It’s funny, I’m about to turn 37 and I’ve been having more and more conversations with my friends lately that center around which body parts are hurting or sore. And I wish I could say we were having these conversations because of some great/crazy workout we had done or because we had some epic adventure together. But sadly it’s just these every day aches and pains. We are getting older. And as we get older our bodies are not letting us get away with treating them as badly as they once did.
A couple of years ago I was exposed to Kelly Starrett. He was one of the very early adopters of Crossfit and is now a well known mobility coach. One of the stretches that he really promotes is the “Couch Stretch”. Being a runner, I always assumed I just wasn’t very flexible. But he wrote a book about running and taking care of your body called Ready to Run. In this book he talks about several things you can do and should be doing for basic maintenance of your body. So I started trying to couch stretch. It sucked. It hurt and I couldn’t do it for 15 seconds. But I was bought in and kept doing it day after day. I now swear by this stretch. I was able to hold it for several minutes at a time for a while. I say I am a huge believer in it because I’ve gotten out of the habit of doing it after runs recently and all of the sudden my body is uncomfortable. New aches and pains are showing up and I know it’s because I haven’t been doing that consistent body maintenance.
Give the stretch a try. Whether you’re a runner, Crossfitter, biker, or don’t train all that much I guarantee that you will begin to love the stretch and swear by it as well. Attached is a link of Kelly doing the stretch and talking you through it. As with anything, make sure you are doing it correct and with the proper form to get the benefits.
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