Mar 3, 2008 4:10 pm US/Mountain
Moody Finds He's Got A Lot Of Stretching To Do
Written by CBS4 Critic at Large Greg Moody
DENVER (CBS4) ―
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Greg Moody works out at Matrix Fitness
CBS
It takes a lot longer to get ready for a workout than in the past. Not that it takes longer to dress myself, I've pretty much got that down, I mean the stretching part.
I can't just jump on the bike, or grab the dumb bells or do a couple of pull ups (as if I ever could) without a good 20-30 minutes of active stretching.
In other words, I have to exercise in order to be able to exercise.
Dan Linsacum, my trainer at Matrix Fitness and Spa in Denver, is a big proponent of active stretching.
"We're going to want to work these muscles, in small groups, to help improve your posture and your spinal alignment," Linsacum told me.
And that means stretches. All sorts of different stretches that engage all sorts of different muscles, all for very specific reasons.
"Some will affect your hamstrings -- which will affect your pedal stroke. Others will target your core, which help with balance and stability. While still others will help you increase not only your flexibility, but your ability to relax on the bike."
Which all goes back to what Dan had been saying from the start. The key to this new exercise program is functionality. If you can't do it outside the gym, if it doesn't help you in your everyday life, then there's no reason to do it in the gym.
That doesn't mean that any of this comes easily.
"When we're 12-year-old kids, we're firing all our muscles all the time. We just do. Then, as we get older, more and more of those muscle groups start turning off as we either sit on our butts or start engaging in a few sports that require only the same muscles over and over. We've got to get you back to being a 12 year old kid ... with everything firing."
It was nice to know that my mind was already at the 12-year-old boy stage.
Still, even though it was considered "stretching," muscles that had not been asked to do much at all were now screaming to be heard.
We are on our way up to the base line. Rather than jumping right in, Dan was making sure that the muscles will be ready to perform the tough stuff when they're called on down the road -- whether that's on a bike, a weight bench or just walking down the street.
Yeah, he wheezed, this is the "easy" part.
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