Improve my flexibility

I adding mentally adding “Stretch every morning” to this goal. Too much stretching tires me. Just the right amount of stretching leaves me energized.

Basic flexibility training paid off in dividends this winter while skiing. I was able to ski longer, harder, and faster than ever before. Most importantly I was able to fall time after time without injury. Had it not been for stretching some of the falls I took this year would have caused injuries, which I have been plagued with in the past.

And yet ! I still can’t touch my toes. Standing 5’9, I can however kick the top of a 7 foot door frame. I’ll consider this goal done if I ever get around to touching my toes without having to warm up first.

In the past I’ve only touched my toes after sessions of heavy deadlifting. Without a warm up I usually don’t get my finger tips past my knees.

I got 14 cheers on this goal! but I emailed my doctor friend and asked her about me ever really “improving” my flexibility, as I am among the most non bendy people in the world, and she said any kind of marked “improvement” is going to be a lifetime project. I will not be more bendy just by stretching a lot, because I’m just not a bendy person. Of course, I can get a little flexible and protect myself from injury if I continue to stretch, but that’s more “incorporate stretching into my workout routine” than “improve my flexibility.” It’s just something that may never really be tangibly accomplished, so off the list it goes.

I’ve made a step in the right direction by going to yoga once a week, which is good. However, it has revealed how inflexible my lower back, hamstrings and quads are. I’m the only one in the class that simply can’t keep going with a couple of the practices!

So, it’s time to start stretching on a daily basis to specifically improve the flexibility of these parts of my aging body.

Hopefully it’s not too late!

when I am watching TV (like right now), get off the couch and stretch during the commercial break (which is happening right now, so I should get off the computer and stretch)

and my stretching went to hell. I’ve been doing a good job stretching a few times a day at work, but if you skip a few days, dang, you lose what you had very quickly.

I have been actively working on this for a long while now. I never used to be able to touch my toes or do any sort of yoga pose whatsoever. But now I can not only touch my toes, I can wrap my hand around the bottom of my foot! Yay me! And some mornings I work out with the people on Inhale (or is it Exhale?), that TV yoga show. I’m getting much more flexible.

Of course, I won’t be doing the splits any time soon, but…

I’ve been going into the closed filed room to get a little stretching in each day. The stretch I have to do requires a bit of ass-sticking-out that would be awkward in my cubicle, so I go hide near the B and C files and fit it in that way. It’s a nice break and I think I’m seeing some improvement.

I have been doing well. I think it’s making a small difference, but unless I keep doing it, nothing will improve.

I’ve been stretching quite frequently and have made some improvements but I have a long way to go before I’m anywhere near Gumby.