Olympic Inspirations

Being a former swimmer, I watched the swimming events with my usual fervor, even though I had to scale back my Olympic viewing in other areas. Of course I was blown away by the successes of all the swimmers, including Michael Phelps, but most especially Dara Torres.

One of the things that was impressed upon me was how much the sport has changed from my day (hey, I'm more the Mark Spitz era!) and what I can take away from those changes to apply to my life today. Specifically my own health and fitness routine.

Of course there is no way I am going to spend the hours every day working out that they do. However I can increase the time I spend stretching my body. I watched mesmorized as "Team Torres" massaged, pulled, stretched and munched that body. So I spent an extra few minutes getting a really good stretch in before my morning walk the last few days.

Guess what? It helped this 50 year old get a better walk. I was able to go further, faster with less fatigue!

So if you aren't stretching, or you think a minute will do it, I suggest you stretch twice as long (or longer) and see what that does for you!