Embracing 40 – Flexibility

In spite of 5 years of gymnastics, I have never been flexible. As the little girls around me easily slid into the splits, or a backbend, or some other oddly named configuration, I got about half way down then started whimpering. Once I accepted the fact that I would never be an Olympic athlete, I was okay with my mediocre flexibility.

Until… the last few years when I started getting injured. A lot. I think that every student intern that I’ve had in recently has seen a different injured version of myself. There was the quarter in which I couldn’t move my elbow. And the quarter when my knee was so bad that I limped for months and collapsed once. And we can’t forget the months where my back was so badly injured that I put a mat down on my floor and would lie down in between groups.

Good times.

So this year, just as I was completing training for a half-marathon, I decided it was time to get flexy. No really. That’s what Cassey Ho (one of my favorite youtubers) calls the flexibility portion of her (affiliate link) PIIT-28 workout. PIIT-28 stands for “Pilates Intensive Interval Training for 28 days” and it is a program that you can purchase, like a course. My sister also went through the program and had great results. You can read about her experience here.

PIIT-28 includes 11 seven-minute workouts. You do one workout four times each day. Sounds easy, right? Bwhahahaha! I double dog challenged my extremely fit son to make it through the warm up! What has been best for me is not the workouts themselves, but the warm up and cool down videos before and after each workout. The cool down involves some serious flexibility moves. The kind that make you groan a little.

I’ve been doing the PIIT-28 program on and off for the last few months and I have definitely gotten stronger. In addition, I lost a few pounds doing her eating program. I think that I am getting a little more flexible too. Nothing earth shattering, but enough that I’m feeling less pain and more release each time that I stretch. Pretty soon, I’ll be one of those amazing middle-age yoga masters doing headstands and the splits… you never know! Bring on the rest of my 40s! I’m getting flexible!

If you are interested in the workout videos and eating plan, please support my affiliate link and click here.

 

In the comments below tell me if you are flexible… and if so, do you have any recommendations for me to increase my flexibility?