Relaxing and Letting Go

One of the most important benefits of stretching is its ability to promote relaxation not only of your body but also of your mind and spirit. The slow, methodical movements in a good flexibility program provide gentle movements as you position your body for the next stretch, followed by periods of quiet stillness as you hold the stretch.

Concentrated focus on the muscles you’re stretching helps block out other stress-inducing thoughts (you know, those thoughts of your schedule, your finances, your kids, and so on). In this way, stretching can not only lengthen your muscles but also expand your mental horizon.
When you stretch, keep the following in mind:

• You should feel slight tension in the muscle that you intend to stretch. This tension should definitely not cross the line into pain or discomfort.
• You should feel a stretch only in the intended muscle, never in a joint. Pain in your joints signals irritation in the joint, so you definitely want to let up if that happens.
• Your body should be in a position that’s relaxed and totally tension free. If your body feels awkward or tense, modify the stretch, or use a prop such as a strap or block (covered earlier in this chapter) so you can focus on the intended muscle.
• Stretching should be a positive experience, not a form of self-torture. Throughout this blog I give you several different stretches for each muscle group. If one doesn’t seem to fit your body, try one that feels more comfortable.

The Art of Breathing Correctly

Believe it or not, you breathe in and out more than 20,000 times a day, and yet, most of the time you do it incorrectly. I can hear you asking, “How is it possible to breathe wrong? Air goes in; air goes out. How can something so simple be any more complicated?” Well, due to poor posture or lack of body awareness, you end up using the wrong muscles to breathe.

The end result is shallow, ineffective breathing that robs you of all the full benefits of your breath. Poor posture — with a rounded back, dropped shoulders, and a forward head —reduces the ability of the diaphragm to contract and the ribs to expand to their full potential. The lung itself has no muscles, so it’s totally dependent on the muscles around it to create the respiratory process of inhaling and exhaling.

This can happen two ways: by using the muscles that lift and lower the ribcage or by using the muscles of the diaphragm. Unfortunately, most people use the shoulder and chest muscles to facilitate the respiratory process of inhaling and exhaling. Although these muscles are large and powerful, breathing isn’t really what they were designed for. Instead, the primary location of the movement of respiration should be the diaphragm, which only has one function: breathing.
Here are some healthy breathing tips

• Inhale through your nose, filling your chest with air and letting your belly expand. This technique allows your nose to filter and warm the air before your body uses it. _ Make sure that your shoulders stay relaxed and don’t raise up around your ears when you’re breathing.
• Exhale through your mouth, consciously using your deep abdominal muscles and diaphragm to push the air out (belly will deflate). Just remember, to get all these wonderful benefits, you need to breathe the way your body was designed — from your core.

Positioning your pelvis

The area of the pelvis is the main hinge between the torso and the lower body, so correct positioning of the pelvis is crucial for lower body stretches involving the hips, thighs, and buttocks. Because these large muscles are all attached in one way or another to the pelvis, incorrect positioning of the pelvis can cause these lower body stretches to be inefficient or even actually counterproductive.

To find the proper pelvic position that you should maintain while you’re stretching, try standing in front of a mirror and turning sideways. Stand up tall so your body is in a straight line from head to toe. This position is the correct position you want to have in your pelvis.
You don’t want to do the following:

• Tilt your pelvis forward — described as “tucking your pelvis under”
• Arch your back and let your buttocks stick out

The neutral spine

Throughout this book I remind you to find or maintain neutral spine. You may be wondering what the heck that means but just remember you have a natural curve in your back when you relax. So I’m making sure that you don’t exaggerate or minimize the way your spine is naturally shaped.
Your spine has four natural curves:

1. The cervical (the curve in your neck)
2. The thoracic (the slightly rounded shape in your upper back)
3. The lumbar (the sway of your lower back)
4. The sacrum (the tilt of your pelvic region)

In flexibility training, neutral spine has three positions: lying on your back, sitting, and standing. Start each stretch in neutral spine because incorrect spinal position not only diminishes the effectiveness of the stretch but also promotes muscular imbalance and bad posture. Every time you start in correct alignment you retrain your muscles to properly support your spine.
Although exercising is excellent therapy for your spine, many people make simple but crucial mistakes in the position of their spine while exercising. These mistakes can place a great deal of stress on the spine. Some of the most common are

• Decreasing the curve in the lower back by “tucking” the pelvis under
• Excessively arching the back by tilting the pelvis backward
• Exaggerating the thoracic curve by rounding the shoulders forward and tightening the shoulder muscles
• Lifting and opening the rib cage while reaching overhead
• Forgetting that the neck is actually part of your spine
• Letting the chin drop down or the head jut forward

Maintaining Proper Body Alignment

Proper body alignment is your guarantee that you’re getting the most out of your stretches. Why? Because when you maintain proper body alignment — back straight, shoulders down, chest lifted, abs tight — you optimize the mechanics of your body so your stretches are properly anchored and the muscle you’re focusing on is fully lengthened. You also won’t unintentionally put stress and strain on other parts of your body, which can be counterproductive to what you’re trying to achieve.

