Total Body Stretch for Beginners

Tamilee Webb
Year Released: 2000

Categories: Athletic Stretch


This is my favourite stretch tape. It has three convenient sections, one standing, one seated and one on the floor. Tamilee covers all the body parts in each section, and is very non-threatening, especially for a stretch-phobe like me. She admits she does not have the greatest natural flexibility herself, so she sticks with some solid, basic stretches that anyone can do. You won't have to modify any of these. Most of the stretches are old standards like back bends, stretching the triceps behind the head, forward bends to stretch the inner thigh and knee-back quadriceps stretches. But she throws in a few creative ones. The standing section had a very nice rotator cuff stretch that involved placing a hand on your side, then gently pulling the elbow forward. The seated section had a nice outer thigh stretch that involved crossing one leg over the other and pressing down at the knee. The floor section had a great upper body stretch that involved sliding one side of the body under the other from cat pose. The floor section also had some fairly detailed and often-ignored form pointers on the foot flexing exercises. All three sections included wrist or forearm stretches which was a very nice touch.

I think it was a great idea to mark off the sections as she's done here because I sometimes skip a stretch in a workout if it involves getting down on the floor, and so few instructors indicate that this will be the case. It is annoying. After an entire aerobics routine standing up, they expect me to either get on the floor and get dusty, or pull out my mat and pull off my shoes? It is a stupid reason to skip a cool-down stretch, but yet I know it is one of those silly things that bugs me---and one of those excuses that has allowed me to neglect my flexibility for far too long. With this tape, I have no excuse: short and sweet, but thorough stretches for all occasions. All three sections together as a full workout, or bits and pieces when convenient.

My only criticism would be that truly advanced stretchers might find this tape a little bit basic. But so many of the hour-long tapes that might work for them don't work for those of us with not as much experience, or not a whole lot of natural flexibility to build on. So to all of you people, this one's for us. Enjoy!

Joanna

06/02/2001