KNEELING TWIST

AGE isn’t always a limiting factor when it comes to fitness. I see patients in clinic well into their 70s who are more limber than some couch potatoes in their 30s. They all have one thing in common: a healthy, mobile spine. Shoulders and hips ‘hang’ from the spine, so exercises that challenge these areas are key to maintaining motion throughout the body. This simple move will both stretch out the tension in sofa-bound backs, and improve agility in ageing joints and bones.

Kneel on all fours, place palms flat on the floor.

Make a mental note of your ‘mid point’ – the point on the floor in line with the bottom of your chest bone.

Take your right arm and reach under your left armpit, twisting the spine slightly while doing so.

Reach along the ground to the left as far as you can, mark the point, then return to the start. Observe the distance from your midpoint to the ‘reach point’. This is your measurement of flexibility.

Repeat for the other side. Nick Cowan, osteopath