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Best Home Workout Equipment For Beginners

Posted on May 4, 2021June 23, 2022 Education, Physiotherapy

Equipment that you will need as a bare minimum to have a good and appropriate workout at home.

Here’s the list!

Today I’ll be sharing with you what are the main equipment that I get most of my clients who never have any exercise equipment at home to start having.

It’s good enough to have a whole range of exercises to do with these equipment from beginner to advanced individuals.

Of course, you can have more than these listed and fancy gym equipment at home, but I find mostly these equipment that I’ve listed are generally enough for any clients that come to me for any type of rehab.

Can you do strengthening without any of these equipment? It will be very difficult. Surely there are bodyweight exercises that you can do but if you are injured or are in pain, body weight exercise is probably not the best or most appropriate to start with.

It’s either your weight or nothing in between, hence it’s difficult to prescribe any appropriate exercise for individuals when they don’t have any sort of strengthening equipment to help them rehab.

Strengthening is all about progression. If the resistance band or the weight doesn’t change you don’t get stronger. You always have to start light and work your way up, exercise progression can change as quickly as every week or as slow as every couple of weeks. Starting with a weight that is suitable for you now might not be the case any more 2 weeks later.

Hence exercise that you find useful to eliminate your discomfort in the beginning, you might not feel the same benefit after doing them for a month. Hence it is important that you have some sort of equipment at home that will allow your progression for the exercises that you are doing.

The appropriate weight, with the appropriate repetition at the appropriate time of your rehab and it changes as your symptoms get better.

Keeping in mind these tips/advice are of general nature and do not take your injuries/history into considerations. If you are experiencing any pain or would like an individualised tailored program to help improve your dancing, I highly recommend you speak to any one of your physiotherapists to guide you through your rehab journey.

Here at Capital Physiotherapy, our women’s health physiotherapists are the experts in helping you to fix your issues as well as all the discomfort that comes with it!

We can help you lead a healthier and pain free lifestyle.

Our physiotherapist will be able to give a full assessment on you and come out with individualised advice/ treatment plan that is tailored for your particular needs.

At Capital Physiotherapy, your initial appointment is 40-60minutes long. This allows our physios to be thorough in their assessment, as well as giving them enough time to give you treatment on the same consultation!

For any physiotherapy related concerns drop us an email info@capitalphysiotherapy.com.au or make an appointment through our booking system!

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Why Do My Lower Back Pops & Clicks?

Posted on April 29, 2021June 23, 2022 Education, Exercise, Lower Back Pain, Physiotherapy

Does your lower back or the back of your hip keep making popping noises while you do leg raises exercises? If it clicks and pops without pain should you be concerned? Can this problem be fixed? Well this is what we will be discussing in .

Our lower back is joint at the pelvis and then to the hip, this joint that connects your lower back to your pelvis is what we call the sacroiliac joint or in short the (SIJ) joint.

This structure is mostly stabilised by very very strong ligaments around the area, hence if for some reasons your ligaments are loosening and you don’t have the muscles strength around that area to stabilise this structure, it will start to move every time you move your legs and your back creating a popping sound with or without pain.

If it’s causing popping sensation without pain should you be concerned? The answer is Yes. Even if you don’t feel the pain you should still be concerned as this issue is an indication that you have weak lower back and hip muscles and if left untreated you will have a higher risk of developing lower back or hip issues down the track. Especially for women, if you are already experiencing SIJ clicking now, if you are planning to have a baby in the future you have a very high risk of having lower back issues throughout the pregnancy and even after the pregnancy when there is more weight on your back and when the hormone of the pregnancy relaxes the ligaments even more.

Our back has our back muscles and bum (hip muscles) that works together to specifically stabilise this joint while they are moving. These muscle groups are what we call the Posterior Oblique Sling muscles.

Meet Melanie Lim, a Bachelor of Physiotherapy Graduate from the University of Melbourne. She has gained a wealth of clinical experience through both public and private systems during her undergraduate studies to be here today at Capital Physiotherapy’s Hawthorn Physio clinic.

She has completed advance training to specialise in a range of physical therapy treatments such as sport, dance, pre and postnatal, and dry needling. With a keen interest in treating and educating her clients (and YouTube audience), she aims to create custom pain treatment management plans for the Hawthorn community, and Melbourne at large.

