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January 22, 2025 26 mins

As we age, our bodies undergo numerous changes that can affect our mobility, flexibility, and overall physical health. Stretching plays a crucial role in maintaining our body's functionality and preventing injuries. Moreover, after a joint injury, fracture, or surgery, incorporating stretching and movement is essential for a successful recovery. This episode of Body N Balance will address the importance of stretching and movement for older adults and for individuals recovering from joint injuries or fractures.

Aging is an inevitable process that brings about several physiological changes, including decreased muscle mass, reduced bone density, and loss of flexibility. The connective tissues surrounding our muscles and joints become stiffer, leading to limited range of motion and increased susceptibility to injuries. Maintaining flexibility through regular stretching can counteract these changes and provide numerous benefits:

· Improved Mobility: Stretching helps maintain and improve the range of motion in our joints, allowing for more effortless and fluid movements.

· Reduced Risk of Injury: Flexible muscles and joints are less prone to strains, sprains, and other injuries, making it easier to perform daily activities without discomfort.

· Enhanced Posture: Stretching can help alleviate muscle imbalances that contribute to poor posture, reducing the risk of back and neck pain.

· Better Circulation: Stretching increases blood flow to the muscles, delivering essential nutrients and oxygen, which can aid in recovery and overall muscle health.

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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:30):
Welcome to Body In Balance Podcast.
I am your host, Charlotte Johnson.
The Certificate Licensed Physician Assistant sent here to kick some knowledge your way

(00:51):
once a week for the purpose of educating, informing and enlightening this audience
concerning physical, spiritual and emotional aspects of our bodies in relation to our Creator.
The One, the Only, the True and Living God, YAH-MOS, YAH-DH, He is the King of Kings.

(01:23):
I'm an All-God of Lords.
Let us give it up for YAH-Way.

(01:52):
I'm working a new platform and I want you guys to be patient with me.
Praise the Lord.
It's working.
God bless you.
So, apparently, it says that my browser has blocked the screen, but I am not going to

(02:14):
let that affect our learning on today.
We have gotten started.
I want to talk to you about stretching and flexibility.
First, I'm going to apologize because I was supposed to have two guests on board with

(02:39):
me and they were unable to make it.
They were unable to make it.
Both of them, unfortunately, had gotten ill and one had to go to the hospital.
So, I want you to be praying for Sidney who's out in Virginia.

(03:03):
And my friend and brother, Darryl, he was unable to make it because there were too many people
that were off at his job.
So, nevertheless, I'm going to move on with my people and we are going to talk about flexibility

(03:26):
and for the sake of the program, I'm going to say, instead of just aging, getting chronologically
matured.
Now, when I was in my 20s, it was old folks.
And when I was in my 30s, it was the older people, the seniors.

(03:49):
But now that I have hit that AARP card age, we're going to call it chronologically matured.
All right.
So, we're going to talk about stretching and flexibility and the importance of movement
after injuries.

(04:11):
Now, anyone can benefit from this particular program that we have today, but it's particularly
important for those of you, like I said, that have grown chronologically matured.
And that's dropping all the way down to, like, in your 40s.

(04:32):
The reason why I'm saying that is because most of us have sedentary jobs.
So, we sit in front of computers most of the time and we're not moving like we were in
gym class.
So, what's our agenda today?
Understanding the impact of aging on flexibility, the role of stretching in injuries we're going

(05:00):
to talk about.
And we're going to talk about incorporating movement into our daily lives.
We're going to kind of skip over that professional guidance, but we're going to go into what's
some long-term strategies for maintaining flexibility.
Understanding the impact of aging on flexibility.

(05:23):
So there's four different things I want you to pick up from this slide.
And that's the changes in your muscle elasticity or the stretchiness, the flexibility that
we have.
I want you to understand that as we get chronologically matured, your flexibility or the elasticity,

(05:52):
like you see in a rubber band, that decreases.
So aging causes muscles to lose its elasticity, resulting in stiffer muscles, tightness around
joints and limited range of motion.
The impact of the range of motion, it makes you not able to do things.

(06:16):
If you've noticed that cups and plates and things that are higher up on a shelf or a
book that's higher up on a shelf is hard for you to get at this time, it's because you've
lost the mobility of your shoulder joint or you've got some stiffness in your back.

(06:38):
It's probably because you're sitting so much.
And if the muscles in the front, which is your abdomen, that pot belly that develops,
that little pouch, the little kangaroo pouch that we tend to get, that tends to pull on

(07:00):
those back muscles.
And so when you lay on your stomach and things like that, it pulls and those muscles on your
back get shorter.
They get shorter.
And when they get shorter and you get ready to stand up and stretch them out, then it
becomes painful or stiff.

(07:23):
So now the risk of injury, stiffer muscles can increase the risk of injury during physical
activity.
So the things you used to do when you were in high school and like, say you go to a family
reunion and you want to show off to the grandkids and the nieces and nephews and show them,

(07:46):
you know, how you used to catch the football or throw the baseball or hit a volleyball.
And you do all of that and you're good at it.
And they're very impressed with how fast you can run and all is.
But then that next day, good Jesus, you try to move in that hamstring is tight.

