As a high school athlete in the mid-1980s, we as a Football team at Archbishop McNicholas high school took ballet several times a week injuries (Our Instructor was Oleg Sabline from the Cincinnati Ballet Company). We had heard about big Moeller High in Cincinnati and that they took ballet in order to improve their flexibility and reduce.  As we took Ohio State Runner-up in Football in 1984, I truly believe that Coach George Markley program of taking ballet for two straight years improved our performance and prevented many muscular/joint injuries in myself and my teammates.

With that in mind, I continued to do flexibility exercises and practice high dynamic stretching training through my 20 years plus martial arts program. I even went as far to purchase a hydraulic splits training machine. While I can’t do the splits as far like I used to, I can still get pretty close to that. Even to this day the amount of injuries that I’ve suffered as a long time athlete and Chiropractor has been very minimalized with regular and consistent stretching. Several times a week (2 to 3 times), I do high PNF stretching exercises to improve range of motion and reduce scar tissue.

Every day before I start my day or especially work outs, I do a series of the light stretching exercises to reduce the tension on the muscles, program the nervous system for optimum function and increase range of motion prior to working out. As a part of your program at the office, my posture and CORE lumbar exercises are simple but effective and designed for quality and not quantity. Who has 45 minutes to just stretch out, just allow around 10-15 of general effective exercises to keep you functioning at your best with flare-ups of pain and spasms.  I believe that something as simple as this can help and prevent injuries, flare-ups and improve your overall range of motion in all your work, play and home activities of daily living.

 I feel at the age of 52 years of age, stretching out is an integral and essential part of preventing injuries, increasing/maintaining joint range of motion, reducing scar tissue and adhesions and improving the muscular strength without leading to acute flare-ups or long-term chronic injuries.