Co films were deposited on flexible polyester substrates by dc magnetron sputtering and plastically strained in tension up to 3.7%. The magnetic measurements show that the plastic strain changes the coercivity and effective uniaxial magnetic anisotropy, as well as the magnetic domain structure of the Co films. Furthermore, the transport results show that the plastic strain strongly alters the resistance and magnetoresistance of the Co films. (C) 2009 American Institute of Physics. [DOI: 10.1063/1.3059267]