Stretching while shaving legs

Does it count? I have been wondering this, lately, while reaching to shave my legs and feeling a little stretch in my hamstrings or reached down to pick up my senior dog, Miggy, and making sure I’m bending down safely – am I in the middle of an impromptu deadlift/squat variation? It feels like a stretch. I try not to lead from my trunk to aggrevate my lower back. I always squat first to pick up Miggy. Minimal online searching, says, no, not in a fitness sense.

But what really counts for our overall health? I can’t help but observe seniors at my Dad’s assisted living home. People who live at this home appear to have a wide range of mobility. Many use walkers. Some use wheelchairs. Many don’t use either. My casual observations, coupled with a bit of listening in at my Dad’s doctor’s appointments about senior health, is that any movement is beneficial. If you can do it, moving in any way is good for your body AND your brain. If you can reach down to shave, reach up to get the shampoo bottle, go for a walk to the library, it’s all good for you.

Stretching is a theme that’s been ever present in my mind these days. As a runner, stretching has always been an important consideration, however, I haven’t always been diligent with it. I’ve been one of those, “if I have 60 min to run”, I’m going to run, consider how I should stretch afterwards, but then head right for my coffee or a shower and forget about it. It’s not because I don’t need to stretch. I’m not one of those hyper-bendy people. Even when I was in my 20s, I wasn’t able to get my hamstrings to stretch to 90 degrees in mat (pilates, yoga) classes. I’d notice 70 year old women with very straight angles and wonder what their secret was – hours of stretching? years of dancing and gymnastics? I grew to understand that 90 degree angles probably weren’t in the cards for me. Like most experiences with fitness, I’d need to discover the other benefits of stretching besides being lithe.

Of course, the more I ran, the more I took strength and movement classes, I learned the benefit of releasing tension in my muscles and joints.

After several days walking 30,000 steps a day on Quebec City’s steep sidewalks at the beginning of August, I came home and discovered an aching hip in the middle of the night. that aching hip moved around about to the area I think of as my “glute med(ius)”. It was more irritated sitting too long. It was aggravated walking on in kind of incline too fast. I started ensuring I was doing more stretches every morning for my hips and glutes. I focussed on active stretches that have formed part of exercise classes I’ve enjoyed for years – walking leg sweeps, walking hip “CARs“, seated, folding “90/90s”, bridges. One of my coaches suggested adding longer, more static stretches in the evening. I added longer pigeon holds (with my hip barely reaching the floor these days on the left side), couch stretches, longer hamstring stretches while watching TV. Before going out for my run, I make sure I stretch properly and often add more stretches while stopped at lights on my run. The post-vacation pain seems to be much better.

Since the pain in my butt has gotten better, my diligence with stretching has already started to slide. Or not. I need to make sure I stick to more stretching. Whether it’s for current maintenance, or, trying to keep my mobility as I age into my golden years, it seems it’s crucial component of my overall fitness plan. If I can add a few stretches while going through the motions of getting ready, that would be good too. Seems like I need to make sure that I am actually making it a stretch (holding it long enough, reaching far enough) and not relying on the ordinary movement naturally being one.

While reaching down to do daily tasks may not be an official stretch, these little feelings of movement are regular reminders to be grateful for every opportunity to move and not take that movement for granted.