Pay attention to what every part of your body is doing. Several studies suggest that a relationship exists between flexibility and posture. Researchers have found that imbalances in muscular development or tension can contribute to poor posture. For example, tight hamstrings can cause the pelvis to tilt up unnaturally, which can reduce the lumbar curve, exaggerate the thoracic curve, and possibly cause low back pain.

This section explains how stretching can have a positive effect on posture and how proper posture can have a positive effect on stretching. You may notice that one side of your body is more flexible than the other. This imbalance is very common, so don’t worry about it — and be sure to not go easy on the side that is less flexible. Really focus and try to increase your range of motion until both sides are even.

Breath and Limitation

Remember to breathe
You may think that I am silly for telling you to breathe, but trust me; during a stretch (especially a hard one) you focus so hard that you forget to breathe and you tend to hold your breath instead. The only way to stretch a muscle fully is to relax and practice slow, rhythmic breathing. To simplify things, try to remember to exhale so your body automatically inhales. Don’t make it any more complicated than that for right now.

Know your limits
Stretching can help you understand both your possibilities and your limits. Stretching is supposed to be energizing and relaxing, not painful. Never do anything that hurts! You may not believe it right now, but flexibility training should not be painful. In fact, if you feel pain of any kind, let up on the stretch immediately.
Not everyone is able to do the perfect splits, and you don’t need to. Stretching isn’t a competition; it’s about determining your current level of flexibility, whatever that may be, and improving on that foundation. Different people begin with different foundations. What matters most is that you’re able to make yourself more flexible than you were. This increased flexibility can help improve your performance in your favorite sports and activities, and, by making movement more fluid, easy, and graceful, help enhance the overall quality of your life.

Progress through the stretch

I like to think of each stretch progressing through three different stages:

1. Comfort zone: The first 10 to 15 seconds This term describes the initial period of the stretch where you find a comfortable position, give yourself a body check, and make sure your alignment is good. You should also feel a mild tension in the muscle group that you’re stretching.
2. Relaxation zone: The next 5 to 15 seconds This period in the stretch focuses on your breathing and relaxation — letting stress and tension melt away from both your body and mind. You may feel the stretch deepen slightly.
3. Deep stretch zone: The last 5 to 10 seconds You’ve now held the stretch for 20 to 30 seconds. Your body is relaxed, and you know that you’re in correct position because you feel a slight tension precisely in the intended area. Remember you want to feel slight discomfort, not pain!

All the stretches in this blog should be approached in the progressive fashion above. Never try to begin a stretch fully extended. Take your time and slowly and gradually move deeper with each breath, allowing the muscle to relax and giving your body the time to produce the correct neuromuscular response.

Don’t bounce

The second crucial guideline to keep in mind is no bouncing! Bouncing during your stretching actually causes damage to the muscle. Stretching a muscle quickly or forcefully makes your body kick into a natural protective mechanism called the stretch reflex — a nerve response to stress that tells the muscle to contract to protect itself. In other words, bouncing to help your muscles relax and let go can actually cause them to contract and get tighter.
And what’s more, every time you forcefully bounce while in a stretch you actually create microscopic tears in the muscle fibers. You may feel like bouncing increases your flexibility immediately, but that’s only because you have damaged the muscle. In the end, your body heals those little tears with scar tissue, which actually decreases your long-term flexibility, because scar tissue is far less flexible than muscle.

Go slowly

If stretching had a theme song it would be “The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin’ Groovy)” by Simon and Garfunkel. You may know the words:

Slow down, you move too fast
You got to make the morning last
Just kicking down the cobblestones
Looking for fun and feelin’ groovy

When you stretch you should move slowly; breathe and hold the stretch for at least 30 seconds. At first you may actually need to watch a clock to know how long 30 seconds is, but as you get more comfortable with stretching and more in tune with your body, you instinctively know how long to hold the stretch. For me, it’s about four or five deep breaths. Keep your mind focused on the stretch and on breathing slowly and deeply. Don’t think about all the things you have to do today or what you’re going to cook for dinner, just stay focused on going slow and feelin’ groovy!
To help prevent injuries, start each stretch in what I call the comfort zone — the point in the stretch where you just begin to feel mild tension in the muscle. Start out by stretching for 30 seconds or four to five slow, deep breaths before trying a second repetition. As you increase repetitions, it helps if you imagine every exhale you take as allowing you to move an inch deeper into the stretch. Believe it or not, the slower you go in the beginning, the more quickly you’ll see results!

Warm-up

The number-one rule with stretching is to warm up before you stretch! Many people think that stretching and warming up are synonymous, but stretching involves lengthening your muscles, while warming up means that you’re elevating your core body temperature.
A muscle can’t stretch properly if it’s cold. Elevating your body temperature makes the process of extending and lengthening your muscles and the connective tissue around your muscles easier. These lengthenings and extensions reduce the chances of injury caused by stretching and actually increase the effectiveness of the stretch.
Here are some simple five-minute exercises to get those muscles warmed up:

• Performing jumping jacks
• Jumping rope
• Jogging in place
• Swimming laps
• Dancing around to your favorite song

I know this section probably shattered your conception of warming up, but now that you know the truth (that stretching and warming up describe two completely different processes), remember this: You can warm up without stretching, but you should never stretch without warming up.