I started by checking my profile in the mirror, and right away noticed my standing posture was horrible. That night, I did some ad hoc self-tests at home to see just how stiff I was. I was 23 with the flexibility of a 73-year-old, and my stiffness was affecting my life. I realized I had let myself go, and I needed to do something about it. It sounds like a small thing, but it was a moment of truth for me. It was so obvious I was suffering that a guy sitting nearby started teasing me about my tight hips. But me? My hips were so tight, I couldn’t sit on the ground without my knees bent up to my chest and my back curled up like Quasimodo.Īfter 10 minutes, I was literally sweating in discomfort, red-faced, and embarrassed. The girl I was with was an avid yoga student, so she flipped one leg on top of the other sitting in Lotus position as if it were the easiest thing in the world. There were no chairs left so my friend suggested we sit on the floor-and why not? Sitting on the floor is a perfectly normal human thing to do, except that, like most people, I had not sat on the floor since elementary school. I remember going to a crowded party in New York City in 2002. Every day, I suffered through your typical stretching exercises, convincing myself it was worth it, but I wasn’t getting results. I tried yoga classes, at-home videos, and read a half-dozen human anatomy books, but nothing worked. My name is Lucas Rockwood, and I’m now a yoga teacher and teacher trainer, but I used to be a stiff office worker who couldn’t even touch his toes-not by a long shot. The good news is you can regain your lost flexibility (and often much, much more), and the benefits you’ll experience go way beyond the yoga mat. Most students I work with today are frustrated because they have lost their basic range of motion, such as the ability to bend forward at the hips, squat down deeply, and clasp their hands behind their back.īy the time most people reach adulthood, not only have they stopped playing like a kid, they’ve lost the functional flexibility required to squat and lift a box or a child from the floor, hang from monkey bars, cross their legs while sitting on the floor, and move freely in their favorite sports. Forget about bobbing up and down over your toes before a run, this intense approach uses a targeted mobility routine to transform your body, correct imbalances, and increase range of motion (ROM). The good news is that with an intelligent self-care flexibility training regimen, you can move toward a balanced body and reduce your risk of injury for life.įlexibility training is most useful for a prehab / rehab routine after exercise. Once you stop exercising, many people never get back to it. The number one reason people stop running, going to the gym, or doing the activities they love is because they get hurt and lose momentum. These imbalances lead to lower back, neck, and knee injuries, among others. People with tight shoulders are often in a constant hunch. People with tight psoas muscles often sway their back and stick out their bum. People with tight hips and hamstrings often externally rotate their hips and swing their legs when they walk or run. When you’re tight and imbalanced, your body creates work-arounds that get you into trouble. Tight muscles don’t cause injuries, poor movement patterns do.
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