(08:09):
You know the deal, but that highlights the importance of flexible ability training.
Some of the importance of stretching regular exercises are very crucial because the more
you do a certain thing, the more helpful it is.
And that's why in my trailer, I was telling you that I go to stretch lab.

(08:32):
They have these new companies out there.
One is stretch lab.
I think there's another one pro stretch.
They're all over and they're in the United States in different areas, different companies.
Just look one up.
I just happened to have joined stretch lab because it was around the corner from my

(08:53):
house in Virginia.
And then when I came out here to work in California, there's a stretch lab right around the corner
for my job.
So sometimes there is a need for extra help.
And one of the people that I had coming on was Sydney.

(09:14):
She worked in physical therapy.
Now when I was in the military, that's what I did.
I did physical therapy to help soldiers and things like that, who are the army to be mobile.
So joint health and mobility, aging and joint health.
Like it says, you get the wear and tear and that kind of thing.

(09:37):
And it leads to arthritis or what some people say.
I hear it a lot in church.
Arthur's got me.
Importance of stretching, regular stretching is vital because it keeps the muscles, tendons
and ligaments around these joints moving.

(09:58):
You've got to keep them flexible.
Otherwise they get tight.
Maintaining joint mobility contributes to the flexibility and makes you move better and
have a better quality of life.
I'm going to tell you a quick story.
I went to go see Darryl because my shoulder was bothering me so bad.

(10:19):
And I really couldn't lift my arm and I was barely lifting it up.
And when I was in the army, like I said, I worked in physical therapy.
I knew what was happening, but I needed some help.
And so at the stretch lab, he was able to help me to free up my shoulder joint, which
was very helpful.

(10:40):
Common flexibility issues that occur in elderly patients.
You have a lot of problems with knees, elbows, shoulders and backs.
Knees, elders, shoulders and backs.
This range of motion occurs in older adults as I've stressed in the last three or four

(11:03):
slides.
Stiffness occurs.
And then you can get that chronic pain, where you have chronic back pain, chronic neck pain,
chronic shoulder or other joint like knees.
So the role of stretching in injury recovery.

(11:24):
Now that's real important.
A lot of times as we're younger, these orthopedic doctors, we fracture something, they throw
a cast on us.
We walk around with it for six weeks, eight weeks, take it off.
They cut it off and then they tell you to run on and see what the ends going to be.
Well, they don't necessarily say that, but I'm a little churchy.

(11:45):
I'll know that.
They don't send you to physical therapy.
If you don't ask for it, probably won't get it.
But really, if you have the insurance or you have the money or you have the time to regain

(12:06):
the strength and the mobility around a joint, it's very important that you do so.
Now it doesn't necessarily have to be a fracture.
We'll get into that a little bit later.
Let's talk about this slide.
Benefits of stretching post-injury, it enhances your healing.
One of the things that occurs is your circulation around that joint increases.

(12:33):
When blood increases to the area, then the muscles and the joints and the ligaments around
that joint tend to get looser.
You will see a better range of motion that occurs around that joint reduces stiffness,

(12:56):
as I just said, and then you can regain full function.
Sometimes you can injure a shoulder and they can do surgery on that shoulder if you can
see where I'm pointing like right at the shoulder joint.
And you just can't lift that shoulder up to full range of motion.

(13:22):
If you can't lift up to full range of motion, what happens?
You start to lose that.
It's use it or lose it.
Again, use it or lose it.
So if you lose it, it's not good for that joint and you lose the circulation and it

(13:42):
hinders because you start getting tightness and scar tissue around the area.
So let's get into that.
There's three types of stretches that you can do for recovery.
Now there's the static stretch.
That's where you stretch and you hold it.

(14:04):
Hold for five seconds, hold for 10 seconds, and then you relax.
Those tend to help like when you have hamstrings and things like that.
Then there's the dynamic stretch.
That's where you'll have movement with it and you use it for warmups like when you're

(14:25):
getting ready to jog.
It is important before you get on a treadmill, before you get on a bike, before you get out
there and start doing volleyball and things like that, that you limber up, that you stretch.
Stretch your hamstrings out, stretch your quadriceps out, roll your ankle, move your

(14:48):
neck and pull your arms across and stretch so that that's more dynamic stretching.
That stretch where you bounce, like if you lean over to touch your toes, that bouncing
is not a good stretch.

(15:08):
That's not good for warming up.
That tends to make little micro tears in your muscles.
Now there's another stretch, but that usually is done with a partner or with a trained professional.
It's called PNF, proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation.

(15:44):
That is where you will, so say your arm is, you're stretching it up.
I would push down, push down, push down, push down real hard.
Then I would relax and the person would push because what you're doing is basically tricking

(16:08):
the muscle fibers to fire, fire, fire, fire.
That's when you're pushing down.
Then you get them to stop firing and you stretch them past where they were going.
That helps to get you more limber.
So PNF stretching is usually done with a trained professional.

