I realized that sometimes when waking up, my 23-year-old body deceives me into believing it is well into its 70s, with aches and pains from activities I performed in the days prior.  I am a very active person, running up to 5 days a week, lifting 4 days a week, and trying other types of exercise when I’m not doing either of those.  One thing I have noticed since graduating high school and moving away from high school sports is the soreness and injuries I have experienced. I realized that one of the culprits of this could be the fact that I hardly ever stretch, whether it be because I don’t set aside the time, forget, or simply just don’t want to. In fact, one of my recent nagging injuries I have been experiencing, plantar fasciitis, is caused by tight calf muscles. 

   For 2 months, I stretched for at least 15 minutes both in the morning and before bed.  For cardio workouts I stretched for 15 minutes both before and after.  I also weight lift 4 days a week and stretched at least 15 minutes after each session.  I am on a volleyball league that plays once a week as well where I stretched before and after for 15 minutes each. Each Saturday I took 30 minutes to journal my experience/progress from the previous week (as linked below). 

In the end, this experience not only made me more flexible than I was prior, but mentally I feel like a completely different person.  With my movements more at ease in my workouts with less tight muscles and nagging injuries, my mood for the workout and for the rest of the day improved.  My mood and body feeling better than ever has allowed me to excel in the gym, and other parts of my life, as I feel more awake and comfortable during the day than before.  I also learned a lot of new stretches, and found a routine that I liked and made it easy to follow.

   While some days were more consistent than others, I always found times during the day to throw in some stretching.  I definitely feel like my self-persistence has improved, and my need for instant results has decreased. Seeing small progress with my  body over a long period of time has instilled in me a better sense of delayed gratification and more desire to stick with daily stretching even after this experience has completed.  This experience as a whole has definitely allowed me to grow as a person and apply the same persistence and drive to other parts and goals of my life.