Flexibility is very important for our overall physical health. We need to be able to make sure we’re releasing all the tight muscles in our bodies so that we’re able to move through more complete ranges of motion.

Other than that, it just feels really good to be able to move without any restrictions. And the better your feel the more likely you’ll be to stay consistent with your workout.

Just because you’re doing daily walking, and using your lower body as your primary mover, you still need to have your spend time with your upper body flexibility. Most of our lifestyles cause us to have some tightness in our shoulders and neck. Some people also develop stiff backs and things as we age as well.

Like the lower body stretches, it would be great to do these static stretches after your walk so that your muscle are nice and warm. Getting that circulation and blood flow to your muscle helps your body benefit from the stretches.

Neck – One of the the most overlooked parts of our bodies in terms of our stretching is our neck. It’s actually becoming more important as things like tech neck are being talked about do to the positioning of our head as we use our phones and other devices.

You’ll need have a chair or something that you can hang onto for this one. You’ll need to hold on to the chair while stretching your head to the opposite shoulder.

Shoulder- Another place that gets tight and restricted are our shoulders. We want to fight our shoulders rounding over our chest as much as possible. It’s important for preventing injury, breathing properly and other things.

One good stretch for your shoulders can be done against almost any wall. You’ll start arms length away from the wall. You’ll have your hands in the Y position, then slowly drop your chest into the ground with your hands planted into the wall.

Pec- it will also be beneficial to to stretch your pecs. This goes along with the shoulders in helping to fight that rounded back posture.

You’ll start facing the wall with your arm up, bent 90* at the elbow. You’ll slowly turn your body away until you feel a stretch through your chest.

Again, you’ll want to hold theses stretches 30 – 45 seconds post workout. There are other stretches that can be added to your routine but these are really good basic stretches to get you started working on your flexibility.