At the Hawthorn physio clinic, Capital Physiotherapy offer bulk billing for their patients. Get in contact with Melanie today and book an appointment for a one on one session with her!

Additional Information:

We also provide Telehealth Consultation for your safety and convenience during this pandemic.

Keeping in mind these tips/advice are of general nature and do not take your injuries/history into considerations. If you are experiencing any pain or would like an individualised tailored program to help improve your dancing, I highly recommend you speak to any one of your physiotherapists to guide you through your rehab journey.

Here at Capital Physiotherapy, our women’s health physiotherapists are the experts in helping you to fix your issues as well as all the discomfort that comes with it!

We can help you lead a healthier and pain free lifestyle.

Our physiotherapist will be able to give a full assessment on you and come out with individualised advice/ treatment plan that is tailored for your particular needs.

At Capital Physiotherapy, your initial appointment is 40-60minutes long. This allows our physios to be thorough in their assessment, as well as giving them enough time to give you treatment on the same consultation!

For any physiotherapy related concerns drop us an email info@capitalphysiotherapy.com.au

Hawthorn Physio Clinic

Book An Appointment

Footscray Physio Clinic

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Does Strengthening Make Your Already Tight Muscles Even Tighter?

Posted on April 21, 2021January 30, 2023 Education, Exercise, Physiotherapy

Over the past few weeks it’s been like deja vu one after another my client came into my clinic telling me they restrain from doing exercises as they are afraid it will make their already tight muscles tighter!

As weird as it may sound to you but i’m going tell you this is a myth. Strengthening your muscles does not make it “tight” or “stiff”

If done a certain way (eccentric strengthening-Eccentric training is when you contract the muscle while it is getting longer. ) it can actually help increase the stretch tolerance and flexibility of that muscles.

Just stretching and not strengthening your muscles will make those muscles prone to injuries.

A lot of our clients often report a sensation of tightness and pain in their muscles. As such we are frequently asked for stretches or whether massage or dry needling would help.

While stretching might give a short-term benefit, strong evidence have shown that that eccentric training can;

Increase the length of our muscle fibres and
Improve joint range of movement AND
Improve muscle strength AND
Reduce injury risk at the same time!

Soreness isn’t always an indicator that a muscle needs to be stretched. It can also be an indicator that the muscle itself isn’t strong enough.

A lot of times, chronically tight muscles are tight because they’re weak.

Weakness reduces efficiency of muscle activation which leads to over activating muscles fibre that is not required and constantly being overworked creating a “tightness” sensation.

By increasing the strength of the muscles, you increase the efficiency of the muscles and hence reduce unnecessary overloading of it which will help reduce that “ tight” / “stiff “ sensation.

Now, I’m not saying that stretching is useless, because if you are one of those people who never stretch in your entire life, you probably do very much need stretching, massaging, dry needling.

Our muscles work best in their mid range. However if you increase the flexibility of your muscles,your ideal/ optimal range would significantly increase as well.

So the ideal situation or training routine should have a combination of stretches and strengthening at the same time to maximise the benefit and reduce your sensation of “tightness” & “stiffness”

At the Hawthorn physio clinic, Capital Physiotherapy offer bulk billing for their patients. Get in contact with Melanie today and book an appointment for a one on one session with her!She has completed advance training to specialise in a range of physical therapy treatments such as sport, dance, pre and postnatal, and dry needling. With a keen interest in treating and educating her clients (and YouTube audience), she aims to create custom pain treatment management plans for the Hawthorn community, and Melbourne at large.

Additional Information:

We also provide Telehealth Consultation for your safety and convenience during this pandemic.

Keeping in mind these tips/advice are of general nature and do not take your injuries/history into considerations. If you are experiencing any pain or would like an individualised tailored program to help improve your dancing, I highly recommend you speak to any one of your physiotherapists to guide you through your rehab journey.

Here at Capital Physiotherapy, our women’s health physiotherapists are the experts in helping you to fix your issues as well as all the discomfort that comes with it!

We can help you lead a healthier and pain free lifestyle.

Our physiotherapist will be able to give a full assessment on you and come out with individualised advice/ treatment plan that is tailored for your particular needs.

