Wednesday, April 1, 2015

Stretches are the muscles meditation

Most of us spend most of the day sitting down; in the office, in meetings, in classrooms and in our car. One of my dreams is that all educators will hold a stretch time and/ game time at least once a day. Until then, we would like to suggest you with some stretch exercises that we recommend to do with your kids, for four critical areas in your body.

Flexibility and range of motion are two parameters which greatly influence our ability to move, help preventing injuries, influences our everyday activities and our posture.
We chose to focus on those areas:
  1. Shoulder belt and the upper back.
  2. Lower back and hamstrings (back of the hip).
  3. Feet.
  4. Joints.
You can do all of the stretches alone, but we recommend that you turn it into a family activity - shared implementation gives motivation, collaboration, closeness and new ideas. You can help others in their stretches, but do it gently and with their approval.
We recommend that you exercise 2-3 times a week, 4-5 stretches every time.

* It is imperative to keep still in each posture for 10 sec. minimum.

1. Shoulder belt and the upper back

In this stretches you need to feel the work in your upper back, the area between the shoulders and the center of the back. The more you will curve your back, your buttocks and belly will also workout.
For six revisions- convex and arch your back (A)
Bring your knee toward the chest (B)
Send your hand up and far back while arching your back (A). If done correctly, you will also feel the stretch in the side of your and ribs (B).


Sit straight, and slowly move your chin back and forth. Don't force your chin to touch your chest if it's not comfortable. In this stretch we work on our upper back and the back of the neck.

2. Lower back and hamstrings (back of the hip)

The next stretches work on the area which tends to shortens and stress due to prolong sitting, too many power exercised at the gym and too little flexibility exercises. During the following exercises you will feel your buttocks, back-thigh and lower back. It is important to remember that stretching is not supposed to hurt us! If you are experiencing an uncomfortable pain – stop and rest.

Stand-up straight and then bend and stretch your hands to the floor, stay still in the most remote point you can for a few seconds.
For six revisions-  Lift your pelvis up, keep your heels on the ground and chest headed to the floor. Then lift one leg, and then the other. You can see that the back is a bit arched. You need to aspire to slowly straighten it as straight as possible.


Sit on the floor with straight legs, and then pull your feet with a towel.


Sit in a cross-legged position while sending your hands as far as you can, while making sure that your pelvis stay on the floor and does not lift up.



3. Feet

We stand on our feet most of the day, they are wrapped in shoes and they are our connections to the ground; let's give them some respect.

Open and close your fingers.

Open and close your feet.
Stand on your toes, and walk on your toes.

4. Joint

We have many joints, and we must keep working on our range of motion since it decreases on a yearly basis (starting from adolescence)

Spin them.

Open them to various sides (carefully and gently).
Twisting games.


Do all the stretches calmly, with no pressure or over stretching. Remember that the main purpose is quality time with benefits.

Remember that we are stretching our muscles and some of our tendons a bit outside our comfort zone, but don't hurt yourselves!

Enjoy.



! All the exercises in this film are professional recommendations.  However, the implementations are under  parents and/ or educators responsibility.
* If you see no improvement, or have multiple challenges consult a professional.


Do you have questions? Comments?
We will be happy to hear them, here, our facebook page, twitter, or our Youtube channel.
You can tag your instagram photos with #Togiletsplay

:)

All the posts and materials belongs to togi let's play, and the writer © 

No comments:

Post a Comment