Don’t neglect to stretch

When I was younger all I cared about was burning calories and weight control. Aging has taught me many things about priorities. Now my goal is first to feel good. Instead of eating to maintain weight, my number one objective is to eat to maintain optimal health. I don’t believe any one diet can give you that, I believe you have to learn your body language and use good sense and moderation. Every diet should include a little non-essential enjoyment food or drink in small percentages, that is mostly for mental health! Stretching was often the part of my program that I cut out or cut short if I was in a hurry. The older I get the more I realize how necessary it is for the workout to be complete. Stretching helps improve our range of motion and flexibility of muscles and tendons. It increases the blood and oxygen and nutrients to the muscles. It helps eliminate metabolic waste and alleviate soreness from the workout (hence soreness is not necessarily the indication that you had a good workout). Sometimes we start to feel foot pain, hip pain, side of the butt pain because we are not stretching as we should. Muscles should be warm before stretching, so after your workout is more productive than before. One of my favorite sayings is “haste makes waste”.  So next time you only have a short time for a workout, don’t ignore the stretch as if it’s not an important part of it.  You will feel a lot better and likely save yourself from unnecessary pains!