Stretching

YAWN *stretches* -  ah, nothing like a good stretch to start the day, 10 toe touches and reach to the sky...

^ This of course never happens lol. My alarm kicks off and in one millisecond (or less) I have turned it off and I'm bolt upright and ready to go;  a few seconds later and I'm in my running or walking gear ready to take my dogs out, like some kind of dog-walking super hero I suppose. ;)  I've never understood the snooze button at all! In my army days I had to share rooms with snoozers and it drove me mad - they'd say "Oh I need 5 minutes to come round", but in that 5 minutes they would fall asleep and have to repeat the process all over again; I like to call it the snooze cycle. I would combat the snooze cycle by waiting until they had gone back to sleep and unplugging all of the alarm clocks :)
...I'm doing it again, aren't I - I digress, as I do in every opening paragraph of this blog ha ha. Cool story though? (That is a rhetorical question.)

OK then, I've got up and taken the dogs for a run, probably just PB'd a 5K or something, I give the dogs a treat for keeping up with me and start cracking some eggs for breakfast. Time is of the essence, I shower and change then I'm out the door for work; job done, right? I then spend the majority of the day at my desk feeling tighter and tighter by the hour as the days goes on. I finish work on time because I'm a really hard working and efficient employee... I greet the family and spend some time with my little girl, I bath and feed her and then start to do my 'man jobs'. Mowing the lawn, putting the bins out, sawing bits of wood in half and putting up shelves etc. I start food prep for that night and the day after and think about what CrossFit workout to do... 3, 2, 1 go ................................ I PB on another WOD (don't read to much into this, I'm just waffling to get to my point, stick with me it's coming soon), shower and eat, sort the dogs out and potter about the house (I don't mean walk about the house with a wand like Harry Potter, although I'd have nothing against doing so, I mean tidying up and that), maybe a little TV then it's time for bed. I sort my running gear out for the morning to ensure minimal delay from waking up and getting ready to leaving with the dogs (super hero style remember?)... YAWN *stretches... "I turn the lights off and I'm in bed before it's gone dark" - little Muhammed Ali quote thrown in for good measure, all the best blogs have them. 

So... What's my point? Good question, thanks for asking. Throughout the day I have stretched twice! I have made time to get my food prep in and all my meals, two lots of PB's (personal best, just in case you hadn't worked that out) some housework and time spent with the family, yet I couldn't spare 10 minutes to improve my body's ability to perform better tomorrow, or the next day.

Stretching may take a back seat in your day but let's think about the benefits of stretching, I know you are all dying to! lol 

I'm not going to get to technical (I probably should as I have referenced HP for the second time this year).

(1) Studies about the benefits of stretching have had mixed results. Some show that stretching helps, while others show that stretching has little if any benefit. The main benefits of stretching are thought to be:

Improved athletic performance

Decreased risk of activity-based injuries 

Stretching can help improve flexibility - fact - better flexibility can improve performance in physical activity or decrease your risk of injuries by helping your joints move through their full range of motion. Lets say if you do a lot of hill walking, your Achilles tendon could become tight and generally lack flexibility. This is because you are, over time, not moving the ankle through its full Range Of Motion (ROM), which would cause you problems in other areas such as getting low in a squat position. Stretching, even after a hill walk, can improve the ROM in the ankle and in turn decrease the risk of micro-trauma to your tendon that would lead to an overload injury.

(1) http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/stretching/HQ01447/

Stretching also increases blood flow to the muscle which is an automatic win! 

I think what I'm trying to say is stretch, but stretch in a way so it's beneficial, I've been doing Kelly Starlet's mobility WODs they are awesome and he is the MAN! 

This was my condition on Sunday just gone... Feeling good, making gains, taking names ;)

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Barbell Benny