Another approach to stretching

Yesterday I offered some information about how and when to stretch.  There is another option to build flexibility, for those of us who just don’t ever get around to it.  May I recommend Pilates?

 

Pilates is not primarily focused on flexibility, but as a practice, it encourages optimal length-tension relationships.  In English, this means that when we do Pilates, we are working on making our muscles neither too contracted nor too loose.  For some muscles, this means that we need to figure out how to get them to pull their fair share and for other muscles—you guessed it!—it means that we need to help them stretch out and relax.

 

Let me know if you want to schedule a free introductory session!

Streeeeeeetch...

Our dogs do it.  Our cats do it.  So why is it so hard for us to do it?  (Besides, you know, having more important things to do than bark at the mail carrier and snub what’s for dinner.)  (No, I am not talking about constant napping, although maybe I should be?)

 

Stretching.  I’m talking about stretching.

 

First, let’s talk about how to stretch.  Stretching works best on warm-ish muscles.  This means that before we get out of bed in the morning (or just after, if we have to stand up for whatever stretch we’re doing) is a perfectly good time to stretch, but if we’re going outside in the dark and cold to run, we might want to make sure we walk a bit to get our muscles less frozen before we stretch.  Alternatively, in the before-workout space, we can do dynamic stretches (think about things like high-knees or walking lunges).  We want to save the kind of stretches we hold (static stretches) for after we’re done with the workout.

 

No matter what kind of stretching we are doing, our goal is to give the muscles we are stretching enough time to relax.  Science says it takes between 30 seconds and 2 minutes.  Here in reality land, I don’t think too many of us have 2 minutes’ worth of patience to hold a stretch that is intense enough to do us good, so my pro tip is:  hold the stretch for about five breaths, which will, for most people, be about 30 seconds.  Also, counting five breaths will distract us from the sometimes not entirely comfortable sensation of stretching.

 

Now, about that intensity thing:  in a perfect world in which we all have plenty of time and enthusiasm to do the stuff that is good for us, we would spend five breaths at a range of motion that we could feel but that didn’t hurt.  And then, once our muscles had settled in to that level of intensity, we would move a little farther because space to do so had opened up, repeating until we really reached the limit of what we could do.  However, the important bit is not to push ourselves past the point of healthy discomfort and into pain.

 

In my time working as a personal trainer and Pilates instructor, I have learned that almost nobody does enough stretching unless there is someone (like me!) standing over them and telling them to do it.  It is not because stretching is hard.  I think it is actually because stretching is easy and mostly feels good.  This gives us the idea that it’s not really important.  Let me put on my bossy pants for a moment here:  we are worth the five or ten minutes of stretching time, so let’s just do it.

 

In case me bossing everyone around is not enough motivation, here are some good reasons to stretch:  it increases range of motion, helps prevent injury, and keeps us supple.  Did I mention it also feels good?

 

Go play.

Monday Workout: One More New One!

Just one new exercise this week!  The reverse lunge twist works like this:  we begin standing with feet hips distance apart, with light weights held down at our sides.  Then we lunge back, bending both knees and raising our arms to shoulder height.  Finally, we open our torso away from our front leg in a twist.  Return to start.  Everything else should be familiar!  Three rounds!

 

jacks	30
reverse lunge twist	20
kickbacks	10
1 arm clean and press	30
rows	20
YTA	10
mountain climbers	30
squat press	20
plank/side plank	10

 

Friday Reading Report: Dynamic Aging

Katy Bowman’s book Dynamic Aging is not just for those of us who are senior citizens.  It’s for all of us who happen to be getting older (hey, that’s me, and you, and everybody else!).  Yes, the target market is what she calls “goldeners,” but the very goldeners featured in the book all say that they could have benefitted from the movement practices earlier.

 

This is not a book about really tough workouts.  It is a book about the small adjustments that make a big difference to our alignment, our movement patterns, and our quality of life.  It affirmed me in my commitment to working on balance, beginning with the feet, with every single client and I learned some fresh approaches to some common issues.

 

The prose is clear, the type is large and well-spaced, and the illustrations add useful information.  Highly recommended.

Don't Look Now!

I know that my industry is super focused on looks.  I mean, hey, it exists in our culture and our culture is, too.  However, research (yes really!) has shown that looks-focused cues and encouragement are less effective at keeping us doing our workouts.  Here are five non-looks-centered things we can say to ourselves for motivation:

 

1.     I am getting stronger.  If we are putting in the time to do our lifting, of course we are, but it is nice to notice it.

2.     Hey!  That thing that used to be hard isn’t any more!  We have learned and adapted and changed.

3.     I like how I feel when I can do this.  Success feels great!

4.     Even if this is hard, I know I am benefitting from it.  On days when the weights are not submitting to our will, we can know that we are at the very least building character.

5.     This is helping me be able to do that thing I want to do.  Sometimes we are working out in order to do something else, like chase our kids or finish a marathon or take a hiking trip through the Rockies.  Keeping that thing in mind while we do our workout helps.

Old School

I talk a lot about how we need to shake things up in our fitness lives.  That is absolutely true, but I also love how we can go deep when we practice exercises over a long period of time.  I guess I have fully embraced that we live in paradox.

 

I find this depth particularly compelling as I cycle through the Pilates repertoire.  Something that the newest newbie of newness can do, like arm arcs, can still reveal new uses and applications to me, depending on how I use my breath, what bone rhythms I’m thinking about, what muscles are whining, and the like.

 

What exercises do you find fresh even though they are old favorites?

No Ab Is an Island

I love ab exercises, of course.  However, I like exercises that use our abdominals while we do other stuff even better.  Here’s why.

 

Exercises like crunches or femur arcs or even my beloved pretty princesses work our abdominals in isolation.  They are fabulous for learning how to engage our abdominals and how to work them properly (without pooching them out!  We love you, transversus abdominis!).  What they don’t do is teach us how to use our core for support in our regular lives, unless we somehow have a life in which we lie around on our backs all day.

 

Real life involves things like standing up, lifting things, twisting, balancing, and bending.  When we do an exercise like woodchoppers, we are doing all of those things with the support of our core muscles.  It’s like we’ve done our core isolation exercises to learn the vocabulary and then we do our woodchoppers to have a conversation.  We apply what we have learned to more complex movements.

 

I do include core isolation exercises in the workouts I plan for my clients, but I am not doing my job if those clients are not using core musculature during the whole workout!