10 minutes a day keeps inflexibility away!

If you complain of back pain, inflexible body, tight Hamstrings, or muscle pain, you are just 10 minutes away from the solution. Who says it is necessary to workout at a gym for hours to keep those problems at bay? The solution is as simple as a few stretching exercises at home, all wrapped up within ten minutes.

For improving Flexibility at home, you need to plan a routine for yourself and stick to it. Since it can be done at anytime of the day or night, it will be hard to find excuses to skip the routine; and that is the beauty of it. Firstly you need to wear some loose clothes and have at least a 1 hour gap between the routine and your last meal.

It is very necessary to start with very light warm up like simple jogging for about a minute or two. Then you can select a few of the following stretches and you have a routine ready. You may also prepare 2-3 sets of stretches so that you have some variety.

A few stretches are given below. Each should be repeated 2-3 times at least. These stretches are basically pre-yoga poses that
help increase the flexibility of the body.

• Forward bending – Stand straight with both legs together. Now slowly raise both your hands. Bend forward and try and touch your feet. Bend only till a comfortable position. Maintain this position for a few seconds. Return to the start position. As one does this daily you can see that the range of bending slowly increases.

• Backward bending - Stand straight with both your legs together. Now slowly raise both your hands. Bend backward as much as you can to a comfortable position. Maintain this position for a few seconds. Return to original position.

• Side bending - Stand straight with your legs apart. Now raise your hands, bend at the sideward and curl the hand on the opposite side over your head. Maintain this position for a few seconds. Repeat with the opposite side.

• Calf stretch – Stand straight on a step. Now try and raise your body to stand on your toes. Make sure that your knees are straight and they do not bend. Maintain this position for a few seconds. Repeat 3-4 times.

• Hamstring stretch – Stand straight with both your legs together. Now try and bend your leg at the knee, grasp your foot with your hands and press it to the buttocks. Repeat with the other leg also.
Apart from these you can also try some of the following

• Foreheads to toes

• Cobra pose

• Side leg stretch

• Boat pose

• Mountain pose

These are just a few examples; there are a lot of other poses that can be included and a routine can be planned and implemented. But you need to be commited to make the moves, practice ths art and burn the fat. Ultimately, where there is a will, there is a way!