At Capital Physiotherapy, your initial appointment is 40-60minutes long. This allows our physios to be thorough in their assessment, as well as giving them enough time to give you treatment on the same consultation!

For any physiotherapy related concerns drop us an email info@capitalphysiotherapy.com.au

Hawthorn Physio Clinic

Book An Appointment

Footscray Physio Clinic

Book An Appointment

Can’t get legs straight for leg raises?

Posted on April 14, 2021June 8, 2022 Physiotherapy

Having trouble straightening your legs during leg raises?
Can’t seem to get your legs any higher in the air?

Well in this blog I’ll show you how you can achieve those nice elongated legs up in the air!

Holding your legs in mid air requires not only muscles & joint flexibility but also muscles strength to be able to prolong the hold without shaking and at the same time making it look elongated and effortless.

In this video I’ll run through a few simple tests to see if length or strength is the limiting factor that prevents you from maintaining straight elongated legs within mid air.

Who knows? You might realise it’s actually both the flexibility & the strength that is limiting you!

Here at Capital Physiotherapy, our women’s health physiotherapists are the experts in helping you to fix your issues as well as all the discomfort that comes with it!

We can help you lead a healthier and pain free lifestyle.

Our female physiotherapist will be able to give a full assessment on you and come out with individualised advice/ treatment plan that is tailored for your particular needs.

For any physiotherapy related concerns drop us an email info@capitalphysiotherapy.com.au or make an appointment through our booking system!

You will find us at any of our clinics near you:

Additional Information:

We also provide Telehealth Consultation for your safety and convenience during this pandemic.

What Is Women’s Health Physiotherapy?

Posted on March 30, 2021June 8, 2022 Physiotherapy

What is women’s health physiotherapy?

It remains a mystery to many people what a physiotherapist actually does, let alone a “Women’s Health Physiotherapist”

We are constantly asked;

– What exactly is a women’s health physiotherapist?

– Should I see one?

What condition does women’s health physiotherapist see?

pelvic floor diagram

At Capital Physiotherapy we have female physiotherapist that will be able to treat women’s health related conditions such as:

Pregnancy related pain and/ or dysfunction (pre- and post-natal)
Abdominal separation (rectus diastasis)
Pelvic floor strengthening
Caesarean or perineal scar management
Pelvic girdle pain/ “pelvic instability”
Urinary urgency
Neck Pain and Stiffness including and Wry Neck
Headaches
Back Pain including disc injuries and pinched nerves, Sciatica
Wrist pain (carpal tunnel syndrome, de quervain’s tendinitis)
Mastitis

Why Consult a Women’s Physiotherapy?

Accurate diagnosis
Professional treatment
Relieve pain
Education and advice about injuries/discomfort
Recovery from injury
Rapid return to work and lifestyle

Treatment Techniques

Depending on your injury and the cause of your injury/discomfort, our therapist will assess and offer a vast array of treatment techniques that will suit you best.

Massage Therapy
Strengthening
Education and Advice
Dry Needling
Clinical Pilates
Electrotherapy
Taping

Commonly a women’s health physiotherapist is also involved with developing exercise programs and running exercise classes specifically for women. At Capital Physiotherapy, our female physiotherapists use our additional training and advanced knowledge of the female body to expertly design individual programs that are safe and effective for women of all “ages and stages” who may or may not have pain or dysfunction.

Here at Capital Physiotherapy, our women’s health physiotherapists are the experts in helping you to fix your issues as well as all the discomfort that comes with it!

We can help you lead a healthier and pain free lifestyle.

Our female physiotherapist will be able to give a full assessment on you and come out with individualised advice/ treatment plan that is tailored for your particular needs.

For any physiotherapy related concerns drop us an email info@capitalphysiotherapy.com.au or make an appointment through our booking system!

You will find us at any of our clinics near you:

Additional Information:

We also provide Telehealth Consultation for your safety and convenience during this pandemic.

How To Improve Your Turnout Fast

Posted on March 29, 2021June 8, 2022 Exercise

Having trouble with your turn out while dancing?

Does your hip cramp up every time you try to push your turn out?

Have you been stretching heaps but still is struggling with your turn out?

Well stay tuned because in this blog I’ll show you some tips and strategies that will help improve your turn out while dancing.

Holding your turnout requires not only muscles & joint flexibility but also muscles strength to be able to prolong the hold without shaking and at the same time making it look graceful & effortless.

