GOOD
Fitness
Kick Tightness to the Curb BY TAMMY UYEDA, BSc(PT)
I
remember the first time it happened. It was only a month and a half into lockdown. After a morning full of online tele-health clients I went to stand up from my chair. Suddenly, the front of my hips protested. My low back protested. My joints groaned as I willed my lower body to release me from the tight grasp that threatened to keep me frozen in a Gollum-like stance. A grunt escaped my throat reminding me of my grandpa getting up after teatime. Whaaat?! Stretching instantly helped me to regain my fluidity, but over the weeks to come I started to notice a new tightness and ache to the back of my hip niggling away at me. The effects of stretching were frustratingly temporary. Other odd stiffnesses started to become a part of my daily life and I suddenly felt…older.
T I G H T AREA 0 1
Hip Flexors
You feel stiffness at the front of the hips or low back when standing from prolonged sitting. STRETCH: Seated Hip Flexor Stretch
Side sit on a chair. Extend one leg behind you while reaching above your head. Feel the stretch to the front of your hip. STRENGTH EXERCISE: Banded High-Knee Marches
Place a mini-band around your feet. March slowly, bringing your knee up to waist-level while pulling your foot toward your shin.
After a couple of weeks of going around the tightness and stretching merry-go-round with no real lasting benefits, the realization hit me…I had grown weaker. Even though I was spinning/running and stretching almost daily, I had not performed much in the way of regular, resisted, or weighted activity in nearly two months. My physical life, like most everyone else’s, had been significantly altered and the heaviest thing I was now lifting was a basket of groceries once every two weeks. This new stiffness and tightness was my body’s way of sending me a warning—and I was now ready to act.
Seated Hip Flexor Stretch
TAMMY UYEDA, BSc(PT) is a clinical Physiotherapist, certified group fitness instructor, and owner of FitSpark Health. She is passionate about motivating and inspiring people to live an active lifestyle and can usually be found shuttling her three pre-teen and teenaged sons between soccer fields. She shares workouts, exercise tips, and her favourite fitness-related finds on her Instagram page. 23 | September/October 2021
Banded High-Knee Marches
tinkam
