Wednesday 8 May 2013

Hiking and stretching

I'm off to Hadrians wall in the next few weeks,  its a little warm up for the 500 mile walk later in the year. Ive been upping the the miles  lately,  nothing to drastic, 5 miles most days and 10-15 at the weekends. I love walking the slow pace of getting somewhere. Initially I kept forgetting to stretch, it was just a stroll after all.  I'm getting better and I stretch most days. I stretch myofascially its kinder to the body and works better. Myofascial stretching is about listening to your body, where does it need to stretch? 

How to stretch myofascially

So  go into your normal stretch, slow down and not all the way, just back off from that full stretch and breathe......... relax there's no rush the body knows what it needs. Now slowly see see where the stretch needs to go, imagine your body is melting into the stretch taking up the slack of the muscles giving, keep breathing..... each stretch needs to be held for at least 90 seconds.

We use myofacial stretching in treatment, it gets to those hard to reach areas that just are not being reached in other types of treatment

For more information check out my website.

Wednesday 17 April 2013

Its been so blowy and cold that its been harder to motivate myself. I'm a keen walker and preparing for a long walk in August, 500 miles across Spain. As a warm up I'm off to Hadrian's wall for a few days. By no means am I one of the fit people, I like to walk and 10 miles is a good walk for me, lately I have been upping the distance to around 15 miles when time permits. Little aches and pains have been happening and my feet have been suffering. 

Yesterday I went and visited the podiatrist and we talked for 90 minutes about my feet and she gave me exercises to improve the strength and muscle tone within my feet. So as I type I'm spreading my toes, slowly and waiting for the stretch. Stretching is about taking time and not making the muscles hurt, slow purposeful movements and always listening to the body. Gone are the days when we talked of ballistic stretching now its all about working with the body and listening to its needs. 

If you want more information about stretching drop me a line or it can be included in your treatment.