Why stretch? Our bodies can be separated into three main areas A) skeletal B) muscular ( soft tissue) C) neurological.

A) When we break a bone we sometimes don’t even feel any pain.

B) yet a torn ligament,tendon or a muscle strain can be the most excruciating pain.

Likewise some serious life threatening disease cannot be felt until imminent death is upon us ,yet age old ailments such as Gout, Arthritis and others can be the most painful things in the world.

Believe it or not B and our age old ailments are the areas we Can do something about through healthy eating and lifestyle choices including an exercise regime to suit us as individuals.

No two people are alike when it comes to diet and fitness as it depends on a whole lifetime of good and bad practices in the past,but the good news is it’s never to late to start.

It won’t happen over night, it will only happen if you combine a healthy eating regime along with exercise that suits you , by suits you, I mean something you find easy to do and enjoy doing. So many set themselves unachievable goals to early in their path that they are doomed to fail because strength and flexibility take time. The problem is we didn’t notice ourselves losing our core strength as we aged, so when we can’t lift our bodies out of the bed like we used to we think there is something wrong and feel the pain of age. Yoga is a great for keeping our bodies supply and our minds clear, if only we were taught this at school from kindergarten,we may all have a different approach to life.

C) is the condition we have least control over as many neurological conditions can be hereditary.

soft tissue injuries (B) are the reason it’s vital we keep Stretching & Exercising on a daily / weekly basis. As we get older our muscles and tendon begin to stiffen and become brittle, without exercise makes it even worse, which is why we feel so much pain from a pulled muscle or torn ligament or tendon. Of course diet, vitamins and herbs also plays a huge part in helping us alleviate a lot of ailments which I will address in a later post.

Here’s a few daily stretches I do every morning to help my flexibility,plus I do my downward dog and a few yoga poses too.

It’s important to remember never bounce when taking up these poses they are meant to be gentle and held for a count of ten, this allows your muscle time to stretch into the pose and to contract again slowly as you come out of the pose. Continuous stretching and contracting is what elongates the muscle and gives you pain free flexibility.

As we get older our pace of life slows and with it we become less flexible, less mobile and can suffer such painful ailment illnesses such as Arthritis ( although there are different types) this blog sets out general lifetime habits that can help and even eliminate some age old ailments.