The most difficult part
of workouts, I think, for most people is not what I expected when I started
training people. It’s not lifting heavy
stuff. It’s not dealing with the
sometimes boring routine of cardio. It’s
not even the most hated exercises, like burpees, lunges, or YTA. It’s the stretching.
I am going to blame the
Protestant work ethic. It won’t mind,
since it is only a concept and has no feelings.
As we may or may not remember from history, the Puritans imported it into
the United States, along with smallpox and funny hats. The line goes that good people work hard,
exercise self-discipline, and practice frugality. (I seem to be in a frame of mind this week in
which I interpret various religious ideas well beyond my level of expertise;
sorry about that!) They (the Puritans)
were not really much of a live-it-up crowd.
In the way of culture,
many of us have absorbed the idea that we have to be working hard All The
Time. Also, if something feels good, it’s
probably either wrong or bad for us or both.
We show up at our
workouts ready to suffer. We will sweat
and lift and huff and strain. And then,
at the end, we skip out on the stretching.
Stretching takes extra time, time that we really shouldn’t be spending
on something that, you know, feels nice.
Here’s the deal: we need to sit our inner Puritan down and
explain that stretching is essential.
When we don’t stretch, we are setting ourselves up for injury. We’re choosing to limit our range of motion,
which means that as we age we’ll be in real trouble. We are worth spending an extra few minutes
on.
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