Breaking the Deconditioning Cycle with the Stretch Method

As we age, many of us start noticing changes in our bodies that seem out of our control—stiffness, fatigue, weight gain, or feeling out of breath after simple activities. It’s easy to dismiss these as “just part of getting older,” but the truth is, these issues are often signs of something deeper: a lack of healthy movement, muscle wasting, and a decline in flexibility.

The good news? It’s never too late to regain control of your health. By improving your flexibility, you can rebuild your strength, support your heart, and enhance your endurance at every age.

How Lack of Movement Impacts Your Body

Healthy Movement is essential for your body’s health. When movement decreases, your muscles weaken, your joints stiffen, and your body compensates with unhealthy patterns. This leads to muscle wasting, or atrophy, which sets the stage for a host of chronic conditions, including:

• Cardiovascular disease: Without healthy movement, you will begin losing muscle, this process begins an unhealthy sequence of events in the body: the lining of the heart begins to thicken, increasing strain on your heart and raising your risk for heart disease.
• Weight gain after 40: As you lose muscle mass, your body changes internally causing a growth of visceral fat. This fat grows within your abdomen and surrounds all your vital organs, until you stop the muscle wasting, you will not be able to stop this dangerous process. 
• Decreased VO2 max: The loss of muscle begins to thicken the outside layer of the lungs leading to a decrease in V02 max, leading you down a path to poor health.

Muscle wasting doesn’t just affect your strength—it impacts every system in your body, from your energy levels to your long-term health.