The Cool Kids on the Playground

June 26, 2023

Do you know how awesome it feels to be limber? Just look at little kids at the playground, how they sit comfortably in hero’s pose for lengthy periods of time and swing back and forth on the monkey bars with glee. They are not “roadblocked” with tension or stiff joints, instead they celebrate life with exuberant movement. How wonderful, right? I want to be like them…don’t you? 

Well, mindful movement can help us achieve this goal. People often think “it’s just the way it is” that as we get older we get less limber. To that I call BS. Yes, we have to work on it, but yes, it’s ours to be had.  Here’s my limbering up recipe: 

  1. Flexibility – simply stretch, nothing fancy. Our muscles become what we repeatedly do so give them some daily extension. 
  2. Mobility – bust out of the box of small ranges of motion with mobility challenges like sitting on the ground, reaching for a lay-up in basketball, or doing a downward facing dog. 
  3. Hydration – water plays a huge role when it comes to being limber and most adults walk around dehydrated. “Eat” your water with fruits and veggies, and drink good old-fashioned water instead of sugary drinks, caffeine, and alcohol. So many beverages work against “plumping up” our cells with hydration, so minimize and/ or cut them out. 
  4. Breath – “so goes the breathe so goes the body” is a saying in yoga that I find to be true, especially with ease of motion. Deep breathing can reduce tension and can, in an energetic way, “lubricate” our joints. Deep breathing is nutrition and helps us stay in an open, flow state. Spend a few minutes during your day to just focus on your breath. Can you slow it down? Can your deepen it? 
  5. The “here & now” mindset – an instant limber-er is getting embodied, by bringing 100 percent of your attention to your physical self right now. High pressured careers and lifestyles, and getting caught up in life problems and/or demands, are body contractors. Stress is not in only in the mind – it manifests in the physical as the opposite of limber. A mini-meditation practice does a body good. 

Being limber looks good, feels good, and without a doubt, helps up shine bright. It prevents aches and pains and injury. It gives us a can-do sense of self. And, it helps us celebrate life with exuberant movement, like the cool kids on the playground. Make limbering up one of your fitness goals…it makes life better.

Let’s Move! ✨