How to become more flexible, without any special equipment
I can barely touch my toes and as I age I want to keep a healthy lifestyle. I've always wanted to be able to do a split, but it's so painful to try and I'm scared that I might tear something! What can I do to become more flexible without buying any additional equipment?
Answers ( 2 )
I'm with you, age made the parts rustier. Yoga is a great way to stetch, strengthen and stay toned. If you can't do full on yoga, which I can't myself, I do what I call yoga-revised. It's essentially just stretching in close to some yoga positions. If you look at how a cat stretches after a nap, that's the idea, to extend and twist your body gently to relieve some of the muscle stress.
That's an easy routine for most anyone to do, it takes less than 5 minutes. I used to do a moderate version of Yoga, and I did develop this little routine with a physical therapist because of a health issue I have, and I've been doing it about 10 years now, it always helps. And fact is, any movement you make can be helpful if you don't strain yourself and it feels good to stretch the muscle. You can do it in the morning or at night before bed, it can help relax muscles for sleep.
Yoga
Yoga is the schlitz for flexibility. Yoga is an amazing work-out which not only massively increases flexibility, it increases strength all while mostly not hurting you, unlike so many other exercise programs.
There's also an old pre-CDs/streaming video called Callanetics by Callan Pinckney. ( https://www.amazon.com/Callanetics-Official-DVD-Callan-Pinckney/dp/B00B835Y36 ) Like yoga in some ways, the body is put into unusual positions, and mostly very small movements are used to stretch and tone muscles. They work a treat and are easy on the back, too.
Yoga- it's the schlitz for flexibility.