How to Stretch Beyond Your Reach

Can you touch your toes? This common stretch is often used to test flexibility. Perhaps you’re like me and not very flexible. If you’ve tried to improve and had a hard time making progress, it might be that you’ve been operating according to a common misconception that flexibility has to do with muscle or tendon length. Perhaps you’ve tried to stretch by reaching toward your toes and spending time in this position. According to a talk on building flexibility, this doesn’t yield results and the reason why is fascinating.

Our bodies are smart and instinctively protect us from injury. If the muscles that are used during the end of our range of motion are weak, then as we extend toward our maximum, other muscles tense up to protect us from overextending our joints. This is especially the case with our spine. If our body doesn’t trust weak muscles to function well at the end of our range of motion, it puts a brake on. The way to improve is to strengthen our muscles at the end of our range. As this happens our reach will improve.

This process serves as a good analogy for the dynamics of improvement in general. When we first approach doing something that is beyond what we’ve done before, we might feel fear or anxiety. Our minds resist change to protect us from potential injury. Practicing at the edge of our “range of motion” can help us develop strength so that we can do more than before. 

As a bachelor, I was working to improve my dating life. I initially felt nervous about a potential “no” but after practicing, I learned to see rejection differently. In fact, when I first asked out the wonderful woman who is now my wife, she said no and one of the things that struck her about me was how at ease I was. 

This week, I invite you to ask:

Where do I want to stretch beyond my current capabilities? What would I need to do to gradually strengthen the things associated with this area? 

God bless,
Dan