Stretching

Something I'm only beginning to learn is how to live smart, To this point, I was content to live rather recklessly and inefficiently. Perhaps then I could afford to sustain wear and tear, but these days it is more and more evident that while I can do what I want to do, I have to minimize harm and maximize the resources of my body. I only hope that I have begun to learn this lesson while it is still possible for it to do me any good.

Something I have decided I cannot do anymore is to just jump on my bicycle and ride a bunch of miles as I have done without any thought in the past. I think I can still ride a good distance, but must prepare myself. To that end, I have found a routine of stretching to do in order to set up my body for the whole thing. It was rather interesting to try and read my way through the moves in anticipation of a ride (which never happened).

This is not the only time I have stretched, I should say. In preparation for pole dancing training, which I remain in the very early stages of, I was talked through a number of stretches, which can be as strenuous for the inexperienced body as any of the bruising, exhausting moves that one must practice ad nauseam en route to becoming an accomplished pole dancer (which is something that I have seen but am a very long time away from becoming).

I will have to read more carefully, as I slipped up a few times in terms of order and repetition of some stretches. Maybe I did what I needed to do in substance. In any case, I think that it will have cumulative effect as much as immediate effect, and anyway I will not really feel the benefits until I have ridden next. If soreness is lessened and injury never happens, then I guess that will be the evidence I'm looking for.