The older I get, the more I feel the need to stretch. And I mean a big long deliberate stretch from one end of a limb to the other. Aging can bring with it tight muscles, stiff joints, dry skin and overall tension and achiness. When we were kids we would jump, run, squirm, move and our bodies served us so well. When we get older, we don’t do those kinds of movements as much, so the body tends to get stiffer from non-use. That’s why we need to move and stretch as often as we can think of it.
“I don’t like to stretch, it hurts!” I will always remember those words of a woman who I invited to come to my Gentle Yoga class. Think of stretching as a slow and deliberate process. I equate it to pulling taffy. Remember those marshmallows we turned into long strings of taffy after massaging them and rolling them around in our thumbs! Think of that taffy when you do these stretches!
