The Important of Daily Stretching: Reducing Injury and the Effects of Aging

A lot of folks think stretching is just for athletes, young people, or yoga and Pilates devotees.

 

Nothing could be further from the truth.

 

Stretching is important at all stages of life to maintain healthy, fluid and well-oiled joints, functioning muscles, balance and flexibility. It also helps reaction time.

Stretching should be a part of everyone’s daily wellness routine.

As gymnasts, we usually stretched as a group, before and following practice. Sometimes we helped each other stretch. The encouragement and aid helped.

 

Wouldn’t it be nice to have a buddy, or guide, take you through a dedicated stretching routine?

Stretch help is on the way!

 

It turns out that a big massage chain has done just that—developed a dedicated stretching program.

Experts, who, between them, have 85 collective years of studying the functional movements of professional athletes and performers, have developed it through extensive research.

The method consists of ten targeted stretches that work from your top down. The stretches are designed to help your muscles reach their maximum flexibility.

The stretches are designed to be to be slow and deliberate traction techniques. The stretch “providers” take you through this guided stretching, which gently moves you beyond your resistance points. The goal is to increase circulation, reduce tension from the head down to your toes and improved muscle function.

The providers—who are knowledgeable in kinesiology (study of human movement) and anatomy—are all professionally trained and certified in the technique.

Sessions can be enjoyed in thirty or sixty-minute increments.

 

My opinion—

I haven’t given it a go yet. I’ll need to wait for my knee injury to calm down (since one of the stretches involves kneeling and leaning back on your heals) before trying it out. But I’m excited about the possibilities.

It’s a lot more fun and effective to have a “coach” guiding you through movements and workouts. And I’m going to guess that includes stretching!

Until next Wednesday, keep stretching and flexing that body! Ease and joy of movement can make life so much more enjoyable.

Blessings,

Andrea

 


Andrea Arthur Owan is an award-winning inspirational writer, fitness pro and chaplain. She writes and works to help people live their best lives—physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

The Importance of Daily Stretching—Reducing the Effects of Aging Part II

I’ve been doing an extra amount of stretching lately. It wasn’t planned. It’s just become a necessity.

Just as my right knee was beginning to show signs of returning to normal post-arthroscopy, I somehow managed to muck up my left knee.

So, now I’m dealing with a severe hamstring strain, severe lower leg pain, and knee instability, which leads me to believe that there’s something going on internally, structure-wise.

 

But since I know there’s a hamstring involved, that means extra, daily, MILD stretching to keep the muscle and tendon elongated for healing. If I don’t do that, then I run the risk of scar tissue healing in a shortened muscle state, which means whenever I stress it in the future, the scar tissue will likely tear again, I’ll get more bleeding in the muscle and subsequent re-injury. It will be a never-ending, ugly cycle of tear, bleed, repeat.

The reason that happens is that muscle doesn’t heal well. If you have a decent muscle strain, which involves tearing and a void in the muscle belly, you will usually get scar tissue replacing the muscle—hard, tough, non-elastic scar tissue. That’s why you want that muscle on a stretch during healing, so the scar tissue formed will be long and less likely to tear again with muscle contraction.

 

Get yourself a helpful stretching reference—

To help me in my recovery, I’ve pulled a book off my library shelf to help me in my efforts, one we considered to be the gold standard for stretching.

Stretching by Bob Anderson. He even does the illustrations, which are simple, straightforward, and easy to comprehend. It’s a fabulous book that I had to purchase as a textbook in college. It really is stretching 101 for beginners to advanced athletic participants and exercisers.

You can pick up the 30th anniversary edition, which has been expanded for home office and computer users as well as wheelchair athletes. It’s still the one recommended by sports professionals.

 

Here’s what the back cover blurb says,

“This is the book that people tell their friends about, that trainers suggest for virtually every sport and activity, and that medical professionals recommend to people just starting to get back in shape. Stretching first appeared in 1980 as a new generation of Americans became committed to running, cycling, aerobic training, and workouts in the gym — all of which are commonplace now.

It features stretching routines specific to a variety of people, including sports enthusiasts, travelers, children, gardeners, and people in wheelchairs. There is also an abbreviated version of each routine for people in a hurry, new information on the stretching vs. warming up debate, and new and improved drawings. This 30th anniversary edition features two-color inks to better define the muscle groups helped by each stretching exercise. A new section focuses on office fitness exercises, helpful for both home and office computer users.”

 

If you’re up against a muscle injury, make sure you add ice treatment to the stretching regimen. I often ice while stretching or ice afterward. And you really want to make sure you’re doing static, not bounce stretching for an injury. You don’t want little microscopic tears adding to the problem.

Stretching is a must for injury recovery, as long as you aren’t too eager and end up doing more damage. But it’s important at any age and stage of life to keep your muscles, tendons and joints healthy, lubricated, and working at their peak for you.

I can’t stress that enough. Get up and get out and stretch that body! All of it. Consider getting a buddy to stretch with. Teammates help each other stretch all of the time. Do you remember sitting toe-to-toe with a classmate in gym class and stretching each other back and forth?

I have a stretch buddy, myself. Although she hinders my stretching efforts more than helps them. She’s so adorable I can’t refuse her. And she gets my day going with a good belly laugh!

 

Every time I lean over to do leg stretches, my Shetland sheepdog, Dolly, thinks I’m leaning over to play with her. She doesn’t give up or relent, either. So I often pick her up and swing her back and forth while I’m doing side-to-side stretching. Her legs motor mid-air at a mile-a-minute, and she tries to lick me to death.

If I really want to concentrate and focus, I have to put her outside or seal myself in my bedroom. Our cat, Tibbs, used to help my younger son stretch—by strolling over and parking himself on Cory’s chest when he lay down on the floor to stretch. Cory said stretching never was the same after that precious tabby of ours died.