In this video I’ll run through a few simple tests to see if length or strength is your limiting factor that prevents you from maintaining your turn out.

Who knows? You might realise it’s actually both the flexibility & the strength that is limiting you!

Here at Capital Physiotherapy, our physiotherapists are the experts in helping you to fix your issues as well as all the discomfort that comes with it!

We can help you lead a healthier and pain free lifestyle.

Our physiotherapist will be able to give a full assessment on you and come out with individualised advice/ treatment plan that is tailored for your particular needs.

For any physiotherapy related concerns drop us an email info@capitalphysiotherapy.com.au or make an appointment through our booking system!

You will find us at any of our clinics near you:

Additional Information:

We also provide Telehealth Consultation for your safety and convenience during this pandemic.

Pointe Workout For Beginners

Posted on March 23, 2021June 8, 2022 Exercise

Does your toes get cramp every time you try to point your toes?

Want to have a nicer pointe technique?

Want to point your toes without curling?

Toe cramping or toe curling while pointing are all due to poor technique while pointing your toes.

If you are experiencing cramping while dancing it means that you are being overly tense and using the wrong muscles group to actually do the pointing motion same as if your toes are curling it means that you are not using your foot muscles (aka intrinsic muscles) to achieved those beautiful pointe but instead using your long extrinsic muscles to do the movement.

So what is intrinsic muscles and what is extrinsic muscles?

The muscles acting on the foot can be divided into two distinct groups; extrinsic and intrinsic muscles.

The extrinsic muscles arise from the anterior, posterior and lateral compartments of the leg. They are mainly responsible for big movement of your ankle.

The intrinsic muscles are located within the foot and are responsible for the fine motor actions of the foot mainly balance and arch control.

Intrinsic muscles are foot muscles that start and finish in your foot and those muscles are vital for anyone who does any kind of performing arts. It will give you stability but also help you achieve a perfect arch on your pointe without injuring your ankle and foot.

If your intrinsic muscles are weak, you will end up using your extrinsic muscles.

Using extrinsic muscles to do your pointe will lead to many foot and ankle injuries in the future.

Our feet have exactly almost identical muscles as our hands so technically whatever your hands can do, if we train it well our feet should be able to do as well hence that is why you see people who lose their upper limb are able to do intricate movement with their feet. If you have always worn very supportive shoes most of the time, at home or when you run, you most likely have been neglecting your foot control muscles which are important for balance and manoeuvring the terrain when we run. Hence you rely on your extrinsic muscles to do both the actual dance movement and also the balancing, pointing, arch control. Therefore it is inevitable that they will eventually get overused and get injured. Following this video I’ll show you some exercises that you can do to start engaging your foot control muscles and in turn reduce the load of your extrinsic muscles which will then help improve your overall efficiency of your dancing and reduce your discomfort while pointing.

Keeping in mind these tips/advice are of general nature and do not take your injuries/history into considerations. If you are experiencing any pain or would like an individualised tailored program to help improve your performing arts sports, I highly recommend you speak to any one of your physiotherapists to guide you through your dance journey.

Here at Capital Physiotherapy, our physiotherapists are the experts in helping you to fix your issues as well as all the discomfort that comes with it!

We can help you lead a healthier and pain free lifestyle.

Our physiotherapist will be able to give a full assessment on you and come out with individualised advice/ treatment plan that is tailored for your particular needs.

For any physiotherapy related concerns drop us an email info@capitalphysiotherapy.com.au or make an appointment through our booking system!

You will find us at any of our clinics near you:

Additional Information:

We also provide Telehealth Consultation for your safety and convenience during this pandemic.

Exercises to Improve Running Mechanics

Posted on March 3, 2021June 8, 2022 Exercise

Want to improve your speed? Distance? Endurance of your running?

Today in this blog I’m going to share with you some exercises that will help you improve the efficiency of your running as a whole.

Strength and conditioning outside running is one of the most common things that is overlooked by many runners. To help you improve your speed and endurance as well as the longevity of the sports that you like.

I cannot emphasize enough how important strength training is for running. Adding strength and conditioning exercise to your routine, even one or two times per week, can actually be very beneficial to your training—it can help prevent injuries and help to build up the efficiency of your running.

