What might be true today might not be true tomorrow. Sit with that one. The mind craves certainty and stability but it must work to accept uncertainty and change. In some sense, the body does too. If you cultivate a sense of flexibility in both mind and body, you will bathe in the fountain of youth as you progress through life.
Yep, working on it.
Let’s first explore flexibility on a physical level.
Flexibility IS your amigo
“Oh you do yoga? I don’t do yoga. I’m not flexible,” said the hundredth person in response to hearing I’m a yogi. Well that’s exactly why you may want to start.
Yes, I practice yoga. But I also run. Walk A LOT. Sit in a chair in front of a computer most days of the year. Lift weights. Jump rope. Hike up mountains… You get the picture. I need to work on my flexibility in order to maintain balance in my body, (and mind) and, hopefully, prevent injury.
We need flexibility to do everyday tasks with ease. Over time, if we don’t develop a relationship with this part of ourselves, it gets a lot harder to, say, get out of bed. And, hey, that’s a useful thing to be able to do.
What exactly is flexibility?
Flexibility in the body is the ability of a muscle or muscle groups to lengthen passively through a range of motion. It is a component of mobility, which is an umbrella term for the full range of motion in your joints. I’ll get into mobility later.
Your ability to stretch your muscles at any range is limited by your nervous system’s response and any compensatory patterns you’ve developed.
There are other factors contributing to your current state of flexibility too:
- Your unique anatomy
- Body temperature at joints and tissues
- Past or present injuries
- Sex
- Time of day
- Age
If you pull and tug on your muscles when you meet the end range that your body is familiar with, you could get injured or change nothing at all.
How do I become more flexible?
“You don’t need to do that. You’re too young,” commented a co-worker when he saw me stretching my pectoral muscles at the wall. Interesting (but inaccurate) thought. Someone always will have a comment when you’re doing something out of the norm. Don’t worry about it.
The truth is what you are doing most of the day with your body rules over what you may do with your body for short periods of time in the day. So, if you sit most of the day, but then stretch your hamstrings for 30-90 seconds when you get home, you’re unlikely to see much benefit.
SO, WORK IT INTO YOUR DAY!
How? Here are a few ideas.
- Shift your mindset: Don’t keep the idea of exercise in a box. “I exercise from 6pm to 7pm three days a week.” Nope. All day. Every day. Trust me, it will become a habit. Move THROUGHOUT the day.
- Explore your end ranges: Let go of the no-pain, no-gain approach, and spend time slowly breathing into your edge. I like to say, become your case study of one.
- Commit to taking 3 movement breaks in your workday for 3-5 minutes for a week. Then build from there. Things you can do:
- Spine: Do cat/cow movement either sitting or standing. On an inhale, draw the center of the chest forward. Then on an exhale, draw the belly in and round the spine. Do a few rounds.
- Shoulders: Stand at a wall and place your palms against it at chest height. Slowly walk back, keeping your palms there, moving toward a L-shape in your body. Standing in or near a doorway? Stand with one arm bent at the elbow (“cactus arms”) against the doorframe. Lean into this position by drawing the chest forward, past the elbow. Hold for a few breaths and change sides.
- Hips: Place your knee on your seat behind you, and top of the foot at the top of your chair or in your hand (see the picture above). If you have a chair with wheels, you can experiment with moving it back and forth to deepen the stretch.
- Wrists: Circle the wrist joints in both directions. Make fists then spread the fingers wide.
The above are some general ideas. You may have something specific you are working toward or some sort of limitation in your body that you want to focus on. You also may not spend the majority of your day sitting. If standing, you may need to take a break and sit, then move and stretch. Get creative, and have fun.
Next up, how to develop a more flexible mind you vivacious reader you.
Further reading
Move your DNA by Katy Bowman
Designing your office space for movement
Office exercise: Add more activity to your workday