Stretching For Dummies

Includes routines for pregnant women, kids, and seniors Get stronger, look thinner, and nip injuries in the bud Stretching does much more than increase your flexibility — it promotes relaxation, relieves pain, boosts your energy, and improves posture and performance. This plain–English guide starts you on a safe, healthy stretching regimen, giving you an array of practices for home, work, and on the go as well as specific stretches for target areas, such as the back. Discover how to Establish a stretching routine Warm up and cool down Stretch for specific activities Prevent athletic injury Relieve computer–desk stress Stretch with a partner

Introduction. Part I: The Why’s, Where’s, When’s, and How’s of Letting Loose and Snapping Back. Chapter 1: Here a Stretch, There a Stretch, Everywhere a Stretch, Stretch. Chapter 2: Preparing for a More Flexible You. Chapter 3: Testing Your Flexibility to Establish Your Stretching Routine. Part II: Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes: Targeting Specific Areas. Chapter 4: Taking It from the Top: Upper Body Stretches. Chapter 5: Centering on the Core: Stretches for Your Middle. Chapter 6: Soothing Your Lower Back without Paying for a Massage. Chapter 7: From Your Knickers to Your Kickers: Stretches for your Bottom Half. Chapter 8: Total–Body Stretch Routines. Part III: From the Daily Grind to Ways to Unwind: Routines to Fit Your Life and Needs. Chapter 9: When the Cock Crows and the Evening Wind Blows: AM/PM Stretch Routines. Chapter 10: Stretching Out the Workday: Stretches for Work and for the Road. Chapter 11: Basic Warm–Up and Cool–Down Stretch Routines. Chapter 12: My Favorite Stretches for Specific Sports. Part IV: Getting Limber As You Live: Stretches for Various Life Stages. Chapter 13: What to Stretch When You’re Expecting . . . and After. Chapter 14: Family Fun: Kid–Friendly Stretches. Chapter 15: Seventh Inning Stretch: Special Stuff for Seniors. Part V: The Part of Tens. Chapter 16: Ten Common Aches and Pains and Stretches that Can Help. Chapter 17: Ten Surprising Around–the–House Stretching Accessories. Index.

LaReine Chabut is a lifestyle and fitness expert, model, and mom. She’s the author of Exercise Balls For Dummies (Wiley) and Lose That Baby Fat! (M. Evans) and is a contributing fitness expert for Shape Fit Pregnancy magazine. LaReine has served as the lead instructor for America’s number one exercise video series The Firm (over three million copies sold worldwide) and has graced the covers of such high–profile fitness publications as Shape, Health, New Body, and Runner’s World. She has appeared on CNN, ABC, FOX News, EXTRA, Access Hollywood, Good Day LA, and KABC and is a premier trainer for Ipods (see www.podfitness.com/lareinechabut) along with Kathy Smith, David Kirsch, and other top trainers in their field. As an actress, LaReine penned a sitcom with Meg Ryan entitled Below the Radar for the Fox Network and Castle Rock Entertainment. She has co–written and starred in two short films: Separation Anxiety, which broadcast on Lifetime Television, and Good Jill Hunting, which aired on the Sundance Channel. Her series regular and guest starring appearances include Linc’s, Nash Bridges, The Secret World of Alex Mack, USA High, The Single Guy, Strange Luck, Murder She Wrote, and Quantum Leap, to name a handful.

"…the ideal book for beginners who want to improve their flexibility, wellbeing and get rid of nagging aches and pains." ( Women′s Fitness , Issue 38)