The Fitness Challenge in March Is Flexibility
Our last two goals were all about getting stronger, but we’re going to do something different this month. We are becoming elastic.
A quick test you can do right now: Stand with your legs straight and turn towards your hip, keeping your back straight. Can you touch your toes? If not, how far can you get? (I drop about half of my shin.) Some of you flexible people will be able to put your palms on the floor or wrap your forearms around your calves . Congratulations.
Wherever you are, you can probably improve on something. Perhaps you are dreaming of doing a split, or maybe you can never reach that zipper on the back of the dress, so you would like a little more shoulder mobility. Take some time this week to figure out how elastic you are and what you want to work on.
As you explore, remember that you can stretch deeper by working on it for a few minutes or by warming up your muscles with some other type of exercise. If I went to a hot yoga class right now, I could probably touch my toes by the end. But this is not a permanent change: I’m going back to the calf level again tonight. Keep this in mind when measuring your progress.
What to do
Static and dynamic stretching are effective for increasing range of motion over time. Research shows that stretching doesn’t actually mean lengthening the muscles, but simply causing the brain and nerves to abandon their hey stop defensive response. If you want to incorporate stretching into your regular workout, dynamic stretching can be done at any time, but static stretching (when you hold the position usually for 10 to 30 seconds) will slightly loosen your muscles after that. It is better to do them at the end of the workout so that they do not interfere with your further actions.
The streamer has many names. Yoga or ballet classes can provide many opportunities to work on your flexibility, or you can ask your CrossFit coach how to work on your “mobility.” If you have any favorite stretch marks, do them; If not, try this beginner stretching video .
As always, relax first; stretching too aggressively can hurt you. A light stretch does a great job, so start there.
Find stretching exercises that you enjoy and we’ll check them every week for more advice on stretching techniques and what to try. As always, find what you can measure and document it! Take a measurement or photo today and see how far you can go by the end of the month.