Picking things up the floor becomes more difficult; moving in a slightly unexpected way brings on aches and pains; and lower back, neck and shoulders feel tight.

It doesn't have to be that way. And it doesn't have to take a whole heap of time either. I've recorded a twenty minute video for you that you can access here. In the video, I'm sharing stretches for these five areas because they're the ones that I find many people struggle with most.

Here's the important bit though: everything is connected! So you may feel tight in one part of your body, but this might actually be a result of shortened or weakened muscles somewhere else in the chain. 

And as we all spend an increasing amount of time sitting time, compared to earlier generations, we are all going to be experiencing more of these postural issues. 

You're likely to have poor foot and ankle mobility if you have scuffed toes on your shoes or you find yourself tripping up stairs. 

Lack of mobility in feet and ankles is often a result of tight calf muscles and/or tightness in the connective tissue under your feet. The calf muscles attach at one end to the connective tissue under your feet and at the other end, below your knee. 

They then link, through connective tissue all the way up the back of your legs, over your butt and into and up your back. This means that you may also experience sore lower back or shoulders as a result of tight feet/ calf muscles! 

If you want more examples of stretches for feet and calf muscles, check out this blog post 

You'll know if you have tight hamstrings if you find it difficult to straighten your knees to touch your toes. 

Many of us spend a large part of every day sitting down with our knees bent. This means that your hamstrings, that start on your sit bones and then attach below your knee, are "on" a lot, just bending your knee. Is it any wonder that when we need to straighten the knee, the hamstrings are unhappy about it?

And, just reiterating the points from the last two paragraphs, everything is connected. So tight hamstrings can cause lower back pain. Check out some hamstring stretches here.

Tight hip flexors are usually characterised by stiffness or pain in the hips or butt

Many of us spend a large part of every day sitting down. This means that the muscles that flex your hips can get "stuck" in the same position. 

As with calves and hamstrings, tightness here can cause lower back pain and shoulder pain too (often on the opposite side of the body).

Are your shoulders rounded forward? Do you find it uncomfortable to take your straightened arms out to the side of your body in line with your shoulders? Then it's likely that you need to stretch your chest muscles.

Spending time typing over a laptop or your phone or spending a lot of time in your car can lead to a shortening of the muscles of the chest which then causes the upper back to be rounded and the neck to feel tight. Here are a couple of examples

I hope that you enjoy the stretches. 

If you'd like to get a stretch in regularly,  join my weekly online Strength and Stretch class on Fridays at 7.45am. 

We work the muscles that get weak, at the same time as stretching the muscles that get tight. It feels delightful! 

You can book into a free taster class here.

See you on the mat!