3 Healthy Habits to Complement Your Daily Stretch Routine

Why am I so committed to encouraging you to stretch?!

It’s because Assisted Stretching healed my hip pain—and changed my life.

I can’t tell this story of my own transformation enough.

It’s because I’ve personally experienced the miracle of Assisted Stretching.

In 2017, I injured my hip.

I fell while bowling during a game at my Ladies Bowling League. If you know me, you know I take my bowling very seriously! I knew I had done something serious to my hip when I woke up the next morning and could barely walk.

The pain ran from my hip to my low back, and it was INTENSE.

For 6 weeks, I wasn’t able to teach my weekly Barre and Step group exercise classes at the YMCA.

I tried just about everything to ease the pain, including chiropractic visits and massages. I got some relief, but nothing truly worked.

In fact, I could barely get around! My husband had to help me walk from the car into the doctor visits—I couldn’t go anywhere on my own, and I felt completely helpless!

One morning, I noticed the roller stretching tool that my boys had given me for Christmas in the corner of my bedroom, still in its packaging.

I decided then to give it a try.

After a few days of using this roller, I began noticing results. I was astounded!

I couldn’t believe it... I finally had relief!

I had experienced, firsthand, the amazing benefits of Assisted Stretching. Since then, it has been my mission to share stretching with you.

While I have created several online videos & workshops to show you proper stretching techniques, there is more to maintaining and reclaiming your mobility.

Here are 3 healthy habits to complement your daily stretch routine:

1. Get up and move—take a daily walk.

As the saying goes, “get up and stretch your legs.”

Yep, a daily walk can do wonders for your body—even if it is only a 5 minute walk to the end of your street and back. Schedule it into your daily calendar so that you actually take time to do it. Maybe it’s a brisk walk after breakfast, or a walk around the block at lunch break. Find a time where you can “stretch your legs” and make it a habit!

After all, walking kick starts your heart and lungs to pump blood and oxygen throughout your entire body. Walking engages the cross-crawl patterning when your arms and legs work together to help you move, enhancing brain function.

And last but not least, fresh air and nature is just good for the soul! You’ll feel uplifted, and I bet the more you walk, the more you’ll want to KEEP walking.

2. Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate.

You should aim to drink 64 oz. of water a day. That’s eight glasses of water at 8oz. each.

Hydrated muscles help you move with more ease. To help you remember to drink more water, set several reminders throughout the day on your phone!

3. Elevate your feet above your heart for 5 minutes a day.

This one is SO easy—you can do it while you’re watching your favorite TV show at night!

Lie on the floor and prop your feet over a chair, sofa, or at a 90 degree angle up a wall. This relieves low back and pelvis pressure, as well as stretches out your hamstrings. It restores blood flow to your feet and legs, easing stress, calming your nerves, and getting you ready for a good night’s sleep. I always do this stretch before bed!

If you’re brand new to Assisted Stretching, try out these 3 easy beginner stretches.

More Stretching Resources:

She Didn't Have to Quit Her Job + 2 More Stretching Success Stories

I’ve seen lives changed from Stretch Therapy.

My own life — and the lives of my students.

Here are a 3 success stories from my students:

From Feet Pain to Relief: A Stretching Success Story

Most everyone that I work with, privately or in a group class, has a story about how they wound up seeking Stretch Therapy to relieve some form of pain in their body.

For some, stretching is a last resort effort to avoid surgery.

Some want to avoid injuries so they can stay active.

Some just want to feel good in their body all the time.

Some of my students have become so tight that they can hardly move — so they move less and less.

I always know my private student’s stories because we spend a lot of time together. I don’t always know the stories of the many students who attend my classes at my studio or at the local YMCA that I teach at.

A few weeks ago, at the end of my stretch class at the Y, a man approached me to ask me if he could tell me his story.

4 Holiday Health Hints to Keep Your Body Happy

Holidays are here… and too often, in all the busyness, we can forget to take care of our bodies! Here are 4 easy ways to keep your body happy this holiday season.

It Doesn't Come in a Bottle

This is a really hard question to ask, but…

Are you addicted to Ibuprofen?

If the answer is “yes,” then you are in good company because so many people are.

I have decided to write about it in hopes that this will give people hope that they can find alternative ways to deal with pain and feel better in their mind and body!

I have students that tell me that they have to take Ibuprofen before they work out in order to go through movements without pain.

Could it be magic?

Could “it” be magic? I can’t seem to get this question out of my head. You see, I have a new private student who is an avid golfer. She loves it and seems to be a bit competitive with her fellow golfers.

At our first session, I told her that stretching would improve her golf game.

She looked a me with skepticism, but said “well, if you think so, I hope so, I’ll give it a try.”

She has been stretching with me for 4 weeks now. Yesterday, she casually mentioned to me that she had her best golf game ever the day before.

Hydrate... and then hydrate some more!

Hydration is essential to life!

Think about it…

Every human, every animal, every plant, every tree, every blade of grass needs water to survive. If it doesn’t get enough, it shrivels, dries up, and dies.

What does hydration have to do with stretching, you ask?

Where It is, It Ain’t: How the Point of Pain is Never the Source of Pain

“The point of pain is usually never the source.”

On my first journey to California searching for stretching guidance, research, and knowledge, my stretch workshop instructor said this to us as he began his session.

“That is crazy,” I thought.

So, if your back hurts, it’s not your back?

How could that be?

Feet: The Foundation Of Our Body

26 bones.

33 joints.

19 muscles.

100s of ligaments & tendons.

… are in each foot!

There are more of these in the foot than any other part of our body… and we put them in shoes all day!

In the “stretching world,” shoes are considered “coffins for your feet.”

Health Tips, Stretch TherapyConnie WilliamsFebruary 11, 2021