Of course I am stiff and inflexible, I am old

Here is another one of those myths that I hear all of the time. People telling me that they are stiff because it’s an unavoidable part of aging. When I ask them how often they stretch the answer is generally never. Or some people tell me that they stretch every day. When I ask these same people to show me their routine its generally something like this: they pull their arm across their chest for two seconds, bend their head to each side for a second, rotate the spine a couple of times in a fast jerky manner and do some kind of contorted shoulder rolls. The whole ‘daily stretching routine’ lasts for less than 15 seconds. Then they probably spend more than 5-6 hours minimum in a chair seated all day. This may be in the form of watching television, driving a car, sitting having meals, reading or at the computer and then expect not to feel stiff. This by the way is exactly what happens to all of us, not just older people-I just happened to use this title for this article to make a point that getting older is not synonymous with getting stiffer. If you have unhealthy postural habits or even healthy postural habits, spending 8-10 hours at your desk or the computer all day is going to stiffen certain muscles and 15 seconds of stretching will not help. You must have good posture at your desk, take regular breaks to decompress your spine, do some exercise daily and do some regular stretching everyday. This means more than a few token waves of the arms and neck rolls. You will regain flexibility, you will feel better within yourself and your quality of life will be better. This I can assure you of.

Kick start your body and mind and reap the benefits

Your body is like your mind. I am sure you have heard of the old saying ‘if you don’t use it you lose it’. I studied French for four years in secondary college and would be hard pressed to remember ten French phases because I have not been using it. When to comes to memory the same thing applies as it does to your body. If you want it to perform better you must use it regularly. This is one of the reasons they recommend elderly people to do things like crosswords so that they continually stimulate the brain and their memory areas of the brain. It literally keeps your memory ‘in good shape’.

When it comes to your physical body doing regular exercise and stretching will also have the effect of keep your muscles and joints in a much better flexible and strengthened state. You will be amazed how many of those aches and pains will ‘mysteriously’ leave you. It does not take much either. It may be as simple as deciding to take the stairs instead of the elevator, or waking down to the shops instead of taking the car every now and again or joining a tai chi or yoga class once or twice a week.