Just Stretch

As a child, my mom would always encourage me to stretch and I never listened to her. What do moms know right? I played basketball, football, skateboarded, surfed and I always felt fine. I never needed a warm-up or needed stretching.

That was silly! I was invincible. Flash forward to fifteen years later, with two knee surgeries, and a busted shoulder you will find me stretching and warming up before any activity.

Humans are the only species that doesn’t wake up and immediately stretch. In modern-day life, we’re too preoccupied with the day’s to-do list that we skip the very crucial and primal instinct.

Stretching is so natural that you can’t really trace the origin to any particular group of people.  “Stretching before and after sports and activities dates back over 10,000 years to yoga transcripts.

Even the Ancient Greeks and Romans incorporated stretching routines in order to keep their respective armies in tip-top shape. Since then yoga, different clinical settings, Pilates, and sports medicine all draw on some sort of variation of “stretching” for top performance and/or treatment.”

So why should you incorporate stretching into your busy day?

• Increases flexibility which reduces the risk of injury
• Improves posture
• Eases back and joint pain
• Warms your muscles up and gets them ready for activity
• It helps ease stress and you get better sleep
• Is active in itself!

The list of reasons to stretch goes on. When you wake up try to do five minutes of light stretching before you start the day. Connect with your body and roll out the tightness. Make sure to concentrate on your breathing and letting your mind disengage from your life stressors.

Stretching every day will help foster a healthy lifestyle which is crucial to maintaining a healthy-looking appearance. Stretching and exercise help to decrease the risk of cancer and promote a healthy physique.

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