible, but which movement is restricted. Imagine being able to bend your knee comfortably while having difficulty reaching your arm behind you. A broad label such as stiff or flexible would miss that difference. Likewise, an easy result in one movement would not establish that other joints have enough range for their tasks. The authors argue for assessing multiple joints and considering whether flexibility work should be targeted rather than uniform. That supports a more specific discussion of a movement problem, not a ready-made stretching program. The tests here involved an examiner moving the joint; they are not instructions to force yourself into a test position. Nor does comparing yourself with an age group reveal the cause of a restriction. A population pattern can help frame a question, but it cannot decide whether your limitation needs treatment or which intervention would change it.

The sample was predominantly White and socioeconomically advantaged, with competitive athletes and people with major mobility limitations excluded. Detailed activity histories were unavailable, so habitual movement could not explain the patterns. The single-assessment design cannot separate aging from differences between generations. No training intervention established that targeting the joints with larger age differences would preserve mobility or daily function.

Take this as evidence against treating whole-body flexibility as one uniform trait. It helps refine what to assess, but not diagnose a personal problem. The next practical step depends on the movement and its context, not on assuming everyone follows the same age-related pattern.