Stretching Concrete

The first day of stretching.

Thirty minutes of stimulating work-out music, squinting at directions, and finagling my body into unfamiliar and painful positions. Enter epiphany:

I'm as flexible as a slab of sun-baked concrete.

The above picture is inspirational. Take that same pose and visualize her hands just past her knees. That's me. I've always been inflexible--my college gymnastics professor said I was so stiff I was like a boy (but I had power enough for a double back handspring, thank you very much! And he never complained about that). Thankfully, snowboarder cross doesn't require me to be able to do the splits or kick my leg above my head. All the same, flexibility and stretched muscles are a necessity.

My stretching plan:

1) Always start with the song, Interlude by Attack! Attack! (appropriate, don't you think?). For one reason, this song inspires me to sweat until dusk with a determined Olympic face (too bad it's only  2 minutes long). For another, Interlude means "intermission" and, in an odd sense this venture with God toward Sochi, Russia feels like a much needed intermission from other life paths I'm on.

2) Stretch three times a week. I have temporary motivation to do more than that, but I also know my habit of finking out; therefore, I must not bombard myself to the point of burnout.

3) Remember Who I'm doing this for, because my desire to honor Him (and have fun with Him) is much higher than my desire to fink out on stretches.

I never used to stretch before I snowboarded in my younger years (you know, the days when life consisted of Shocktarts on a ski lift and hot cocoa at lunch while carving the slopes from 10 to 4). I never thought of the benefit, but the more I look into the benefits of stretching, the more I know it will be a lifelong benefit, as long as I keep it up.