Feel the Stretch – Not With Yoga, But Chek

Since the New Year I have felt a compulsion to slow down and do more flexibility work, not yoga, but stretching in general. Synchronicity also pushed me – as I took CECs for my NASM personal trainer re-certification I ended up doing several that were based around flexibility. I thought, “How perfect, I am getting a blast of this stuff just when I need it,” and it re-kindled my interest in Paul Chek.

Paul Chek is pretty awesome. I first came across him over at ptonthenet.com. Although he has been around in the fitness industry for a long time I was not aware of his work. He piqued my interest while listening to audios of him doing Author Symposiums – he is hysterical to listen to as he goes off on a rant about stuff, totally backed up of course by all the stats and data, but the delivery is hilarious to listen to at times.

Here’s Paul doing a workout – check out those abs! Watch the lunges – Good Golly Miss Molly! He is unreal!

So, Paul Chek has some very different opinions on health and fitness compared to what is blasted at us by pop media and the latest fad diet books, but I believe he has some very convincing arguments and I, for one, am listening.

I bought his How to Eat, Move and be Healthy book a couple of years ago and pulled it off my shelf to re-read it. It’s funny how you can read something at a stage in your life and you put it down thinking that it doesn’t really fit with what you are doing at the time. Well that was me with Paul Chek’s book. I heard and believed he had the right message, I just wasn’t tuning in.

This time around I have been lapping up the book. I did the stretch tests in it to see which stretches I needed to do. Basically the stretches I have always done after a workout are pretty much the same ones I have done in forever, but Paul says why stretch muscles that don’t need it? That made sense. Doing the stretch tests I realized which parts of my body needed help and have been doing them for three days now.

Three days isn’t long but already I feel so much better. The tight ‘corset’ that I felt enveloped my middle is almost undetectable except when I stretch. That’s a good thing as I was getting a little panicky about the tightness I have had all over my midsection for months. I have never had tightness like that before and the stretches and yoga I had been doing did nothing to alleviate the pain and discomfort.

I’m going to keep up with the stretching, even though it has taken quite a bit more time than I expected – the five minutes I used to do has become about 45 mins. Oh well, it’s worth it.