I’m going to share with you some of the exercises that I normally start off with for most runners that come into my clinic. Doing these exercises you will be able to significantly improve the efficiency of your running.

Keeping in mind these tips/advice are of general nature and do not take your injuries/history into considerations. If you are experiencing any pain or would like an individualised tailored program to help improve your running, I highly recommend you speak to any one of your physiotherapists to guide you through your running journey.

Here at Capital Physiotherapy, our physiotherapists are the experts in helping you to fix your issues as well as all the discomfort that comes with it!

We can help you lead a healthier and pain free lifestyle.

Our physiotherapist will be able to give a full assessment on you and come out with individualised advice/ treatment plan that is tailored for your particular needs.

For any physiotherapy related concerns drop us an email info@capitalphysiotherapy.com.au or make an appointment through our booking system!

You will find us at any of our clinics near you:

Additional Information:

We also provide Telehealth Consultation for your safety and convenience during this pandemic.

Common Beginner Runners Mistakes & How To Prevent Them

Posted on February 22, 2021January 30, 2023 Uncategorized

Did you start running as your new sports for the year? In this blog I’ll share with you some of the common beginner runner’s mistakes and how you can prevent them!

Overly Enthusiastic About Your New Sport

Sorry to put a damper on your enthusiasm but many beginner runners go from none running to running every day! That’s a recipe for disaster.

Set some long term (a year) and short term goals (monthly). Remember slow and steady win the race. You want to start off no more than 3x a week running a short distance for about 1-5km. Slowly progress your running at a comfortable pace depending on what your long term goal is and you can break up your progression according to your long term goal. Keeping in mind, your body is new to this sport too. You need to give them some time to slowly adapt to this new sport and what it’s doing to your body.

Stretches before running

There are a lot of misconceptions about stretching before exercising . Although stretches are important to help improve the flexibility of the joints and muscles, timing for when to do them is also very important; doing them at the wrong time of your workout could have an opposite effect of what you are trying to achieve. You actually shouldn’t perform static stretching before you exercise, especially if your workout involves the lower body. The muscles aren’t warmed up yet, and performing static stretching while you’re still cold won’t do anything in terms of injury prevention. More and more evidence has now shown that static stretching could actually have negative effects on strength, power and speed. Hence, static stretching should be avoided during a warm-up. Dynamic stretching has instead become more popular during warm-ups. Dynamic stretching involves deliberately moving the limbs repeatedly through its entire range of movement. Dynamic stretching doesn’t impede performance the way static stretching does. In fact, it may even increase muscle strength while still providing the short-term increases in ﬂexibility. Therefore, before you run, a bit of dynamic stretching is recommended and only do static stretch after your workout.

Overly focus on distance and speed

Especially if you’re just starting out, don’t over-focus on your distance and speed and neglect the others. Not only can this limit you as a runner but it can also leave the risk of developing an overuse injury. Conditioning exercises outside running is also a very important part of being a runner.

Your locations & running shoes do matter!

Your training surface & shoe support all will impact your running capacity and efficiency. For example, if you only run on a concrete surface. The impact forces going through your joints are higher and your muscles need to absorb more shock as the floor absorbs almost none! What does this mean for training? You would want to change your running route on a regular basis to make sure that you are not exposing your joints to the same impact all the time.

Similar principles apply to your shoes. Proper running shoes will help absorb more shock for you while running which in turn will reduce the load on the joints. I also do encourage people to alternate between supportive running shoes and also barefoot running shoes to change up the muscles you used to run.

That brings us to how often we need to change our running shoes?

Most good running shoes can last for about 500 and 750km (310 and 465miles)

However I encourage you to ask the shop person when you are buying your shoes how long they will last before the supportive structure in the shoes starts wearing out. Avid runners would change their running shoes as often as every 5-6 months even though the shoes still look new!

