Stay Flexible – Stay Well

I firmly believe that massage should be a regular part of everyone’s life. Monthly treatments work so well for my clients because they avoid problems developing.

I believe it is because massage is so effective at maintaining flexibility in the body.

When we are younger, flexibility comes naturally to us because our skin and tissues are supple and soft and full of elastin and collagen – proteins that are responsible for keeping tissues taut and allowing them to expand and crucially contract back again. As we age, the proportions of these proteins reduce and as a result we become less flexible.

That’s an issue because being less flexible leaves us prone to injury. If you over-stretch to pull a heavy box out of the car boot as a younger person you get away with it. Do that a couple of decade later and you could be in trouble.

A lot of injuries I see could have been avoided if folk were more flexible – back pain, neck and shoulder pain, sciatica.

Flexibility Reduces With Age

To the younger amongst us, the priorities are often strength, stamina and flexibility. There is less need to work on flexibility because it is there naturally.

As we age, I think the priorities reverse, so that they become flexibility, stamina, strength.

So what that means for us ordinary folk in the street is this – make time to stay flexible, which allows you to keep going with no injury. That means you keep going longer, which builds your stamina. Strength can then be developed if necessary or desired.

So how do you stay flexible?

Do stretches, drink lots of water, eat a wide variety of good quality foods, perhaps take a supplement, get a massage every month.

There’s a high variety of stretches and routines out there, but for simplicity, here’s two that I love and that almost every client gets as homework(!)

Hula-Hooping

Standing with your feet shoulder width apart, imagine you have a hula-hoop and make a slow, small circle with your hips. This should be pain-free. Start slow and small. If you can do a few, try the other direction – again, slow and small. If this is fine, make the circle a bit bigger and go both ways. Gradually increase the size of the circle but always slow and pain-free.

What’s the point of that? If you look in a full-length mirror while you do this, you will see that most of your weight-bearing joints are actually moving: your feet flex, your ankles, knees, hips, chest, shoulders and even your neck will move, especially when making larger circles.

Shoulder & Arm Circles

Quite simply, rotate your shoulders gently and smoothly forwards and backwards and make circles with your arms, wrists and hands.

These two cover a lot of the joints and tissues of the body. The main reason I love these though it that you can do them anywhere and need no equipment.

So, try these and let me know how you get on. Oh, and why not book a massage and see how flexible you feel afterwards.