(16:36):
So guidelines for stretching, you have to be safe.
You ever heard that no pain, no gain?
Well, that's not necessarily true.
You do some pain.
You're going to have, you have some pain.
You may not get any gain.
You may be worse off than you were.
So I don't necessarily adhere to that.
You need to start out slow.

(16:59):
If you haven't run in years, please don't break out and start running a two or three
miles.
Don't expect to get up real quickly after that.
You're just punishing yourself.
Stretching, stretching gently to allow for your body to avoid any subtle strains is important.

(17:27):
So start out slow.
Listen to your body.
If your body say, uh, maybe that's not going to go any further.
Don't push it.
Your body knows how to talk to you and tell you we're not going there.
I would agree with them avoid bouncing.

(17:49):
We already talked about that.
I told you in the static stretch and don't bounce stretch within limits.
That's the same thing that I was telling you about listening to your body incorporating
movement into your daily life after you have injured yourself.
If you go sit down and don't move anymore, you're going to have some problems and I would

(18:14):
not suggest doing that.
Sorry about that.
I would not suggest doing that.
Simple movements, exercises improve your flexibility.

(18:36):
It also builds strength and doing yoga, general yoga is an excellent way to improve both physical
and mentally.
You remember we talked about, um, mental optimal mental health.
It's good to stretch, relax, breathe and get your mind off of all your problems and struggles.

(19:11):
That's very important.
So there's some things you can use that are out there from ability.
There's the little foam rubbers.
There's foam rubber tubing and also I think it's real good to use the rubber stretching

(19:39):
that helps with your flexibility.
I would suggest to use the yellow or the green yellow or green tubing.
There is a tubing and then there's a rubber band that stretches.

(20:00):
Remember the colors yellow and green.
I didn't get pictures of those and I apologize for that, but those are the two that you should
get that help to work with strengthening and stretching for joints.
You can sit actually at your desk, tie that band that it's called Thera band.

(20:28):
I'll repeat that Thera band and yellow and green yellow is light green is medium.
Those are resistance.
That's the amount of resistance that you can get.
You can buy those, you can put it around the chair leg that you're sitting in.

(20:49):
I use that to strengthen my quadriceps and then I put it on another chair.
I pull backwards.
It helps to strengthen my hamstrings.
I put it around my legs while I'm sitting at work and pull my legs apart.
If you pull apart, you strengthen your glutes, you strengthen your hip joints, you can put

(21:15):
it on another chair and pull inward.
It will strengthen the inner thighs.
If you have thighs that are clapping, that will help to strengthen that.
It also helps to give you flexibility around your hip joint and your low back.
You can use it also for your shoulders.

(21:42):
Flexibility as I said is important.
You need to balance the fitness approach that you do.
Figure out how many days a week you want to train and you want to do these exercises
because it's good for you.

(22:05):
Now, in conclusion, it's important to stretch.
I don't know how many times I have to tell you, but it's important to stretch.
It's one of the things that we think we don't have to do anymore.
It's one of the things that we just ignore and let go and we think we have to lift weights

(22:29):
all the time.
If you do some flexibility around your joints, you will notice that the joint pain and stiffness
that you have will go away.
Stretching helps maintain flexibility, reduces the risk of any kind of injury, and especially
if you are chronologically matured.

(22:53):
The role of movement, regular movement is essential.
We are not sedentary bodies.
We are built to hunt, to move, to catch things, to do things.

(23:14):
We're supposed to be moving.
Our muscles and joints are set for that.
If you notice when people get ill and they're in bed and they become sedentary, it is not
good.
You can get something called DBTs.

(23:35):
I'm going to repeat that.
You say you have some type of hospitalization for your lungs or you have a heart attack
and you go to the hospital.
While you're laying in that bed, they come to you and they bring you this little machine
where they want you to blow real hard.
That's because they want you to expand your ribs.

(23:58):
The muscles between your ribs have to move.
If they don't, you become sedentary, your blood doesn't move like it's supposed to.
You could not even have an injury.
You could go on a long trip.
Say you drive from California to Texas.

(24:26):
That sitting in a car for hours and hours and hours can make you have stagnation to
your circulatory system.
When it does, your blood clots up.
It clots up in your vessels and it gives you a DVT.

(24:48):
What's a DVT?
I'm glad you asked.
A DVT is a deep vein thrombosis.
I'm going to go through this quickly because we're about out of time.
A DVT will settle because of thin blood and then it breaks off, makes a clot.

(25:09):
It gets into your bloodstream.
It can get into your lungs and cause you to have a PE, a pulmonary embolism, or you can
have a stroke because it can get into the bloodstream and get into the vessels in your
brain and cause you to have a stroke.
Now that I have told you this, what's the object?

(25:33):
You need to move.
You need to get up and move.
Quality of life enhances when you get up and move.
The title of our lesson was Stretch It Out.
I need you to get up and stretch it out.

(25:57):
All right.
I'm excited that we had this presentation and we had this time.
You can find me on YouTube.
You can find me on Instagram, Facebook.

(26:18):
You can find me on Spotify at rss.com, podcast, platform.
I'm going to end our recording, but I pray that this has been a blessing to you and that
you got something out of it.
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