ANNIE DEADMAN IS HERE TO HELP YOU, THE EASY WAY!
Stretch away stiffness – in seconds
Fitness isn’t just about having a healthy heart and lungs, climbing mountains or being able to hold a plank for two minutes without crying (although all of that is wonderful!). It is also – as my chiropractor likes to tell me on each visit – about looking after the balance of your body. All the right muscles should have equal strength to perform a move with an equal amount of effort. Whether it’s reaching for the remote or squatting with a barbell.
My protesting retorts are usually met with a point-y elbow somewhere painful as he unlocks a tight muscle. This muscle tightness can occur for any number of reasons. Sometimes from taking too much load (neighbouring muscles may have become lazy and aren’t doing their job properly), but also from simple ageing. Things just don’t work as well as they used to, fact! Tendons and ligaments and joints may feel sore and stiff from declining oestrogen levels in the good old menopause and will take longer to repair. Why am I telling you all this? Because immobility and soreness is not something we want to put up with in our golden years and a bit of discipline and a daily date with a tennis ball can work wonders.
For example, the glutes are a set of three enormous muscles which power us through our 10,000 daily steps. To be effective, a muscle has to be strong but it also has to be fluid. Using a tennis ball can unlock any knots (and make your eyes water). Lie on your back, knees bent, feet flat on the floor. Place the tennis ball under your left glute and extend the left leg, keeping the right leg bent. Slowly let your butt muscles wrap around the ball (th
