On the third day of Christmas , my coach gave to me flexibility fiesta . I don't know where Lacey came up with . Lacey named that one . I don't know what that means , but anyway , what it means is we're going to have a party , a fiesta , a flexibility , hey . So this is JT , your high performance mindset coach , running coach .
And today is day three of the 12 days of fitness challenge , and today we're focusing on a crucial yet often overlooked component of fitness and its flexibility , flexibility and stretching .
And it's easy to get caught up in the more dynamic , the sexy stuff of movement , slinging weights and running and all that , but the importance of stretching cannot be overstated and is . Now that I'm in my mid forties , I have learned how critically important flexibility is to movement and my ability to run and stay injury free .
The more flexible that I am , the greater level of performance that I have .
I noticed a couple of years ago I had a lot of running related injuries and I couldn't run more than a half marathon and when I was doing 75 hard , I incorporated a lot of additional stressing stretching for that second workout of the day and what I learned is that my hips were so tight that it was screwing up my running mechanics and that's where the running
pain or the running injuries were coming from , because my mechanics were off . When I was able to unlock my hips , I was able to ultimately train to run a couple 50 K's , so it unlocked me so much that increased my performance significantly . Now I'm not going to lie .
Stretching is not my favorite activity , but it's like I tell my kids you got to brush the teeth , you want to keep , you want to keep moving , you got to pay your taxes , you got to do the things you don't want to do , the little things .
And here's the deal you don't have to do a lot of stretching all the time , but you got to do a little bit of it and you got to do it consistently and incorporate it into your routine . So today it could be an active recovery day for you . Maybe you already have another workout , but I want you . Today's challenge is to go through a 20 minute routine .
I got two options for you . There's a 20 minute full body stretch routine , one of my favorites off of YouTube . Or I've got this runner's world routine that has some stretches and you can go through the list of stretches . But you only get credit for today's workout If you stretch for 20 minutes and you're going to share a photo of yourself stretching .
So flexibility is incredibly important . You want to make this routine harder today than add a workout or do some additional yoga or add an activity to it . For someone like me , 20 minutes of stretching can feel excruciating . I would rather go on a two hour run than to do 20 minutes of stretching , because I don't like it that much .
But you know what it ain't about . My feelings Got to do it anyway . So that's the challenge for today . So 20 minutes full body stretch or 20 minutes of the routine on the runner's world routine as an example . You know what . I don't care what you do as long , but I want you to try one of these because there's probably a stretch .
If you go off your memory , I want to introduce you to maybe a new concept or new idea . Hence why we have these here as a guide for you . But so stretching is so incredibly important and the reason for stretching the reason it's so important is because it improves your flexibility , which improves your performance and overall ability to function in your fitness .
Your flexibility reduces the risk of injuries . It improves your posture as we age , you know , I know for me personally , like my lower back , I'm having some challenges and I'm tending to kind of slouch over a little bit when I get up on a chair . I'm feeling it .
It helps you kind of stay more upright right , helps you maintain the health of your muscles and your joints . And regular stretching keeps your muscles long and lean and flexible and this means that when you exert yourself it won't put as much force or as much strain on your muscles .
It enables you to lift more and more frequently and more often and help you with longevity . Right , tight muscles can lead to a decrease in your range of motion . We don't want decreased range of motions . We want to be fully functional and flexible .
And when you need that , if you don't have full range of motion and you need that extra range and you're doing something that could cause you to strain a muscle or tear something , okay , that's why we need full range of motion .
So when you have those moments of reaching or falling and you're catching yourself , you've got the range of motion to deal with it , all right . So how do you know that you're not stretching enough ?
Well , you might have some persistent discomfort , you might have decreased mobility , you might be more susceptible to aches and pains , people that are having a lot of pains , especially middle-aged people .
They all my back hurts , my knee hurts , my legs hurt , my body hurts You're probably not stretching enough and as frequently as they should , and if they did , they would probably have less aches and pains . I know personally , I felt less aches and pains when I started stretching more frequently . All right , but why don't we want to do it ?
Because it sucks , it's not fun , at least for me . I don't know . A lot of people don't like to stretch . It's just boring , it's kind of uncomfortable . That's okay . That's why we do hard things . We do the uncomfortable things , because it makes us better . You do it because you know you're going to be better for doing it . That's why we do these things .
And so let's talk about flexibility and mindset . So it's not just a physical type of flexibility , but we need to be flexible in our day-to-day life . Flexibility helps us to adapt to life's challenges with resilience and grace . Being flexible enables us to stretch beyond our current level of capability and capacity .
Stretching enables us to get out of our comfort zone . It enables us to embrace challenges . You're doing this particular challenge of routine because you want to get out of your comfort zone , or you'd like the novelty of something new , which that stretches your capacity . So you're flexing outside of your normal and we need to be able to do that .
So every stretch , every moment that you push outside of those limits , that you stretch beyond yourself , you're not just working on your physical body , but you're also working on your mental well-being . That cultivates a mindset that you're ready for anything , that you can adapt to anything .
Humans don't like change there's something about that but we also look forward to change . We need to be flexible , especially in this current world and the dynamic where everything is moving so quickly . And the more flexible you are , the more resilient going to be , the more adaptable that you're going to be .
And so stretch your body , have more flexibility with your body . Have more flexibility with your mindset . Keep doing hard things . Make someone smile . Look forward to seeing you tomorrow for day four . Do hard things .