OK, long enough delay on talking briefly about our third component, stretching and flexibility. This component, while often seen as a warm-up or cool down, is just as important as strength and cardio-vascular training. Stretching helps maintain the range of motion of our limbs, helps our circulation, and just plain makes us feel better. While age and injuries can impact our flexibility, consistent stretching can restore much of this range of motion.
So how much stretching and when should we do it? Well, like anything, you can overdo stretching, both by doing too much too soon, and by forcing your body past its current limits and tearing or straining something. Stretching is best done after you are sufficiently warmed up by easy activity, and haven't been in one position too long-like just waking up, sitting at a desk or driving too long. Sitting at a desk is a whole topic to itself, but if you find yourself sitting most the day and night, you definitely need to stretch! Light activity such as walking, a few deep knee bends (remember those?) and working the joints you will stretch in one plane of motion at a time without a load all help. Then a few basic stretches held for a few easy breaths each really work wonders. Bob Anderson's "Stretching" is probably the all time classic (Disclosure: I am now an Amazon Affiliate and the link at the bottom helps, but you can find the book all kinds of places!). I also found the stretches I learned from yoga tapes and classes and my Tae Kwon Do classes all help my flexibility. Ironically, a Navy physical health assessment showed me I was losing flexibility in my 30s, so I worked at it and when I retired I had too good a range of motion-something like 99 percentile despite neck and shoulder injuries over the years....not that I'm complaining!
Remember, easy does it with stretching-find a few ones that work your problem area and build up to daily stretching and you will soon feel and notice the difference!
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