Do you stretch? Most of us don’t and i’ll be honest I was fantastic as vanishing as soon as it was time to stretch, I couldn’t touch my toes, I couldn’t flop my head between my legs and it all hurt far too much to not burn any calories but i’ve paid the price, my body is stiff and it’s effected my performance which is why i’m waving the white flag, i’m becoming a stretcher.

Start with a warm up, you don’t have to stand on the spot and start doing star jumps or flipping your toes behind your neck, let’s talk simple, a two minute waking warm up on the treadmill, twenty slow bodyweight squats or 30 second booty kicks just take it slow and steadily increase your heart rate, if you feel warm, you’re ready.

Wake up the muscles you’re about to use, don’t even think about squatting 80kg if you haven’t prepped your legs and Glutes first, do some bodyweight squats, lunges or calf raises about 20 repetitions of each, it gives you body a chance to increase circulation, warm up the area and prepare the muscles preventing injury.

Think of your body as a giant snow globe, you’ve just shook it up by running, swinging, jumping, boxing and then stopped and asked it do so something stationary, it’s a total mind-fart for your body, unless you’re in the middle of a HIIT workout you need to cool it down a little before asking it to do something else, walk it out until you are able to talk again, that’s it, you’re ready for your next exercise.

So you’ve finished your workout, you’re sweaty, tired and ready to get home and pac-man the fridge but wait, you’ve tightened your muscles, unless you want to be walking like your 100 years old tomorrow stretch it out, think of the muscles you’ve used and create stretches to help work the same parts, there’s no point in stretching your triceps if you didnt use them, if you have little room you can do most using a wall or standing or get your butt on the floor and get bendy, count 20 seconds for each stretch and concentrate on your breathing, pop on a little chill out playlist from Spotify and woo-sarr. I will be filming my favourite stretches for you all very soon but if you can’t wait that long, check out Pinterest it’s fabulous for stretching routines as well as workout routines!

Wearing the gorgeous Sweaty Betty Race Line Shorts and Home Straight Run Tank with Nike RosheRun trainers, holding Bobble Sports Bottle and wearing Garmin Vivo Fit fitness band. I am currently putting the Vivo Fit to the test, review coming soon!