Joe Yoon - Better Stretching: 9 Minutes a Day to Greater Flexibility, Less Pain, and Enhanced Performance, the JoeTherapy Way

I am tight. I hear those three little words on a regular basis. And I hear them from people whose day-to-day activities have little in common. Athletes are tight. Desk workers are tight. Stay-at-home parents are tight. Food servers are tight. Performers are tight. Pain and discomfort due to inflexibility is the great equalizer. Almost everybody experiences it in some form. If you picked up this book, chances are you feel tight, too.

Stretching can help. With regular stretching, muscles have greater give. They elongate more easily when you need them to, which not only allows you to accomplish any task with more grace and efficiencywhether that task is to reach up and grab a jar off a shelf or to extend your leg over a finish linebut to do so with a lower risk of injury. With well-stretched muscles, you are less likely to suffer from the body imbalances that lead to back, knee, hip, and shoulder pain. And when you take the time to stretch, you can get rid of the tightness that comes from the demands of our modern-day world: sitting (tough on the back and lower body), hunching over a computer (oh, your aching shoulders!), and neck bent over a smartphone (the source of endless cricks).

So how much time? Nine minutes. Nine! Thats it. If you have ever contemplated starting a stretching routine but dismissed the idea because you didnt have the time, that excuse is now null and void. Everyone has nine minutes.

The promise of this book is simple: You can achieve life-changing results for your bodygreater mobility, improved functionality, better performance, less pain, and pain preventionin as little as nine minutes a day. No ninety-minute yoga workouts, no belabored regimens that will have you flashing back to your mean high school gym teacher. Just a few targeted, feel-good moves and youre good to go.

I am a certified personal trainer and licensed massage therapist, and I have worked with many well-known athletes, including NFL Super Bowl champions, NFL Pro Bowlers, and multiple Olympic gold and world champions. I have also traveled the world with sprinter and Olympic gold medalist Justin Gatlin, serving as his stretching trainer and massage therapist. This work has given me a lot of insight into the needs of people who place high demands on their bodies. But what influenced me most as I developed the stretching plans for this book was the feedback Ive received from the one-million-plus mostly everyday people who follow my Instagram account, JoeTherapy.

When I started posting on Instagram, there were already plenty of stretching videos available on the app. I made the decision to keep my videos a lot simpler than the ones already online because I firmly believe that simple does the trick. For everybody. Someone who sits in front of a computer all day will benefit from the same uncomplicated moves as an Olympic gold medalist. Whats more, while its nice to know the name of the muscle youre stretching, you dont need to understand the finer points of an anatomy textbook to get great results from a stretching routine.

This straightforward approach has clearly resonated with people, which is why I have followed the same game plan in crafting this book. It goes much further than my Instagram postsbesides presenting individual exercises, I have created routines for specific purposes as well as three thirty-day jump-start plansbut the stretches are easy and fast; theres no deep dive into anatomical science; and the exercises are as effective for desk workers as they are for weekend warriors and professional athletes.

This book also aims to familiarize you with all the things that not only increase flexibility but help you sustain it. One of those things is consistency. While simple stretches can do wonders for aching shoulders, relax a rigid back, and loosen up knotty calves, their effects can be fleeting if you dont do them regularly. But knowing that it will take only nine minutes out of your day, thats not a particularly tall order. By keeping the routines short, I hope to inspire you to do them on a daily basis. The more consistent you are, the better they work.

There are two other aspects of sustaining flexibility that I will also introduce you to in the upcoming pages. One of them is mobility. Its not just our muscles that determine how easily we can move; the joints play a critical role as well. Maybe you are flexible enough to touch your toes, but that doesnt mean you can lengthen your stride when you need to scramble to catch a toddler or run for a bus about to close its doors. It doesnt mean that youll be able to glide side to side across a tennis court to pick up a shot to your backhand. Mobility exercisesthe kind youll find included in this bookare a type of stretching that promotes flexibility by increasing the joints range of motion. Where typical stretches are passive, mobility exercises are active. Youll learn more about them in chapter 1.

The other important aspect of sustaining flexibility is strengthening. Most people dont know that a tight muscle could be a weak muscle. Lacking strength, muscles tend to tense up to protect themselves and the anatomical structures they surround. This doesnt mean you have to adopt a rigorous strength-training regimen (which isnt a bad thingjust not essential) to retain the gains you make by stretching, but adding in a spoonful of strengthening to your stretching routine can make a big difference in how loose and comfortable you feel in your body. Ill address this topic in more depth beginning , and in chapter 11, youll find an assortment of simple but effective strengthening exercises to add to your stretching routine.

Ive also included a chapter on how to use tools like foam rollers and self-massage balls. They can increase flexibility short term and have other related benefits, such as increasing circulation, which helps improve range of motion. Using these tools also feels really good, enough of a reason to try them if you havent already. In chapter 12 I help you learn how to use them properly.

If you sit at a desk most of the day and find that every time you get up to walk down the hall youre hobbled by tightness, this book will help you loosen up. If youre a high-level athlete looking to improve the range of motion in your hips, this book has you covered. And if youre somewhere in betweenunyielding calves are messing up your weekly pickup game of basketball, or after carrying your dog from the car to the veterinarians office youre waking up with a stiff spinetheres a perfect stretch routine waiting for you here as well, no matter what shape youre in or body type you have.