A Daily Stretch
Remember when you were a young child and could bend and twist into every position imaginable? Well what about now? Most likely, you are not nearly as flexible as you were then and consider yourself pretty “bendy” if you can reach your shins when sitting with your legs straight out in front of you.
The fact is, as we age our joints and ligaments naturally start to tighten and atrophy, due to less collagen being produced in our body. Because of this, our range of motion is smaller than it used to be and it becomes increasingly difficult to perform regular daily tasks, such as bending over to tie our shoes.
My husband works at the hospital and takes care of patients ranging anywhere between the ages of 30 to 95 years old. He often explains how sad it is to see them be so dependent on other people – just to help them move. And a majority of the time, their inflexibility has nothing to do with their illness, but because they have been so sedentary throughout their life.
We live in such a chair-bound society and spend a large portion of our day sitting in front of a computer, in our car, or slouched at a desk. Because of the repetitive nature of this, the muscles in our body get so accustomed to the flexed hips, the hunched forward shoulders and the protruding neck, that our posture suffers tremendously and we cause muscle imbalances to occur throughout our entire body.
I often work with clients who have terrible posture due to chronic sitting and a lack of stretching. However, through regular stretching and strengthening of those weak muscles, I have seen amazing transformations in people. In fact, just a few days ago, I was speaking with a young, twenty-something client of mine that I’ve been working with for a several months. When we first met, she was frustrated with and expressed concern about her improper posture when she stood. Even at her young age, her shoulders were hunched forward and her upper back rounded excessively. Well, looking at her now, you would never know her posture was a problem! She stands up straight and tall, looking very confident and strong!
To ensure a high quality of life, especially during the later years of life, flexibility and proper posture alignment must be a priority in your daily activities. In an ideal world, we would all spend five to ten minutes daily to stretch our muscles and keep our body limber. Even just a few minutes a day can add up to big differences in how your body can move and function freely.
Stretching doesn’t need to be fancy in order to be effective. Too often, people think they need to perform yoga or other strenuous forms of stretching, to see improvement. Of course, those methods do work. But if that’s not appealing to you, simply stretching your muscles to a point of comfortable discomfort is fabulous and will work wonders for your body!
So as you work toward achieving a healthy lifestyle through proper diet and regular exercise, don’t forget that stretching frequently is a very important part of the equation.
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One Response to “A Daily Stretch”
cathy
February 16th, 2009
Great post! And so true. My mom recently had both of her knees replaced, and her recovery was so relatively easy because she worked diligently on her flexibility in the months prior.
I must admit that I am pathetically inflexible. It’s something that I really need to work on. Perhaps this will be the motivation I need to make it a part of my daily routine.