Eat Dance Live

For a change, I'll allow myself to boast and say (perhaps again) that I've always been fairly flexible. It might have been the years of dance or perhaps my obsessive childhood perseverance of trying to remember to stretch during commercials... whatever it is, something paid off.  I mentioned a while back that, for almost a year now, I've achieved my lifelong goal of easily being able to go into the splits . I also posted the basic stretching routine , which I do after every workout, that I think really contributed to where I am now. After reaching my splits goal and all sorts of other crazy stuff, I've decided to up the ante. As of today, here are some of my goals for the year ahead. Good thing I've started dancing a couple times a week again... Hopefully, that will both help and motivate me to get there. 1) The Standing Splits (not necessarily on pointe, but hey, why not dream big) 2) Laybacks like I used to be able to do... a la Rachel Brice...

I've mentioned this a few times in a variety of different ways, but I have often gotten comments and questions about flexibility. The secret? Stretch. No really. Stretch. After every work out. It's super simple, it only takes about 5-10 minutes and you can do it wherever and whenever you want. At the gym? Sure! Watching TV? Of course (more on that later)! To me, stretching is one of the three legs of the perfect fitness stool (the other two being cardio and strength training). Stretching is great thing to do, especially after exercise, but it's definitely under-appreciated. (If you're interested, that is a picture of me on an OmGym last year... They're awesome, though it depresses me to see how tanned I am when I don't undergo a Canadian winter.) Here are only some of the things stretching and flexibility achieve: relaxes your muscles after your body has undergone a lot of stress and impact (under a lot of stress and trauma, your muscles shorten, which will pul...