STRETCHING: Natural Medicine

What a gift S-T-R-E-T-C-H-I-N-G is to the body!! How amazing it feels to use this art form to release stress and tension held deep within the muscles while encountering more space and length in the body! Sometimes, big yawns and watery eyes come with the process...simply signs of the body naturally releasing and restoring!!

Ahhh!! S-T-R-E-T-C-H-I-N-G! I believe it's a God-given form of natural medicine! Surely, it's a gift! :-)

As I look forward to September when I will return to teaching STRETCHING on the mat in a studio setting (not yoga), I've been stretching with Donna Flagg, a trained dancer, whose DVD, LASTICS®, "is a technique born directly from the world of dance."

As explained on this DVD: "Improved flexibility results from articulating your body in ways that isolate the ends of your muscles to gently pull them in opposite directions. Unlike methods that rely on external force to push a stretch, LASTICS® trains your body to move internally to stretch itself. That is how dancers move the way they do and also the key to flexibility." You can get a glimpse of Donna and some stretch-action here.

Say you're folding forward like in the picture used on the front of the LASTICS® DVD! When hanging forward (which you would have done slowly/carefully after dropping chin to chest), don't interrupt receiving the fullness of the stretch by bending the knees. It's better to hang your upper body much higher than you see above (meaning, hands not close to the floor) as opposed to bending the knees to get the hands to touch the floor! The straight-legs version provides more lengthening! Then, over time, you will find your hands drifting closer and closer toward your feet.

Just try to relax your mind and take each stretch a breath at a time, a step at a time. Don't worry...your flexibility WILL increase! But, the only way to truly make that happen is to actually begin S-T-R-E-T-C-H-I-N-G!

As Fitness Expert Chalene Johnson says: "You've been working so hard to make your body strong and fit. You've being doing your weight training; you've been doing your cardio; now, that third and so important component: FLEXIBILITY......It's a component that most people really overlook, and it's so important."

My nurturing stretching classes -- filled with elements that will help us lengthen and strengthen (in mind, body, and spirit) will be coming soon to the Green Cove Springs area in Florida. There, you'll also be able to dance with Lina, owner/creator of Effortless Christian Dance! (My other favorite form of exercise!)

Dancing & Stretching make a great combo! Blend them together, and the result will be a really "yummy" treat! :-)

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