Longer, Taller, Younger, Smarter, Leaner, Sweeter, Happier, Healthier: The 8 “-er”s of Stretching
I always say to my students at the end of every stretch session that I teach...
You are now:
Longer
Taller
Younger
Smarter
Leaner
Sweeter
Happier
Healthier
Everyone laughs, but I am telling them the truth!
All of these amazing things happen when you stretch — I call them the 8 “-er”s of Stretch Therapy.
Let me break it down for you.
LONGER:
When you stretch, it lengthens your tight muscle tissue, which relieves joints so they move with more range of motion and less pain. It also reduces the risk of injury. A “long” muscle is a strong muscle. A tight muscle, on the other hand, is a weak one.
TALLER:
Because our muscle tissue is “longer” when it is stretched, it allows you to stand taller. When you lengthen and decompress the spine through stretching, it allows you to have better posture. The benefits of good posture and a long strong spine are beyond measure!
YOUNGER:
When you STRETCH, you feel better in your body and are able to go through daily life with more ease. It’s like you’ll have more youthful energy! Students tell me that they feel like a 30 year-old in a 50-year-old body after they STRETCH — as opposed to a 50 year-old in an 80-year-old body.
As Big Al, the horse rancher I met in Taos, New Mexico told me: “You are as young as your spine is limber.”
SMARTER:
I always tell my students that they are “smarter” just because they chose to take time to stretch. The truth is that when you elongate the spine, it opens up pathways for spinal fluid, blood flow, oxygen, nutrition, and hydration to soar to the brain.
Dr. Roger Sperry, 1981 Nobel Prize winner for brain research, says this: “90% of the stimulation and nutrition to the brain is generated by the movement and length of the spine”.
- Dr. Roger Sperry
1981 Nobel Prize winner for brain research
LEANER:
I love this one.
If your muscle tissue is too tight, it restricts movement in joints, which restricts range of motion when you exercise or just do daily life tasks. This restriction of movement eventually causes pain and can lead to injury, which in turn leads to a visit to the bone and joint institute. From there, it’s rehab which leads to less movement and exercise while you heal which leads to… you get where I am going!
A muscle improves strength by going through a full range of motion. When this can’t happen, the muscle becomes weak.
But when you stretch, you stay active and can perform movement with greater ease — allowing you to say “lean” through exercise!
SWEETER:
Okay, this is a funny one… but true!
Think about it — when you do something good for your body to help it out, the brain knows it. It sends a powerful flow of energy throughout the entire body and lifts the spirit. We just feel better!
When we are tight and have painful movement, we feel “grumpy” and tend to move less. But when we feel good from lengthening and stretching our bodies, we subconsciously are “sweeter” — even willing to lift the spirit of the ones around us, as well!
HAPPIER:
I am not kidding you when I tell you that everyone — and I truly mean everyone — who finishes a stretch class or private session with me always has a beaming smile on their face. Researchers say that stretching our bodies releases a “happy hormone” through the body and the brain!
HEALTHIER:
As I like to say… movement is medicine.
When you stretch, movement becomes easier for the body to remain active. You move more rather than less. Less movement causes less movement which causes less movement….. And then you become “stuck” in your body.
Stretching and movement creates pathways for oxygen, blood flow, nutrition, and hydration to flow to every cell in your body, healing along its way. But when you move less, this process slows which sets the body up for more health issues.
The bottom line…
