Stretching Before Bed

Remember when I talked about Balance Athletica's Elevate U Challenge and said that "two of the habits I found surprisingly pleasant and beneficial"? One of them was the morning routine, and the other is "10 minutes of stretching before bed."

At first, this was the habit I completely forgot about or ignored, for a few reasons.

1) My entire nighttime routine didn't take 10 whole minutes; no way was I adding in something that long.

2) I didn't think stretching cold muscles could possibly have any effect.

3) 10 minutes sounded so long and boring.

But one night I decided to try it.

I started with my neck and shoulders, moved to arms, to lotsssss of legs and hips, then back up through everything, ending with neck and shoulders.

The first three minutes felt like an eternity. The last seven went by surprisingly quickly. I found that if I took my time, breathed deeply, and stretch thoroughly, I could easily use up 10 minutes.

I felt fresh and relaxed when I laid down and went to sleep. I might've slept better.

I discovered that 10 minutes of stretching didn't feel like "too long" at all. I liked the way it centered me. And then one day, I discovered a shocking change:

I'm getting more flexible.

To be honest, I'd assumed that I had maxed out my flexibility. As a dancer, I'd always been flexible, and I'd kept that by teaching dance and stretching after workouts. I wasn't trying to get any more flexible.

But one night, I breathed in, breathed out, and reached...and kept reaching...and was shocked at how comfortable I felt in the position I landed in.

Now, I don't stretch every night. For whatever reason it stopped relaxing me the way it did in the beginning, and in an effort to be kind, I don't force myself to keep up a nightly stretching streak. I still do it often though, and am so interested and encouraged by the increasing flexibility.

If you have trouble relaxing, want to grow in flexibility, or have joint pain/tightness, try stretching for 10 minutes before bed. It took me a couple of weeks to feel a difference, but I think it was a worthy experiment :)

~Stephanie