Can You Hurt Yourself Stretching?
In a word...yes. Unfortunately, it's very easy to hurt yourself stretching.
You can injure yourself by not warming-up sufficiently (or at all) before you stretch. Conversely, you can injure yourself by stretching too much when you're really warm. This is one of the reason I'm not a fan of hot yoga. Because the practitioner is usually so warm, it can be quite easy for such a one to stretch beyond his (or her) "healthy" ranges of motion.
Have you ever heard the phrase, "I pulled a muscle"? Pulling a muscle is typically an injury, where the injured person has, against his (or her) body's self-preservation instincts (and reactions), quickly and forcefully over-stretched a muscle.
Dave Morals of the Story: Always warm-up before stretching; and, when you're warm, pay attention to your body. Look for its cues; listen to it's messages. Stretching should feel good. Even when it feels slightly uncomfortable (which it should [to a degree]), it should feel good. Stretch to feel good and be healthy. Work to ditch any other motives you might have.
God's peace to you, and happy stretching...
My new book, Experiments in Prayer: Monastic Practice in Ordinary Life, is now available in paperback from Amazon.
Click here to access my Amazon book page.
100% of all author royalties are, most gratefully, donated in equal parts to Christ the King Church and Zoweh Ministries.
A Note to All My Blog and Social Media Friends and Followers:
I've made it a point, over the last decade, to accept friend and follower requests from any who ask. I think I've "defriended" only three or four people in the last ten years and did so only because they posted inappropriate material to one of my walls or timelines. Thankfully, it's been several years since anyone committed such a breech of etiquette.
I write all this to indicate I have many "friends" and "followers," whom I do not know personally (yet!). Lately, I've been getting countless (sometimes more than 200 a day) messages from people I don't know. Please know this: I speak a brief word of blessing over each person who sends me a message, but I can respond directly to only a few each day. If I did not discipline my activities in this way, I could, conceivably, spend my entire day every day responding to such messages.
By disciplining myself to the above social media activity-limitation plan, I in no way want to belittle or disrespect anyone or hurt anyone's feelings. My hope and prayer is that, even if I don’t respond to your message directly, you will know I cherish you and pray you'll experience God's love and grace personally and deeply. Experiencing God is the highest Good anyone could ever experience. May each of you experience such Good through your pursuits of Divine Union with Jesus Christ, the Eternal Living God.
As always, may the Lord bless you and keep you…
IKIGAI Weekly Blog Schedule (per The Training Trinity):
Mondays: Meditative Prayer
Wednesdays: Holistic Discipline
Fridays: Martial Arts Practice
www.TempleMartialArtsTraining.com