Injuries is common for any sports

If you are serious about running, it is almost inevitable that injuries will come at some point of your running journey. It’s not just running, injuries are normal for any sport. It is almost unheard of if you are into a particular sport and you have been doing it for years that you never get any form of injuries from it. Be it contact sports or non-contact sports. Do not get discouraged or scared. I see a lot of adult runners falling in love with running but they encounter some injuries that took weeks/months to recover and after that incident, they decided to not push themselves to be better or completely just quit running altogether. You need to realise and understand that injuries are common for any sports and no exception to running and if you do have an injuries from running make sure you take the time needed to properly rehab it and return to running at your own pace, don’t rush into doing the distance/speed that you do pre injuries but instead, build up to it again. And never get fearful or discouraged from running because of injuries. When you are trying to learn a new sport it is normal that you get injured as you are constantly trying to challenge your body to a new physical limit. Therefore be proud that you are pushing yourself to be better and never give up doing what you enjoy.

Keeping in mind these exercises are of general nature and do not take your injuries/history into considerations. In order to fully rehab your discomfort you will still need to continue to progress to harder and more functional strengthening exercises that are specifically tailored for you, in order to feel pain free while working.

Here at Capital Physiotherapy, our physiotherapists are the experts in helping you to fix your issues as well as all the discomfort that comes with it!

We can help you lead a healthier and pain free lifestyle.

Our physiotherapist will be able to give a full assessment on you and come out with individualised advice/ treatment plan that is tailored for your particular needs.

At Capital Physiotherapy, your initial appointment is 40-60 minutes long. This allows our physios to be thorough in their assessment, as well as giving them enough time to give you treatment on the same consultation!

For any physiotherapy related concerns drop us an email info@capitalphysiotherapy.com.au or make an appointment through our booking system!

You will find us at any of our clinics near you:

Additional Information:

We also provide Telehealth Consultation for your safety and convenience during this pandemic.

How to do a Split for Non-flexible People?

Posted on February 15, 2021June 8, 2022 Uncategorized

Dying to do the splits? Before you embark on the (possibly grueling) journey to splits-ability, you should know that it’s not just a cool party trick—being able to do the splits also comes with some real fitness cred.

Do you always consider yourself as inflexible?

You can’t touch your toes? All your fitness instructors/ health practitioners have told you that your lack of mobility and flexibility is keeping you from getting better, faster?

This video is exactly for you!

If you are starting a new sport that requires you to do a split, dancing, aerial silk, figure skating, yoga, MMA or maybe you are just trying to be more flexible that this is what we are going to show you now.

In the beginning it will feel painful and almost like you are tearing your legs apart lol, the pain might even linger on for about 1-2 days after but about 4-6 weeks these pain should start to feel much much better, you will still feel the stretch but not in extreme pain anymore.

Here at Capital Physiotherapy, our physiotherapists are the experts in helping you to fix your issues as well as all the discomfort that comes with it!

We can help you lead a healthier and pain free lifestyle.

Our physiotherapist will be able to give a full assessment on you and come out with individualised advice/ treatment plan that is tailored for your particular needs.

At Capital Physiotherapy, your initial appointment is 40-60 minutes long. This allows our physios to be thorough in their assessment, as well as giving them enough time to give you treatment on the same consultation!

For any physiotherapy related concerns drop us an email info@capitalphysiotherapy.com.au or make an appointment through our booking system!

You will find us at any of our clinics near you:

Additional Information:

We also provide Telehealth Consultation for your safety and convenience during this pandemic.

Best Home Workout Equipment For Beginners

Hawthorn Physio Clinic

Footscray Physio Clinic

Why Do My Lower Back Pops & Clicks?

Want to know more about Melanie – Our Hawthorn Physiotherapist?

Hawthorn Physio Clinic

Footscray Physio Clinic

Does Strengthening Make Your Already Tight Muscles Even Tighter?

Want to know more about Melanie – Our Hawthorn Physiotherapist?

Hawthorn Physio Clinic

Footscray Physio Clinic

Can’t get legs straight for leg raises?

What Is Women’s Health Physiotherapy?

What is women’s health physiotherapy?

What condition does women’s health physiotherapist see?

Why Consult a Women’s Physiotherapy?

Treatment Techniques

How To Improve Your Turnout Fast

Pointe Workout For Beginners

So what is intrinsic muscles and what is extrinsic muscles?

Exercises to Improve Running Mechanics

Common Beginner Runners Mistakes & How To Prevent Them

Overly Enthusiastic About Your New Sport

Stretches before running

Overly focus on distance and speed

Your locations & running shoes do matter!

Injuries is common for any sports

How to do a Split for Non-flexible People?

Do you always consider yourself as inflexible?