NSV - I got taller!!! (well, sorta...)

Evelyn_Gorfram

Been working on "Project Evelyn" about 4 weeks now, and have lost 10 lbs (SV's are nice, too . One of the things I've been doing is adhering much more faithfully to a daily stretching routine that I've done on and off for years. I carry lots of tension in my muscles - especially in my shoulders, which are almost always tight and & stiff.

The last stretch in my routine is a gentle lunge done while pressing the fingertips of both hands against the moulding running across the top (transom part) of an open doorway. I'm 5'9", the door is 6'8" - if I were just a little shorter, I'd have to find another way to do this.

But today, my fingertips reached up far enough to hook neatly over the top of the 2" moulding. (?! :happy: ) Obviously, I'm getting taller!

(Either that, or - given that I'm 49 yo and probably past any actual growth spurts - all my daily stretching has freed up some of the muscles in my shoulders, allowing me a greater range of motion and longer reach. )

Marley112586

This gives me hope! Before pregnancies and weight gain I was just shy of 6'. Now Im 5'9.5". I know Im still freakishly tall but I liked my super tallness! Go you for stretching it out!

msmissylowe

What is this project Evelyn and stretching? Sounds interesting.

Evelyn_Gorfram

What is this project Evelyn and stretching? Sounds interesting.

Oops, I should have been more clear - "Project Evelyn" (or "Project Me" )is just my current effort to get myself fitter, healthier, and weighing less. The stretches I do are an amalgam of things I've picked up from yoga, aikido, times I've had physical therapy, etc. - one is even adapted from an exercise my Mom was given to do to help her recover from childbirth, way back when.

Coco_puff901

Great Job !

annemckee

One thing I have noticed is that, consequent on weight loss I am much more confident and standing taller. it all helps at 5ft 1.

quietHiker

Great stetching NSV. I fall a little short (hehe no pun intended) when it comes to stretching out before and after workouts.

Jweb8969

love the idea of calling the journey "project evelyn"

and i could sure use some extra flexibility ~ do you follow a suggested set of stretches or is it something you made up on your own? either way - way to go, evelyn!! :flowerforyou:

Krushchev

This gives me hope! Before pregnancies and weight gain I was just shy of 6'. Now Im 5'9.5". I know Im still freakishly tall but I liked my super tallness! Go you for stretching it out!

Ummm, as a fellow 5'9.5''-er, please don't be throwing around freakishly tall, lol.

Evelyn_Gorfram

This gives me hope! Before pregnancies and weight gain I was just shy of 6'. Now Im 5'9.5". I know Im still freakishly tall but I liked my super tallness! Go you for stretching it out!

Ummm, as a fellow 5'9.5''-er, please don't be throwing around freakishly tall, lol.

LOL! Being 5'9 is *Perfectly Normal.*

(Now, my 5'10" & 6'0" sisters can be considered are "freakishly tall," especially when they're joking about me being their "shrimpy little sister." :laugh: (The six-foot sister being younger than I am, this sort of thing gives her extra special joy.))

I always assume that all my female friends are around 5'9," because they're perfectly normal and so am I - right?
Then they point out that they can't reach that high, or that low-hanging branch is no hazard to *them,* or that there's a good reason they have such a spiffy collection of hats; and I realize that they're the kind of 5'9" that only extends about sixty to sixty-four or so inches above the floor.

Evelyn_Gorfram

This gives me hope! Before pregnancies and weight gain I was just shy of 6'. Now Im 5'9.5". I know Im still freakishly tall but I liked my super tallness! Go you for stretching it out!

Thanks, Marley

(Pregnancy makes you shorter??? ...I guess it would, but my mom was 5'11" after having four kids - no wonder she says she used to feel like a giraffe back in high school & college...)

Evelyn_Gorfram

One thing I have noticed is that, consequent on weight loss I am much more confident and standing taller. it all helps at 5ft 1.

The weight loss and stretching have definitely helped my posture, which is something I've always had trouble with.

Some of the weight has come off of my chest, which Ma Nature endowed heavily enough to put some strain on my shoulders. And the bad posture makes the tight/stiff/knotted back-&-shoulder muscles worse, which makes my posture worse, which makes the back-&-shoulder muscles worse....

And it 's just that much easier to stand up straight and stick out one's chest when one's shirt is comfortably loose.

Evelyn_Gorfram

love the idea of calling the journey "project evelyn"

and i could sure use some extra flexibility ~ do you follow a suggested set of stretches or is it something you made up on your own? either way - way to go, evelyn!! :flowerforyou:

Thanks, J

I'm afraid that my stretches are a pastiche of stuff i've learned in all sorts of places (at the moment, I can't even remember where the doorway lunges came from). If you'd like, I can do a blog post or something describing them, although I can't promise I'll get to it right away.

Evelyn_Gorfram

Today, I could have done pull-ups from that door moulding!
(That is, if A) I were dumb enough to try to do pull-ups from a door moulding, and 2) I were capable of doing (even one) pull-up(s). :ohwell: )

I really believe that it's due to the unknotting of tight mucles that had been keeping me from using the full range of motion of my shoulders joints. I can feel all sorts of new looseness and relaxation in my shoulders and upper back, along with the sort of empty-stretchy-soreness that you feel in a freshly unknotted muscle.

I could make up a grand theory about how all the weight I've lost from my upper body had been compressing the little dics that separate the vertabrae in my spine, and now they're all springing back to their full heights; but I couldn't get it to hold water. Those little discs aren't nearly that springy; plus I've only lost 10 lb, and not more than half of that from my upper body, so far.