your health
Fitness coach Joe Wicks shows how doing some simple stretches can help you stay active and independent
Moving your body is key to retaining range of motion.
Performing simple exercises every day will allow you to continue to carry out daily tasks such as emptying the dishwasher or reaching high shelves into your later years.
Stretching is often something we avoid, but spending just a few minutes a day will see huge benefits, as the nation’s favourite personal trainer, Joe Wicks, explains.
“In the past, I neglected stretching because it’s really uncomfortable. But you’ve got to start looking at your body as a machine and your joints need to be oiled,” he points out.
“There is so much more to your body than your muscles; there are ligaments, joints, and bones, so see those joints as mechanisms that need to be worked. We always leave it until we get pain to try and remedy it, but we need to think how can be prevent this from happening.”
Here, Joe has shared four stretches from his new book Feel Good In 15 (Harper Collins).
KNEELING LAT STRETCH
1 Start by kneeling on the floor. Place your fingertips or hands on the ground.
2 Keeping the arms as straight as possible, drive your hands down into the floor and lean back into your heels. As you do this, contract your abs to feel the lats (the muscles down the sides of your back) stretch even more. Take a few deep breaths – and with each exhale, focus on relaxing the muscles and taking the stretch deeper. Rock back out of the stretch for a few seconds and repeat for two minutes.
KNEELING REACH THROUGH
1 Kneel on all fours with your hands placed directly underneath your shoulders.
2 Take the left arm and thread it through the gap as far as you can to feel a stretch in your left shoulder.
3 Slowly rotate at the spine and bring the left arm straight up over your head towards the sky. You’ll feel a b
