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June 25, 2026 / by Aerial Edge / In circus-training

Can you get flexible in your 50s, 60s and 70s?

This article answers a simple question, whether you can get more flexible later in life, and sets out what changes with age and what doesn’t. It is written for adults, with the older beginner in mind.

Short answer: yes. You can get flexible in your 50s, 60s and 70s. Range of motion stays trainable across the whole adult age range. A recreational adult starting in their 60s can build real, usable flexibility. It comes slower than for a 25-year-old, and more individual to them, but it is real. The thing that changes with age isn’t whether you can do it. It is the pace, and how long your body takes to recover between sessions.

The two dials: pace and recovery, not the ceiling

The clearest way to think about age is as two dials, not one.

The first dial is your training background. Someone new to this kind of work starts low, with a little volume and one progression at a time. The second dial is age. Older tissue recovers more slowly from hard work and adapts over a longer window. So an older beginner climbs the same ladder as anyone else. They just add load more slowly and rest a bit more between the hard sessions.

Here is the part that matters. Age lengthens the recovery budget and slows the climb. It does not lower the ceiling. Older adults retain the ability to gain range of motion; they respond to stretching and to full-range strength work, with results comparable to what younger adults get from the same effort. A systematic review of flexibility training in older adults found the interventions were often effective at increasing joint range (Stathokostas et al. 2012). The same holds for strength: training strength at the end of your range works for a 65-year-old as much as a 25-year-old. None of this is reserved for the young.

So when an older student asks whether it is worth starting, the trainability is still there. What scales with age is the speed and the recovery window, not the result.

What “slower” actually looks like in practice

Going slower is the correct dose for an older body, and the method bends to it on purpose.

At Aerial Edge we don’t set a fixed weekly cap on stretching. We dose by how you respond: start at a sensible minimum, watch how your body answers, and add only while you are gaining range and recovering well. That same method scales the dose down just as readily as it scales it up. An older student who recovers more slowly settles at a lower steady dose, and that is the system working, not failing.

Two things shift the most with age:

  • Recovery takes longer. Older bodies tend to recover more slowly from work that taxes the muscle. The 2023 Sports Medicine - Open scoping review on recovery from resistance exercise in older adults, together with the JSAMS masters-athlete recovery study, points to a longer recovery window after muscle-damaging work. Both treat this as a tendency rather than a fixed figure, and training status partly offsets it (Sports Medicine - Open 2023; JSAMS). The practical test we use, whether the soreness is still there at the start of your next session, fires more readily for an older trainee. The right response is the one good coaching already gives: more rest between hard sessions and a slower load climb, not pushing through.
  • Stiffness, not looseness, is the usual starting point. Joints get stiffer with age, and joint laxity decreases rather than increases, so the typical older beginner needs more warm-up and more patience. Aggressive passive pushing into a deep stretch is rarely the limiter, and it is rarely the answer.

You also don’t want to chase range you can’t control. Building strength at the end of your range, the strength to hold a position near your limit rather than only reach it, stays the priority at every age. That is what turns raw range into range you can use. For an older student the principle is unchanged; only the dose shifts. Start lower, progress slower, give the work more weeks to express itself.

Range you can use, not just reach

This is where Aerial Edge differs from a general stretching class, and it matters all the more as you get older.

Most flexibility training chases the range. We train the strength to hold it. A deep position you can drop into but can’t hold under any load isn’t much use to you, and it is the kind of range most likely to let you down. Building strength through the full range also helps you maintain muscle and connective tissue as you age, and that is exactly the tissue your flexibility depends on. The 2026 American College of Sports Medicine resistance-training position stand is clear that resistance training is safe and effective across the adult age range, and it points in one direction: keep training strength, keep some power work in, and leave a couple of reps in reserve rather than grinding to failure (Currier et al. 2026, ACSM Position Stand, direction only; the exact older-adult loads are a coaching call, not a fixed prescription). Age is a reason to keep the strength work, not to drop it.

The numbers and exact loading look different person to person, and we treat them that way. Find what works for you is correct advice, and it applies as much to a 65-year-old as a 25-year-old. What we won’t do is push an older beginner into aggressive end-range work too early. That is a careful on-ramp, built up slowly over weeks, not a starting point. Older tendon still adapts to load, but it adapts over a longer window, so the climb has to give it time (J Appl Physiol 2016 review on tendon aging and exercise, and PMC2100204 on tendon adaptation to loading in older adults).

One thing worth checking first

There is one genuine flag worth naming plainly, and it is a calm one.

If you have osteoporosis or low bone density, certain loaded movements need care: specifically loaded forward bending of the spine, like weighted roll-downs or sit-ups under load, and especially forward bending combined with rotation. That is the loading pattern most associated with risk in thinner bone, set out in the Royal Osteoporosis Society “Strong, steady and straight” exercise recommendations for osteoporosis and bone health. To be clear about the limits of this: stretching and strength work in general are good for bone, and hip-focused work like splits and pancakes isn’t flagged here. A narrative review found no evidence that end-range hip movements are unsafe in people with low bone density (PMC8606974). The point is narrow, and it is awareness, not alarm.

The same goes for a replaced hip or knee, where your surgeon will have given you a range to respect, and for the basic cardiovascular screening sensible before starting anything vigorous. None of this is a reason not to begin. A good coach screens, asks, and refers you on where something needs a doctor’s eye. They don’t diagnose, and neither does this article. If any of it applies to you, tell your coach when you start. That is all it takes.

So, is it too late?

No. If you are in your 50s, 60s or 70s and you want to get more flexible, you can. The work goes a little slower and your body asks for more recovery, but the range is real and it is yours to build. Patience is part of how the method works, not a sign it isn’t.

If you have read this far wondering whether a class would actually have room for someone your age, ours do. Our adult classes are built to start beginners where they are, and older beginners are welcome in them. Our adult classes are a good place to start.

References and further reading

Want more on the training behind this? See how to get the splits as an adult, does stretching actually prevent injury?, and strength training for aerial: where beginners should start.

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