 

Good stretching memories!

 

Whatever age and stage of activity (or injury recovery) you’re in, you WILL benefit immensely from daily stretching. And you will benefit from Bob Anderson’s book. I promise. (I do not make any money from referrals or promotions of his book.)

 

NEXT WEEK I’ll tell you about a new stretching program being offered at my massage therapy facility. Sounds interesting, and evidently it’s been developed after a lot of research and professional input. I’m excited to give it a test run, but I’ll need to wait until I can completely bend this left knee to participate.

Hopefully I won’t need to recover from yet another surgery first!

 

Until then, keep those limbs and joints moving,

Andrea

 


Andrea Arthur Owan is an award-winning inspirational writer, fitness pro and chaplain. She writes and works to help people live their best lives—physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

The Importance of Daily Stretching—Reducing the Effects of Aging: Part I

I’ve been shirking my responsibilities in one big health and wellness area, an area a lot of people don’t pay enough attention to. But I should have known better. As a gymnast, it was a daily, if not hourly ritual or habit, and it helped keep me in top form for participating in my sport and avoiding injury.

It’s also something I droned on and on about to my injury-recovering athletes and patients.

What am I talking about?

Stretching.

 

My arrogant self just figured I’d always be naturally flexible, my limbs supple and pliable to extreme ranges of motion. Alas, it was not to be. Without me noticing, or taking heed, my muscles shortened into tight, mostly unresponsive bands.

 

I’m still recovering from a year of WAY too much sitting while writing. Marathon sitting episodes left me bent over, my legs numb and painful. It was painful for my feet, legs and back to just get up, straighten up, and walk around.

But I’m battling my way back, although I doubt I’ll ever achieve the flexibility I once enjoyed. And that’s probably a good thing, since I tended toward hyper-flexibility in some joints; and I suffer from the effects of being hyper-flexible in the joint where my lumbar spine connects to my sacrum (pelvis), an area known as the sacroiliac joint, or SI joint.

So now I’ve returned to my light morning and evening stretching regimens and added a couple of stretching periods to my workouts—one short one after I’ve warmed up on the treadmill for a quarter of a mile; and a long, intense stretch following the treadmill and elliptical workout (which usually totals 3 miles), before I head to the circuit stations or regular workout machines.

And it’s working! I’m able to move better, my reaction time has improved along with my sleep, and my workouts are stronger. It’s also helping me lose weight and re-shape my legs and arms.

 

What research says about stretching—

Harvard Healthbeat addresses stretching in its newsletter every so often and touts its benefits, particularly in older people.

Stretching helps you maintain your mobility, ability to twist and turn while doing basics activities like driving and moving comfortably around your home.

It also reduces your risks of falls and injury, injuries that can further hamper your flexibility because they sideline you result in muscle atrophy and strength loss.

Flexibility is important for maintaining muscle and tendon health. As we age, our muscles normally shrink, and the tendons lose their water content. But there is good news: you can reverse some of this process with mild, daily stretching periods of 5 or 10 minutes.

And when you’re more flexible and supple, you’re more self-confident in your daily movements and activities. Another physical and emotional plus side!

 

Getting down to stretching basics—

In a May 2019 health newsletter issue, Harvard discussed waning flexibility in the aging person and how it can be combatted.

 

“When you sit too much and don’t move around, the muscles in your hips, legs, and calves get tighter,” says Dr. Lauren Elson of the Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Department at Harvard-affiliated Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, and faculty editor for Harvard Health Publishing’s special reports, Stretching and Starting to Exercise.

 

I can see this effect in my 97-year-old mother, a normally very active, strong and mobile woman.

For the last couple of years, she’s been spending more and more time sitting, trying to watch television through her severely macular-degenerated eyes, with her feet and legs elevated on a footstool (another health -no-no). Other aging residents of her former residence were the same. You could tell the way they maneuvered around with their walkers—stiff, shuffling, unsure.

Now that she’s in a memory care home, it’s worse. Not as much space to move around in, and not much to do. That means more sitting around in recliners and chairs with footstools. Regular physical therapy visits help a little, but it’s not enough.

 

This sad effect was obvious in the cadavers I had to examine and dissect in undergrad anatomy class. Younger people had full muscles; older people had barely- recognizable-as-muscles stringy ones.

Dr. Elson says you should approach stretching like any other health aspect you practice and perform on a daily basis—like teeth brushing. Yes! Teeth brushing. So add it to your daily prep time.

She also encourages you to aim for an entire-body stretching program that targets the major joints and muscles and takes those joints through their full range of motion.

The common problem areas are the hips, legs, low back, and shoulders and chest.

 

“These are the areas that you rely on most when performing routine movements, and the ones that suffer most when you’re sedentary,” says Dr. Elson. “Of course, everyone is different and you may have certain spots that are tighter than others.”

 

Dr. Elson is also a proponent of adding additional flexibility-minded activities, such as yoga and tai chi. They have great programs geared toward the older adult, so you might want to start with those. DVDs can get you started at home, in the comfort of your own living room.

Be careful with the yoga, though. Some poses and stretches are not indicated for people with arthritis.

 

Getting started with your stretching now—

If you’d like to read the article, here’s your link. It gives you four daily stretches you can start right now!

Next week, we’ll delve into Part 2 of stretching. I’ll give you my opinion on static stretching versus bouncing. That’s been a topic of contention and controversy for years.

I’ll also give you some additional resources to use in your quest for flexibility

Until then, happy stretching

Blessings,

Andrea


Andrea Arthur Owan is an award-winning inspirational writer, fitness pro and chaplain. She writes and works to help people live their best lives—physically, emotionally, and spiritually.